A heavy agenda indeed. So much was addressed at the ‘Jordan Agenda 2018: Supporting Self-Reliance’ conference over these last couple of days.
Many of the topics and issue raised at the conference are complex and composite issues with a monumental amount of challenges that require extensive, hard work.
The three-day convention, organised by the Jordan University Strategic Studies Centre, featured a variety of topics, tackled by numerous experts and officials, current and former. The speakers brought to light a number of the hottest, most current issues.
Upon attending the sessions, one is confronted by the humongous amount of work needed to address the current imbalances.
First, the conferences raised the question of domestic political situation, and addressed the question of Jordanian diplomacy under the current regional destabilisation. The speakers also addressed the issues of public finance, the deficit, public debt and threats to fiscal stability, in addition to increasing growth and addressing the country’s economic problems.
Speakers also addressed issues in human resources development and education, the requirements for development, and reforming the public sector, as well as the dangers facing our youth.
In conclusion, the Centre did their part.
They organised the convention, set the agenda and provided a vision to solve our problems. The convention also brought everybody together; officials and experts, which is invaluable to policy making. Something the government is not paying enough attention to. The government must engage the experts and Civil Society Organisations as partners in the policy making process, as opposed to recipients.
Notably, we all agreed on the scale as well as the diagnosis of our problems.
However, nothing the experts brought to table is new. As important as their contribution are, they did not invent anything.
The issue was never a lack of ideas, but a lack of will and implementation.
Questions raised at the conference did not unearth any unexpected or novel issues. For decades, we have been asking the same questions.
Nonetheless, the effort put into outlining recommendations and suggestions throughout the third day of the convention, paves for a positive transition in the general state of affairs. It may very well bring Jordan to a beginning of a new era.
On another note, the lack of integration is still a problem. The issues of politics, economy and youth are interconnected. We still fail to see that.
Officials who attended the convention do not seem to understand the nature of the phase and its challenges, particularly the economic aspects of it. Those in particular provided none other than the solutions currently enacted, despite the general sensitivity.
Most importantly, the Strategic Studies Centre did everything within its power to bring the entire picture to light.
Soon, they will publish an extensive report of all the recommendations made at the convention.
As a research centre, they have done their part.
It is now up for the decision makers and executive officials to take on this heavy agenda, at this most precise and critical phase, and put it into action.
It is about time officials lend an ear to the experts and take their hand.
Overall, the three days of the convention fuelled nothing but our frustration.
I agree with my colleague, Fahed Khitan, it is just “heart-aching,” and it is not only about human resources development and education, as he said.
The issue festers in various sectors and industries, and it is infuriating Jordanians.
Work is suspended and solutions are postponed.
There are many questions: how did the public sector deteriorate to this extent? Where is the government from all this; everything we’re going through? What economic solutions and options are there, besides the taxpayers’ pockets? How will the government do to save our youth from the woes of vacancy and disenfranchisement?
There are many other questions of similar gravity, if not more important.
Solutions are not beyond reach. What is important, however, is implementation, and before that, the will to realise change.
We need fundamental change in terms of approach, to make a tangible difference in people’s lives.
This article is an edited translation of the Arabic version, published by AlGhad.
