What will Jordanian civil society look like if localization is achieved? JONAF -Working together towards Localization
JONAF- Working together towards Localization As part of its advocacy efforts and role in promoting localization of humanitarian response, the Jordan National NGOs Forum (JONAF) held its third annual event On July 21, 2019, seeking to address and answer this question “What will Jordanian civil society look like if localization is achieved?”. JONAF has begun to play an important role in the follow-up of several significant agendas such as the Humanitarian Action Localization agenda, which calls for the inclusion of local and national representatives in the planning and implementation of humanitarian and development strategies to ensure that targeted community needs are met. Current challenges to implementing localization include different interpretations of the Grand Bargain by local and international organizations; conflicting approaches between government agencies, local organizations, and international organizations to implementing localization; and finally, the capacity and understanding within national organizations to carry out aid work. This event, which was launched by a word from her excellency Senator Sawsan Al Majali, aimed to generate discussion amongst JONAF members, government officials, and CSOs to encourage the commitments made in the Grand Bargain in 2016 and in the Charter 4 Change in 2015. At the core of this commitment was to enable locally led humanitarian and development architecture and practices, and Jordanian civil society, to scale up and sustain investments from the aid sector by enforcing accountability and localization. The event also aimed to increase resilience to challenges posed by a shrinking space for civil society, funding limitations, and increased due diligence requirements by governments and donors.
“Syrian Refugees’ Perceptions and Satisfaction Regarding the Justice Sector in Jordan
ARDD has released its latest report entitled “Syrian Refugees’ Perceptions and Satisfaction Regarding the Justice Sector in Jordan”. The report is based on the outcomes of two surveys: the first one was conducted under “Support for Justice Sector Reform” funded by the EU, and included a non-national non-representative sample of (1700) Jordanians and non-Jordanians. the second one was conducted by ARDD as an independent follow-up survey that included a sample of (600) female and male Syrian Refugees living out of refugees camps in the areas of Amman, Zarqa, Mafraq. Irbed, and Karak. According to ARDDs report, (43.8%) of the Syrian Refugees respondents reported to feel that their rights are fully protected in Jordan.
Know Her Rights Tools of Knowledge Elimination violence against women and girls in Jordan
Various sectors of Jordanian society are marred by a wide-ranging lack of gender sensitivity and different forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG). The easy-to-understand “Tools of Knowledge: Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls in Jordan” toolkit was created as part of the Know Her Rights Project to combat VAWG in four sectors: government, media, education, and health sectors. Awareness-raising, as employed in this toolkit, is one of ARDD’s main tools to empower women, secure just legal outcomes, and create a more gender-sensitive environment for women to live life comfortably. While this toolkit contains the input of various stakeholders, from the government to media, education, and civil society experts, its innovative approach to dispersing the knowledge is based on the simple, non-technical composition of the toolkit. “Tools of Knowledge: Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls in Jordan” includes descriptions of the challenges facing women in each of the four sectors, as well as surveys for members of the sector to appraise their own understanding of VAWG and gender sensitivity. The key output from this project is developing a culture of gender sensitivity that combats violence and negative byproducts of institutionalized male-dominated norms and social roles. By fundamentally transforming how women and men handle VAWG in Jordan, enduring change is expected to take root as a result of the toolkit. This toolkit was created in partnership with the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women (UNTF).
Silent Women: An ARDD report on harassment in the workplace
The report is one of the outcomes that are to be produced as part of the Ford Foundation project ‘Women’s Access to Economic Justice through Legal Empowerment’. It provides an in-depth analysis of harmful and discriminatory workplace practices in Jordan that are potentially hindering women from safely accessing the labour market, and works towards answering the overall project question: ‘How can refugee and host community women in Jordan be empowered to safely access the labour market and be able to confidently utilize the Jordanian legal system when rights are violated?’.
Barriers to Balance: Overcoming Obstacles to Women’s Economic Participation in Jordan
In Jordan, and much of the Global South, women face a unique dilemma. On the one hand, in the face of low rates of female labor force participation and increasing youth unemployment, women are exhorted by governments and NGOs alike to enter the labor force or else become entrepreneurs. On the other hand, a domestic division of labor, that often places unequal burdens on women, has meant that any engagement in the market economy must occur on top of the unremunerated and unequal care economy. Compounding this dilemma are the myriad barriers to paid employment: including a general lack of job opportunities, workplace discrimination, social policy (e.g., insufficient maternity leave and lack of childcare) and harassment.
