Speculations over a new government with a newly appointed prime
minister have been floating in the Jordanian media for a while now, the most
recent of which came as an analysis piece posted earlier this week in Al-Ghad
News. The article shared other scenarios as well, including the possibility of
a wide reshuffle of the Cabinet, under the current premier.
اضافة اعلان
Regardless of the winning scenario, Jordan is in
fact in dire need of serious leadership on its climate change, agri-food
security, water, and unemployment fronts.
As the country strides toward consolidating its
agricultural and food security dossiers, following recent directives by His
Majesty King Abdullah, the Kingdom needs a new Cabinet that is markedly more
focused than pre-pandemic administrations on matters related to climate change
and food security.
The future government’s mission will most likely
include revisiting clashing laws that have missed the mark on climate change,
like the new investment regulation bill as well as the existing environmental
protection law. This, in addition to managing our water resources with a firm
and steady hand, finding insightful solutions to urbanization and
desertification, and expediting plans to drive sustainable agri-food security
in a manner that revives the country’s long-neglected rural communities.
To achieve this, any new prime minister will need to
set the right tone for the ministries whose areas of expertise are directly and
indirectly linked to mitigating the ill effects of climate change. These
include the ministries of water, agriculture, environment, labor, investment,
energy, transportation, education, planning, and finance.
Unfortunately, the current government has so far
shown a rather shaky grasp of Jordan’s long-term problems, although it was
appointed just after the previous burnt-out government managed to steer the
country through the most intricate stages of the pandemic, proving that under
pressure, and with the right team, the government can exceed expectations.
Rather than come out of the trying months of the
pandemic with clarity of vision and a strong understanding of the crucial
lessons learnt from this world-engulfing health calamity (such as the frailty
of long supply chains and their devastating contribution to climate change),
the current government ended up suggesting the obliteration of one of the
country’s pivotal public sector institutions.
As a result, former ministers voiced their rejection
of the unreasonable plans to abolish the Ministry of Labor, as part of efforts
to modernize the public sector, saying that this had nothing to do with
introducing workable solutions to the structural problems plaguing the
country’s public institutions.
Notably, the Labor Ministry gained further
prominence following Jordan’s signing of the Free Trade agreement (FTA) with
the US in 2000, during the Clinton administration’s time in office. Labor
rights and environmental protection were the two main provisions in the FTA
that ended up prompting Jordan to establish its first-ever Ministry of
Environment and pay more attention to its labor policies.
It makes little sense for the current government to
abolish the very ministry in charge of transforming and diversifying the
Jordanian workforce, in a country that suffers from oversaturation across a
large number of professional specializations in the job market.
A government with 360 degree vision should be able
to see that the Labor Ministry is about to have a defining role as Jordan
embarks on reviving its rural communities. With the right leadership, the
ministry will be able to work with other ministries (like water, education, and
agriculture) to come up with clear plans to transform the urban and semi-urban
societies living near state-owned arable lands into active farming communities.
This way, the ministry will not only redefine the scope of vocational training,
it will also become quite instrumental in changing social attitudes that prefer
office jobs (especially in the public sector) to cultivating the land.
It makes little sense for the current government to abolish the very ministry in charge of transforming and diversifying the Jordanian workforce, in a country that suffers from oversaturation across a large number of professional specializations in the job market.
Meanwhile, a new Ministry of Investment was added to
the current Cabinet, followed by the introduction of an investment regulation
bill that was unsuccessful in tackling climate change, the Kingdom’s chronic
water crisis, and plans to achieve food security as a top national concern.
Lack of awareness by local policymakers, lawmakers
and senior civil servants with regard to the looming dangers of climate change
has already given way to the enactment of this important piece of legislation,
while turning a blind eye to the immediate and long-term effects of the rapid
environmental deterioration threatening the planet.
Also in recent months, the Ministry of Water emptied
a number of dams to the dismay of a long-serving former water minister who
criticized the move as being an error in management.
Even though “accountability” has been a
much-repeated mantra in official circles over the past months, the government
made no effort to address or investigate these serious allegations weighing on
the water file.
Jordan cannot continue to be stuck in theory and in
an endless list of plans to reform and modernize public administration.
Governments must stop paying lip service to notions like accountability and
start “walking the talk”, boldly and transparently.
Recently, the US Senate passed a historic climate
and clean energy bill that promises to propel the US to the forefront of the
global clean energy economy. The new legislation aims to cut greenhouse gas
emissions 40 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2030, as well as double the
country’s capacity of installed wind and solar solutions to produce clean
electricity.
Soon, countries, like Jordan, are expected to follow
the lead of both the US and EU in adopting transformative policies and
legislation that view economic growth through an environmentally conscious
lens.
Moving forward, senior officials at the top of the
governmental pyramid will need to show a firm grasp of universally shared
challenges, such as climate change. Having this level of awareness is
imperative to help Jordan transition into the water- and food-secure country it
deserves to be.
Our dwindling water supplies and deteriorating air
quality are not distant problems for the next generations to fix. Decidedly,
they are ours, and ours only, to confront.
Ruba Saqr has reported on
the environment, worked in the public sector as a communications officer, and
served as managing editor of a business magazine, spokesperson for a
humanitarian INGO, and as head of a PR agency.
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