Oxfam concludes 4-year initiative for youth employment

AMMAN — Oxfam in Jordan announced on Tuesday the end of a four-year initiative, funded by the Danish Arab Partnership Program (DAPP), which was introduced to boost employment among young people in the Kingdom.اضافة اعلان

The event, held at the Möevenpick Hotel, brought together civil society representatives, implementing partners, experts, government officials and young Jordanians to discuss challenges facing youth employment, and achievements and lessons learned during the Youth Participation and Employment (YPE) project.

DAPP project manager Rula Abu Rub told Jordan News that “the YPE project achieved most of its objectives throughout these four years, mainly reaching and supporting the employment of 65,000 young Jordanian and Syrian youth, in addition to creating more than 5,000 jobs in six governorates.”

“Oxfam helped training more than 50,000 young men and women in life skills and technical skills, while 2500 youth were trained and coached on entrepreneurship,” she said.

She pointed out that “working with more than 100 companies and 34 Community Based Organizations, Oxfam and partners, helped in connecting young people with jobs, internships and apprenticeships.”



“Oxfam has been always proud to work on this initiative with outstanding local partners who share our commitment to ensuring young men and women in Jordan have a chance to fulfil their potential,” said Nivedita Monga, Oxfam in Jordan country director.

“Jordan emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic with unprecedented levels of youth unemployment, and the Kingdom’s recovery has been buffeted by global crisis,” she said.

“Now, more than ever, it is critical to harness the untapped talent of young men and women to drive Jordan’s economic growth,” Monga added.

Oxfam helped training more than 50,000 young men and women in life skills and technical skills, while 2500 youth were trained and coached on entrepreneurship,

The YPE initiative also launched public campaigns highlighting women’s roles as economic representatives and entrepreneurs, as well as conducting advocacy to promote vocational training and address prejudices against vocational work. 

Mohammad Al-Zoubi, director of the Community Development Institute at KHF, said that “the role of our organization in this project consisted of bolstering and supporting youth’s capacity to switch to entrepreneurship rather than waiting for a job and working for others.”



On expatriates’ presence in Jordan and their impact on unemployment, President of the Workers’ House Hamada Abu Nijmeh contended that “Jordan will be in constant need for expatriates as long as there is a lack of a proper policy to fill in expats positions with Jordanian youth workers.”

Ahmad Awad, head of the Jordan Labor Watch, told Jordan News “there are many factors that hinder youth integration in the labor market, including ineffective and biased policies, given that the policies should balance the rights and interests of employers as well as workers.”

Awad pointed out “the current policies focus on the financial side and are not effective, as such they do not help provide jobs for people, rather they tend to weaken the labor market.”

The policies created a gap between the skills and the labor market, according to Awad who noted that “policies must be reviewed along with an administrative system that is able to implement effective policies.”



“The taboo culture is not the reason why we still have many expats in Jordan”, he pointed out.

He elaborated that “as in principle, if there is a decent job with a reasonable salary, with respect to the Jordanian work standards, then the turnout on jobs will be larger by the local community.”

He said that “20 years ago, more than 90 percent of sanitation workers were expatriates. However, the job requirements and conditions have changed, currently more than 90 percent of sanitation workers are Jordanians.”


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