Women’s Access to Justice: A Framework for Inquiry
This report analyzes the status of women’s access to justice in Jordan, with a particular focus on the Shari’a court system. Through a review of relevant laws, research, and international conventions, it identifies legal, social, and institutional barriers to women’s access to justice. At the same time, it traces gaps in the justice system related to: legal aid services; economic and human resources; and gender sensitivity. The report proposes a framework of inquiry – based on international experiences – that allows for systematic analysis of women’s access to justice in Jordan. Additionally, it offers key analytical recommendations for facilitating women’s access to justice by way of increased gender sensitivity, enhanced dispute resolution and enforcement mechanisms, and quality legal support services. With continued coordination between institutional and civil society stakeholders, an enabling environment for women’s access to justice can be established with an adequate supply of institutional resources to facilitate the process and meet current demands.
Public Perceptions and Satisfaction Regarding the Justice Sector in Jordan
In 2012, the European Commission approved a long-term initiative to “Support Justice Sector Reform” that aims to improve the juvenile justice system, integrate various justice sector actors, and enhance the operational independence of key institutions (European Commission, 2012). The Government of Jordan, with the support of the European Union, constructed the Jordanian Judicial Authority Strategy Building Plan 2012-2014 and initiated a number of significant legislative reform initiatives within the justice sector. Indeed, by the end of 2014, the Jordanian parliament passed 13 laws, including the Judicial Independence Law and the new Juvenile Law – both to great acclaim. Starting in 2017, the European Union commissioned Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development – ARDD to implement the Support for Justice Sector Reform project. The overall objective of the project was to engage the Jordanian public in the ongoing justice sector reform process by raising awareness and support for ongoing reform initiatives. The project also aims to foster evidence-based social dialogue among key stakeholders of the justice sector with a view to strengthen support to Justice Sector institutions. Indeed, while much of the Jordan’s strategic plan focused on creating an independent, efficient and effective justice sector, another pillar of the plan involves building public confidence in institutions tasked with safeguarding the rule of law in Jordan.
Towards a Community Facilitator Model in Jordan
This report is a mixed methods study, having adopted a data collection approach that gathered both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data was collected from a desk review that covered CF models and legal empowerment in Jordan and outside of Jordan, in particular in relation to minority and vulnerable groups, comprised of primary and grey literature. Qualitative data was gathered from the OSF pilot phase of the Syrian Refugee Empowerment Project (SREP), initiated by the Open Society Foundations in Jordan, through focus group discussions with ARDD CFs trained for the pilot, minutes of meetings between ARDD CFs and ARDD employees responsible for the pilot, progress reports produced by ARDD and Tamkeen, 65 session reports produced by ARDD CFs, and 8 observations of community facilitation sessions by ARDD, in both Zarqa and Amman.
Basic education and parents’ relations with school: Findings from a mini-survey of Jordanian and Syrian refugee households in Mafraq city
This paper presents descriptive statistics from a limited sample survey of Jordanian and Syrian refugee households in the city of Mafraq in northern Jordan. The main objective is to enhance our understanding of the communication between public schools and the households of their students through information from and the perceptions of parents. The paper answers such questions as: To what extent is there contact between the schools and the parents; how do they communicate; and who initiates the communication? Are the parents satisfied with the information? And, what kind of improvements of relevance to their children’s education would they like to see? The survey was carried out within a wider project seeking to find ways to improve the learning environment of Jordanian and Syrian refugee children in Jordan through operational interventions and legal reform. Additional research components of the project have included school visits, focus group interviews with teachers and parents in the governorate of Mafraq, and research into the legal aspects of basic education in Jordan.
Effective Parenting for Elementary School aged Children
Violence against children has long been advocated against because of the profound implications it can have on children. According to a study conducted by UNICEF in 2007, Jordanian parents have shortcomings in their parenting styles. Parents in Jordan frequently use violence – both verbal and physical, as methods of disciplining their children. This includes methods which can sometimes be quite severe, such as beating using belts, shoes or other objects, as well as insults, shouting, and name-calling. This often happens because these are the only disciplinary methods parents know. Such disciplinary measures and lack of knowledge of alternative methods, has also been expressed in the Syrian refugee community in Jordan. An ARDD-Legal Aid report from February 2015, highlighted some of the challenges facing Syrian refugee women and Female Heads of Households (FFHs). One of the main findings was in regards to psychosocial implications, namely, unsettled self-perceptions regarding their role as “mothers.” In particular, the report describes that many of the women who participated in ARDD-Legal Aid’s psychosocial support sessions showed signs of deep stress regarding their sense of “failure” as care givers and mothers, as they lack the parenting skills and resources to communicate effectively with their children and help them navigate in these difficult circumstances.