1. Country office: Jordan
2. Date of Submittion: 02-mai-2003
3. Amount Requested from the Fund: $ 25,000
4. Budget Breakdown:
• Establishment of a National Human Development Network –participatory consensus building round tables - $12,000
• Establishment of web-sites and local portals – $2,000
• Multi-media PR campaigns to publicize the debates of the Network -$6,000
• Advocacy for involvement of academia through local universities by supporting HD courses in the curricula -$5,000
5. HDR Theme/Area of focus: Poverty, Gender, and ICT: (Operationalizing MDG 1&
6. Expected date of launch: June 1st. 2003
7. Proposed HDR Activities to be supported with the Innovation Fund:
1. We propose the creation of a National Human Development Network encompassing prominent members from civil society, local governments, local statistical offices, international donors, academia, private sector, researchers from think tanks and other stakeholders. The objective of this network is to mobilize all these agencies to promote better understanding of the concept of Human Development, its implications at the short and long terms, and provide strategy and policy recommendations to the planning and decision making authorities. Network members will serve as HD advocates and can be used as resource persons for the various intellectual and training activities in the field of HD including the production of the NHDR. They will also constitute pressure groups towards various SHD issues, especially for the empowerment of women. Network members will discuss issues related to a) measuring human development, data collection issues, disparities between national and international data, b) SHD cutting-edge knowledge and innovations; c) best practices and resources for data and research aiming to build a participatory-consensus building process and d) publishing their discussions in monographs to publicize their debates. Each of the network target audience has a particular role to play in advancing and actualizing the concept of SHD. For instance, policy makers and policy analysts utilize the policy recommendations and analysis of indicators to derive at pertinent policy guidelines and formulations.
2.The work of the NHDR network will be supported and disseminated through a new web-based site that will publicize and make accessible the discussions of the network. It will be linked to the Jordanian MDG web.
8. Other financial support available to complement these activities and the preparation of the above mentioned HDR:
UNDP Jordan support of the NHDR process consists of a financing from TRAC and cost sharing contribution from DFID that have been made available for the NHDR preparation as well as follow up activities. Our experience has shown that a comprehensive NHDR process costs up to 130.000 USD, hence a grant from the innovation fund will be coming really handy in terms of not only in complementing our activities but also in making them more participatory bringing the development debate at the local level. The process has generated the interest of many donors including the Korean Embassy who contributed to the dissemination activities of the current NHDR. Other donors can be tapped as well and the government has expressed its willingness to contribute to the network.
9. Indicate with a X which aspect(s) of the NHDR preparation/production process will be supported with the resources received from the Innovation Fund and write in the box next to the one selected a brief summary of what is intended:
Excellence in Quality of Analysis
By including academics, policy makers and all relevant actors in the discussions and intensive debates, the quality of the analysis of the major challenges facing the country as well as the policy recommendations emanating from these discussions will emphatically improve not only the quality of the NHDR analysis but also the data and indicators that need to be collected and streamlined to strengthen the policy debates. Creating an institutionalized forum specializing in HDR issues will provide participants to delve into an in-depth level of analysis not seen in background papers produced by individual consultants since it will open the floor for a wider debate and constructive feedback. Currently the process has been for individual experts to prepare the background papers which are reviewed by a few. Lessons learned and gained expertise is not maintained nor spread to a wider audience. The proposed network will be the crux of cutting-edge knowledge and analysis not only of SHD but also of major issues facing Jordan. They can serve also other forums such as the analysis of the MDG targets, costing, achievability, etc. They can also be included within the Country Programme/UNDAF discussions since they will have access and knowledge of critical issues and policy recommendations.
Excellence in Policy Impact
The debate, outreach and advocacy activities within the NHDR network will promote the concept of NHDR within the general public and with policy makers. The involvement of the various actors and the specialized discussions with policy makers will highlight policy recommendations and mechanisms for actualizing them.
Excellence in Participatory and Inclusive Process and Deepening National Ownership
The incorporation of the pertinent actors in the process of the report's production through workshops discussions, specialized monographs, debate forums on the web-site will provide the most inclusive participatory process that highlights divergent points of view and enrich the discussions on SHD concepts and challenges facing Jordan. The network and its support activities will be the forum not only to create a deeper national ownership of the process but also to enable all parties to define the most critical policy issues that need to be addressed.
Excellence in Presentation
10. Expected Results:
• Assist the country in realizing Human Development goals through focusing on the basic concept of HD; making the connection between the concept and the analysis of the country's challenges; and providing a set of policy recommendations logically derived from this analysis.
• Serve as an advocacy tool for human development by stimulating national dialogue on development strategies and objectives.
• Aim at an operational programme for human development through strategy/programme formulation for human development.
• Develop a system to monitoring the state of human development through providing facts and figures to measure progress and pinpoint critical policy areas for advancing Human Development.
• To publicize the main messages and findings of the report's theme and highlight the regional and gender disparities in the areas it focuses on including, HDI, employment, social integration, educational and health levels, etc.
• To maximize the utilization of the NHDR as an advocacy developmental tool, the target audience for its dissemination must be carefully identified. Each of those will make different usage of the report relevant to their area of concern and operations. Based on the multi-level usage of the NHDR, the following target audience has been identified: Influential opinion leaders, Policy analysts, Government policy makers, The media, NGOs, Aid donor agencies, The Private Sector (business associations, clubs, forums, chambers of industries and trade.
• To create a medium for the promotion of SHD concepts and the utilization of the NHDR as a policy instrument. It is important to have not only top thinkers on the theme to prepare the NHDR, but also people with expertise in advocacy.
11. Timeline for implementation of the proposed activities mentioned in item # 6:
• Holding Round table discussions and debate forums -August 2003-May 2004
• Establishment of web-sites and local portals - September 2003
• Multi-media PR campaigns to publicize the debates of the Network -October 2003-May 2004
• Advocacy for involvement of academia through local universities by supporting HD courses in the curricula -Jan. 2004 -May 2004.
Name of Requesting officer/focal point for this initiative: Abla Amawi
Email: abla.amawi@undp.org
Title: ARR/P
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