Committee updating poverty strategy holds 3rd meeting

AMMAN — Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury on Saturday chaired the third meeting of the steering committee to update the Strategy for Combating Poverty and Social Protection, according to a ministry statement.

During the meeting, attended by Minister of Social Development Hala Lattouf, Awqaf Minister Abdul Nasser Abul Bassal and other committee members, Fakhoury said that the government has directed the committee to introduce the concept of social protection as a basic pillar to increase the national capacity to fight poverty and raise the living standards of Jordanian citizens.

Fakhoury said that the update of the National Strategy to Combat Poverty 2019-2025 comes in light of the economic, social, political and demographic developments, as well as the Jordan Document 2025, and the 2015 population and housing census, adding that the Syrian refugee influx greatly impacted the poverty and social protection system.

The public and private sectors and the civil society institutions in Jordan will hold workshops with all concerned bodies to obtain feedback on the needs of citizens that will take into consideration multi-dimensional poverty, geographical distribution and poverty pockets.

The workshops will also take into consideration the social protection and empowerment programmes, the minister said.

The workshops’ feedback will be integrated into various national strategies such as the Plan to Stimulate Economic Growth 2018-2022, the National Strategy for the Development of Human Resources, the National Employment Programme and the initiatives mentioned in the Jordan Document 2025, Fakhoury stated.

He pointed out the importance of the availability of up-to-date statistics, especially surveys on population and family health, income and expenditure currently being conducted by the Department of Statistics.

For her part, Social Development Minister Hala Lattouf outlined the procedures of updating the strategy, which will include identifying the strategy’s key points, studying and endorsing them, and coming up with a final version.