Event Reports
1. Program Overview
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
Opening Session
‘’Dr. Khaled Al-Awamleh’’
Visions Center for Strategic
And Development Studies
Amman-Jordan
‘’Dr. Martin Beck’’
Resident Representative
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
Amman Office – Jordan
‘’Dr. Sultan Abu Oraby’’
President of Yarmuk University
Irbid – Jordanien
‘’Dr. Raed Al-Adwan’’
Governor
Local Development Directorate
Ministry of Interior
Amman – Jordan
‘’Khaled Abu Zeid’’
Governor
Irbid – Jordan
First Session: Municipalities, women, youth and private sector participation in
Local Development
Decentralisation and Local Public Administration in Jordan
‘’Dr. Raed Al-Adwan’’
Governor, Local Development Directorate
Ministry of Interior, Amman – Jordan
Building a Municipality: How to assure
participation of men and women alike in Local
Development
Dr. Renate Reiter
Professor for Political Sciences
University of Hagen – Germany
The role of private sector in local development
‘’Dr. Khaled Al-Wazzani’’
President of Darat Holding, Co.
‘’Moderator: Dr. Izzat Hijab’’
Dean, Faculty of Journalism
Yarmouk University, Irbid – Jordan
Second Session: Decentralization and empowering civic society in Jordan
The Monitor of the Central Authority over Local Councils
‘’Dr. Amjad Al-Shraideh’’
Judge-North Amman Court
Role of Civic Society in Local Development Progress in Jordan
Dr. Khaled Al-Shogran
Al Rai Institute Irbid
‘’Moderator: Dr. Mohammad Shawqi’’
Political Science Department
Cairo University, Egypt
Final Discussion
Moderator: Dr. Raed Al-Adwan
Dr. Jihad Abu Al-Sondos
Dr. Martin Beck
Dr. Khaled Al-Awamleh
Dr. Renate Reiter
Abd Arrayaq Attal
Dr. Mohamed Shawqi
2. Objectives
With the first competitive elections in 1989
Jordan’s late King Hussein paved the way
for enhancing the political participation,
which is a substantial component of a functioning
political system. King Abdullah II
initiated the first measures to improve the
political, social and economic framework on
the way of fair political participation. He
therefore founded a royal commission in
2005 to work out a decentralization plan for
Jordan’s political system. This plan aims at
enhancing the political participation of citizens
on the local community level, thereby
creating an open, transparent and citizenfriendly
political system and delegating
power form the highly centralized government
bureaucracy to the governorate and
community level. Though it may be the
main objective of the regime to stabilize the
prevalent political order with its limited opportunities
of political participation, Jordan’s
citizens should take the government by its
word and should seize the chance of widening
the civic participation. During the workshop
on May 26th, organized by KAS Amman
and the Visions Center for Strategic and
Development Studies at Yarmuk University
in Irbid, participants and experts exchanged
ideas and opinions on local development.
The topics discussed covered, among others,
the fair representation of men and
women on the local level, the role of the
private sector and of population in local development,
the decentralisation project of
the government and the central government’s
role in the process of decentralisation.
3. Course of the event
Dr. Khaled Awamleh, Director of the Visions
Center, opened the workshop. In his
welcoming speech he talked about the key
role of the university in the field of regional
and local development. The mission of the
university should not only be to produce
new knowledge, impart and apply it, but
also to promote human resources as the
basis of social development. The training of
stakeholders and experts in economy, politics
and society is one of the most important pillars of sustainable national and regional
development.
Dr. Martin Beck, Resident Representative
of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Amman,
pointed out that the workshop can be traced
back to the promising initiative of King Abdullah
II to decentralize the political decision-
making process in Jordan.
However, this decentralization process
should further enhance the capacities of
municipalities and strengthen the participation
on the local level. The government
should therefore take measures to help citizens
getting the opportunity to take part in
the decision-making processes and to implement
their interests on the local level.
Hence, the government has to provide the
municipalities and governorates with the
necessary financial means.
Both Dr. Awamleh and Dr. Beck stated
that the KAS-Visions Center workshop is
particularly important as it is the first coordinated
effort between the government,
represented by the directory of the local development
at the ministry of interior, municipalities,
local media, institutions of
higher education and advocacy groups to
organize a joint event on local development
and civic participation in governorates and
local communities.
Dr. Al-Adwan stressed in his welcoming
statement the essential role of decentralisation
as the most important component in
local development. Cooperation between
public and private sector is an important
prerequisite for the implementation of the
government’s decentralisation agenda. In
order to achieve efficient and sustainable
local development, the administration has
to take measures of political and social restructuring.
In this way the democratic
structure of the government and the administration
and a modern infrastructure
would be fostered.
Dr. Abu Oraby, President of Yarmuk University,
presented different aspects of the
concept of local development. While the
concept of development was first understood
as economic development only, today
the developmental approaches and initiatives
comprise political, social, cultural and
human development. A participatory approach
is very important to establish institutional
capacities and encourage local development,
especially regarding the 21st century’s
challenges and the technological,
economical, social and cultural acceleration
processes that take place under the influence
of globalisation. To conclude, he highlighted
the growing importance of the university
in the cooperation between government,
private sector and local communities.
Khaled Abu Zeid, Governor of Irbid governorate,
pointed at the social and economic
cleavages between the twelve governorates
in Jordan. Nevertheless, he stated that the
government’s decentralisation plan is a first
important step towards a cultural, economic
and social basis for effective, democratic
governance. Moreover, it could bridge socioeconomical
cleavages and support constructive
relations between political institutions
and an engaged and organised civic society.
