CSS launches project to boost political involvement

AMMAN — In the pursuit of increasing women and the youth’s involvement in the democratic process, a new project under the name “Our Decision”, was launched on Sunday by the Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS) at the University of Jordan. 

The project aims at increasing the involvement and influence of civil societies in politics, specifically through youth and women empowerment, according to a report made available to The Jordan Times. 

The focus on civil societies and their role in decision making is part of the centre’s larger plans for political reform in Jordan. Our Decision, which will train civil societies all over the Kingdom to combat issues of human and civil rights, will be implemented over the next two-and-a-half years. 

“We want to assess these societies’ capacities and identify their shortcomings. After that, we can work on providing them with the necessary training to analyse current political issues, lobby for their causes and have enough resources to participate and even overlook parliamentary elections,” said Musa Shtiewi, president of CSS. 

Shtiewi pointed out that “civil societies have various issues on their work agendas, such as the rights of women, children, people with disabilities and other social issues that need specialised training, for them to present the issues professionally in front of government institutions”. 

Our Decision is funded by the Spanish Cooperation Agency for International Development (AECID) and the European Union (EU). 

Luis Landero, project expert at AECID, said: “This project is very important as civil societies should possess a good standing in any democratic country, so if Jordan plans to have a better democratic future, it needs to work on these societies.” 

According to Luis, AECID and the EU have assigned 17 million euros for different projects whose objectives are to improve the democratic process in Jordan, but AECID’s only focus at the moment is civil societies. 

“Through these societies, there is a link between the people and state institutions. There cannot be institutions which work alone without being monitored by civil societies in a democratic country,” he stressed. 

As for the EU, the project is “in line with the Jordanian-EU META 2025 project which sheds light on the cornerstones of the much-needed government reform efforts, effective decision making and overall government performance”, as Ambassador of the EU Delegation to Jordan Andrea Matteo Fontana, said at the launch.