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Ammon News - The Economic and Social Council of Jordan (ESC) launched their fourth annual report evaluating governmental sector’s performance during the year 2021.

The report, titled “The State of The Country’s Report 2021”, was launched on Sunday, with the event being attended by media representatives.

The report presents an assessment of different sectors, along with recommendations to enhance the performance for each of the sectors.

“The report is based on scientific research and interviews”, Musa Shteiwi, ESC Director said during his speech.

Shteiwi added that this year’s report was compared to previous reports to identify the improvements that have been made as well as to be able to give specific and “doable” recommendations for the sectors.

According to the executive summary, the report covers 21 review pointes, distributed over eight sectors, which are as follows: Overall economy, primary sectors, infrastructure, economic sectors, human resources, social development (1), social development (2), as well as political and public sector development.

“Fiscal policies witnessed tangible developments during 2021,” the report stated.

The report noted that the developments lead to increased monetary pressures on the Treasury, indicating that pressure on the Treasury resulted from increasing indebtedness and public budget deficit.

The report added that the tourism sector had witnessed a 75 per cent decrease in income due to the total lockdowns caused by COVID-19 pandemic with many tourism sector workers losing their jobs.

“Educational loss reached 30 per cent due to the pandemic,” the report highlighted.

The report added that pandemic affected the educational system negatively, furthermore, revealing some weak points in the sector, including the fact that “21 per cent of schools do not have Internet service”.

The report noted that the absence of Internet service in some schools is due to “poor spending”, adding that the spending on education does not comply with the sector’s needs, which is witnessing an increase in student numbers.

Twenty per cent of the population are between the ages of 15 and 24, and “during 2021, there was a 70,000 surplus of university graduates”, the report noted, adding that the surplus “deepened” the unemployment challenge for the economy.

Additionally, “domestic violence cases increased during the pandemic”, highlighting that the role of women in society has been activated, especially women’s political participation, describing this as the portal to reinforce women’s participation in all other walks of life.

The report noted that important steps have been taken towards social justice and women’s rights, as well as gender equality in the rights and duties.

Finally, the report stated that the “health sector succeeded in countering the pandemic”.