Jordan developed its 10-year National Agenda in 2005 with the main objective to improve the quality of life of Jordanians, create income-generating opportunities and guarantee social welfare. The Agenda set eight themes with specific targets and initiatives necessary to achieve its objectives. The themes encompassed the MDGs in the areas of education, training and employment, social welfare and private sector development.

 
The 10-year Agenda was further developed into a framework entitled We are all Jordan. The two documents were combined into a three-year National Executive Programme (NEP) for 2007-2009 with specific goals, policies, programmes, projects, and indicators. A second NEP spanning 2009-2012 is currently being developed and the MDGs are also given priority in this new NEP. Though the National Frameworks were not MDG- based, Jordan was keen on integrating the MDGs within the NEP and in building the government’s capacity in MDG planning. Jordan’s approach is to adapt the MDGs to national development priorities and challenges, and to ensure mainstreaming the MDGs within national budgets and government priorities. Through implementation and monitoring of the national plans, which are wider in scope than the MDGs, Jordan aims to achieve the Goals. Challenges include reaching consensus on how to best achieve the MDGs among the different governmental institutions and civil society organizations, merging the resource and capacity gaps between the planning and implementation processes, and clarifying the linkages between local and national planning, as well as filling data gaps.

Jordan published its first National MDG Report in 2004, which revealed that it is on track to achieve some of the goals ahead of 2015. The report highlighted regional disparities as a key challenge. As a result, Jordan produced its first local MDG report for the Government of Aqaba in 2008 and produced its second local MDG report in 2009 for the governorate of Zarqa. These constitute a first step towards localizing the goals at the sub-national level and became a basis for local MDG planning.

Jordan is in 2010 preparing its second National MDG Report, which will be finalized in June 2010. The second MDG Report is the result of a strong partnership between the Government of Jordan and the UN System. In fact for over 6 months the UN M&E Thematic Working Group and Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC) have worked closely with national experts to review indicators related to each goals and the progress made since the first National MDG Report.

The Second National Report on MDGs is of particular importance for Jordan because it documents progress to date in achieving the goals with only 5 years left at the 2015 deadline, but it also serves as a tool for identifying alternatives of effective policies, work priorities and national goals in light with the achievements made so far. The report will be presented in September 2010 at the MDG Summit organized to review the status of the MDGs at global level.

Read more: jo.one.un.org/uploads/file/MDGs%20Fact%20Sheet-English.pdf