Interactive roundtable held on ‘Jordan-EU Dialogue on Human Security Issues’

AMMAN — The West Asia-North Africa (WANA) Institute in partnership with Konrad- Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) hosted an interactive roundtable on “Jordan-EU Dialogue on Human Security Issues” on Monday in Amman. 

Academic experts, civil society actors and government representatives participated in the discussions, according to a statement from the organisers. 

The goal of the roundtable was to address the public policy-making gaps in Jordan and enhance Jordan-EU dialogue by devising policy recommendations and solutions to issues of relevance.

The roundtable highlighted a joint project titled: “Jordan-EU Dialogue on Human Security Issues” that seeks to engage with five-eight young Jordanian experts and professionals from diverse backgrounds to produce public policy papers and present to Jordanian and international stakeholders including government representative and EU representatives.

The session was opened by Director of Programme at WANA Institute Shereen Shaheen.  She stressed the importance of raising awareness on the issues of importance and priority that Jordan should address, from a non-governmental perspective, cementing the culture of informing and exchanging of knowledge that is able to influence public policies in Jordan as well as deepening the dialogue between the European Union and Jordan on security and human security. 

Resident Representative at Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Jordan Office Edmund Ratka expressed the importance of this project in strengthening the ties between Jordan and the European Union in general and with Germany in specific.  

This roundtable was facilitated by the senior researcher at the WANA Institute, Barik Mhadeen, whereby the young professionals presented their papers before policy makers, after having received a specialised training on research and policy-papers writing by the WANA Institute. 

Hala Hamawi, an engineer, started her presentation on the water sector in Jordam by stating that she is happy to share the views of the young professionals with the policy makers, yet she regretted that during her investigation she was not able to find data and evidence on the involvement of youth in the sector. 

The young professionals, participants of the project, presented their policy papers on Monday tackling issues such as mobilising sustainable mobility for development by Amer Qawasmi, the effect of COVID and the defence law in Jordan by Tala Halteh, renewable energy and cyclic operation of conventional power plants by Mohammad Zyoud, sustainable water supply in Jordan by Hala Hamawi and finally the liberalisation of the electricity market in Jordan by Mustafa Hashem.  

Attending policy-makers were able to put forth their queries, feedback and recommendations to improve the policy papers which will be amended based on the experts’ information and experience and finally the policy papers will then be complied, edited and published in a joint KAS-WANA publication.