Ammon News - The World Bank confirmed its intention to provide a second additional financing for the "Strengthening Reform Management" program in Jordan, worth $7.5 million, bringing the total financing to $23.3 million, and the implementation period for an additional 3 years (2026-2028).
The program benefits from a multi-donor trust fund in Jordan with the aim of enhancing the coordination and implementation of policy reform in Jordan with the updated reform matrix, enhancing public investment management, public-private partnerships, and public procurement management.
The Reform Secretariat at the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation is the implementing agency for this program to coordinate between ministries and ensure the implementation of its components, after launching the Jordanian government's five-year reform matrix in 2018, with the aim of stimulating growth, investment and exports, reducing business costs, and combating labor market fragmentation.
The program was updated first in 2022 and again in 2024, extending the new updated reform matrix for two years (2026-2027) and expanding the scope of policy reform measures to be undertaken under the original 12 policy reforms, according to the Bank’s data.
The new extension of the program focuses on implementing expanded reforms in fiscal policy, public sector efficiency and governance, including public-private partnership projects, public procurement, business enabling environment, investment and trade promotion, access to finance and capital market, labor market and skills development, social safety nets, and the transport, energy, water, agriculture, and tourism sectors.
The World Bank approved financing for the $6.5 million project in September 2019, under a multi-donor trust fund (supported by the governments of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, and Canada), and also approved additional financing for the “Strengthening Reform Management” project in Jordan, amounting to $9.3 million.
By the end of last May, Jordan had completed 72% of the "Strengthening Reform Management Project" launched in cooperation with the World Bank, to coordinate and follow up on a reform matrix that the government announced its commitment to, has achieved an average of 290 reform measures out of 403 of the total project.
According to data from the bank, more than 25% of the beneficiaries of these completed measures are "women", within the reform matrix announced at the (London Initiative) conference in 2019, as the project directly contributed to the completion of 116 reform measures out of 265 new measures until the report was prepared.
The World Bank confirmed in an evaluation report that the project is making steady progress towards achieving its development goal by enhancing the coordination and implementation of policy reforms in Jordan with a focus on the 2018-2024 reform matrix, as the reform secretariat launched at the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation has strengthened the "institutional capacity to conduct policy dialogue and daily management".
As of last June, the World Bank’s disbursements to finance the project amounted to $7.35 million out of $15.8 million, with a financing rate of 47% of the total grant, as the Bank expects its disbursements to the program to increase in 2024.
In order to follow up, coordinate and facilitate the implementation of the reform matrix, the Economic Reform Implementation Support Unit (Secretariat) was established in the Ministry of Planning in late 2019, which also provides the necessary technical assistance to ministries and government departments concerned with implementing reforms, communicates and consults with relevant parties periodically to prioritize reform, and prepares periodic reports on the progress of work.
The Bank explained that the unit in the Ministry of Planning continues to support ministries, departments and agencies implementing reform in reforming relevant policies across 12 pillars of the reform matrix using the Reform Support Fund.
The Reform Support Unit also effectively supports the implementation of major operations financed by the World Bank, such as the Comprehensive, Transparent and Climate-Smart Investment Program and the Economic Opportunities for Jordanians and Syrian Refugees Project.
The updated reform matrix extends for two years, expanding the sectors covered from 9 to 12 pillars, with new pillars added, most notably public sector efficiency and governance, and tourism, while the original water and agriculture pillar was divided into two separate pillars, bringing the total reform pillars covered by the project to 44 reform areas.
The government announced at the London Conference in February 2019 its commitment to its economic reform and growth plan within a 5-year reform matrix (2018-2022) that was later extended to 2024, based on a set of political and structural reforms related to the most important economic policy issues facing Jordan.
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