Dr. Al-Adwan presented in his lecture on
“Decentralization and Local Administration”
the decentralization plan of the government.
Since 2009, a new committee has
been working on compiling the financial,
political, organizational and judicial framework
for the implementation of the decentralization
plan. Decentralization envisions a
delegation of power, capacities and resources
on the governmental and communal
level.
The capabilities and financial means of the
12 governorates have to be strengthened in
such a way as to enable the civil society to
participate in the political life of the state at
all levels. Yet, the huge socioeconomic gap
between the rural and urban population
shows that the decisions of the government
do not always reflect the needs and priorities
of the citizens.
Dr. Renate Reiter presented in the following
different options to design participation
in local communities. She stated that there
are differences between traditional forms of
political representation such as in presidential
or parliamentarian systems of government
and new forms of participation. She
then focused on participation of men and
women in local elections and their representation
in local institutions. Regarding the
passive vote, there are nearly no differences
between men and women; both sexes
are affected by a significant decline of participation
in elections and in political interest
in Germany. In comparison to France,
where there is a balanced representation of
men and women in local councils and high
rank executive positions, women are underrepresented
in Germany. In the following,
Dr. Reiter then discussed reasons for unequal
representation in local councils:
mainly, equal representation depends on
the form of election law. Contrary to the
system of majority voting, proportional representation
abets balanced active participation.
Besides, quotas in political parties
should secure career opportunities for
women. Moreover, an unequal representation
of men and women prevails in local political
and social networks. Unequal time resources
and gender-specific tasks inhibit
equal representation of man and women in
politics, economy and society. Quotas, party
competition, strategies of parties and social
networks that improve career opportunities
of women and new forms of grassroots democracy
promote a more equal representation
on the local and national level.
Dr. Al-Wazzani focused in his lecture on
the concept of corporate social responsibility.
This concept assumes that the capacity
and overall performance of a company can
be enhanced by taking social responsibility.
Through social, ecological and economic
contributions that go beyond legal obligations
of the government, companies can increase
economic wealth, environmental
quality and social capital. The private sector
plays therefore an important role in local
development since companies create jobs
and training opportunities, improve infrastructure,
provide part of the budget for developmental
projects, improve government
services through cooperation with the public
sector, contribute to research and support
people’s participation in communal planning.
Local development therefore is not
only a central task of government, but also
becomes a paramount mission of the private
sector.
In the subsequent discussion, the question
came up, whether the companies’ social expenses
should be paid into a governmental
fund so that their use could be better controlled.
In this context, Dr. Al-Wazzani pointed out
that laws for a better allocation of social expenses
of companies could be a useful
steering instrument. Governorates have to
steer and observe the allocation.
Dr. Al-Shraideh began his speech with a
comparison of centralism and decentralisation.
While centralism means that all competences
in a state are concentrated in one
central government authority, decentralisation
refers to political reforms which aim at
shifting administrative, political and fiscal
functions to the regional and local level of
administration. In this way, participation of
the population in all relevant aspects is encouraged.
In administrative decentralisation,
administrative tasks are delegated to
the regional level, which is in charge with
the implementation, while the decisionmaking
power stays with the ministries at
the national level.
Dr. Al-Shraideh then discussed the role of
municipal councils and their power. It is important
that, in the context of decentralisation
measures, transparent competition
mechanisms and checks and balances between
the different levels allow for accountability
and participative monitoring.
Dr. Al-Shoqran presented the population’s
role in local development and the obstacles
that might inhibit an active participation in
the political decision-making process on the
local and national level. He named several
criteria, like democratic government structures that have to be met by government to
create mechanisms of civic participation and
to promote local development. The problem
in Jordan is that civic society organisations
are often seen as a threat to the political
system and social stability. Nevertheless,
these organisations play an important role
in local development as they defend citizen
rights and articulate the needs of the people.
Yet, the general performance of civic
society organisations in the Middle East is
not sufficient to effectively work together
with government and citizens.
At the end of the workshop, Dr. Beck
stressed that the Jordanian governorates
and local communities need more financial
support from the central government.
Dr. Al-Adwan explained that the results of
the workshop and the feed back on the
government’s decentralization plan would
be communicated to the Ministry of Interior.
Finally, Dr. Al-Wazzani asserted that the
private sector has to play an even more important
role in local development and that
the allocation of companies’ social expenses
has to be observed by the government.
4. Conclusion
As a first coordinated effort between the
government, represented by the directory of
the local development at the ministry of interior,
municipalities, local media, institutions
of higher education, advocacy groups,
the joint workshop of the Konrad-Adenauer-
Stiftung and the Visions Center for Strategic
and Development Studies on civic participation
and local development has paved the
way for future discussions on decentralization.
The participation of the governor of Irbid,
Khaled Abu Zeid, as well as of other highranking
experts, showed the importance of
discussing concepts on local development,
civic participation and decentralisation. The
workshop fulfilled the function of bringing
together experts from different areas who
discuss highly significant issues such as decentralizing
power and financial resources.
Especially the contribution of Dr. Reiter on
equal representation of men and women
provided the audience with a new perspective
of gender issues and equality in political
participation.
The feedback on the workshop was very
positive. Many participants used the opportunity
of a free exchange of opinions on
problems that have not been discussed in
Jordan so far, to have their say on important
issues such as the role of local communities
in the government’s decentralization
plan. Participants expressed their interest
for follow-up