Sustainable Development in Jordan: A Case Study

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@ 2016 AYAT A. SALEH, submitted as a part of the 'Design for the Environment' course in
the University of Warwick, United Kingdom
Sustainable Development in The
Kingdome of Jordan: A Case Study
Sustainable development can be defined as "meeting the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".
Within this context, sustainability has three dimensions, namely: social, economic
and ecological (Redclift 2009; Baker 2016, p.7).
The purpose of this case study is firstly to analyze the sustainable development
journey in the Kingdome of Jordan, or shortly Jordan. The analysis will take place
under three stages:
 Firstly: setting the scene about the country by conducting a PESTEL
(Political, Economic, Technological, Social, Environmental and Legal)
analysis;
 Secondly, presenting the Jordanian achievements against the Millennium
Development Goals for the period from 2000 to 2015;
 Thirdly, a discussion for the contemporary challenges with respect to the
Sustainable Development Goals and the required management steps for the
period from 2015 to 2030.
1. The Big Picture
In order to draw a big picture about Jordan, a brief overview about the country, and
the key facts that shape the sustainable development agenda in the country will be
presented.
1.1 The Kingdome of Jordan: Country's Profile
Jordan became an independent country in 1946. Since then, the country managed
successfully to be a key partner in the region. The key facts about Jordan are
(Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016, p.2; Central Intelligence Agency 2016):
 Population: 6.6 million (2015 census)
 Total area: 89,342 km2 with only 0.6% for the area is water
 Average annual population growth: 2.3%
 Life expectancy: 73.9 years
 Urban population: 83.4%

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 HDI (Human Development Index): 0.745
 UN (United Nations) Education Index: 0.700
 GII (Gender Inequality Index): 0.488
 Poverty (as a percentage of the population living on less than 3 USD/ day at
2011 international prices): 2.0%
 GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita based on purchasing power parity:
USD 12,050.3
A map for the country is shown in figure 1.
Figure 1 Map for the Kingdome of Jordan
1.2 The Kingdome of Jordan: PESTEL Analysis
In order to have a broader overview, PESTEL analysis in table 1 shows the main
aspects that affect the sustainable development in the country.

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Table 1 Detailed PESTEL Analysis for Jordan
Political Economical
 The country is surrounded by very intense
political situations due to the conflict between
Israel and Palestine and civil wars in Syria and
Iraq. That created many refugees and pressure
on the local services in the country (El-Naser
et al. 2014; Fakhoury 2015).
 The country has conducted many corruption
investigations and cabinet reshuffles to ensure
a stable political situation internally (IHS Global
Inc 2015).
 The country witnessed different protests
against the government which were managed
by a political reform agenda that covered
different aspects such parliamentary and
municipal elections (Bertelsmann Stiftung
2016).
 The economic growth in 2015 was 2.7% and
expected to be 3.1% in 2016 (IHS Global Inc
2015).
 The country depends on huge foreign aids from
different countries (IHS Global Inc 2015).
 Water scarcity problem created food security
problem in addition to poverty and health issues
(El-Naser et al. 2014).
 High poverty rate especially among women
which is about twice more than what it is for
men (El-Naser et al. 2014).
 The main industries in the country are: "tourism,
information technology, clothing, fertilizers,
potash, phosphate mining, pharmaceuticals,
petroleum refining, cement and inorganic
chemicals" (Central Intelligence Agency 2016).
Unfortunately, the majority are easily affected
negatively with the unstable political situation
and the oil prices (International Monetary Fund
2015, p.17).
 High unemployment rate (12.9%) (Central
Intelligence Agency 2016).
 According to 2013 statistics, only 11% of the
GDP in were spent on education (which is low
compared to international standards) with no
data on the amount of spending for research
and development (Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016).
Sociological
 The country is considered as the seventh-
largest population in the Middle East and the
13th largest in the Middle East and North
Africa (MENA) region (IHS Global Inc 2015).
 Young society; 36% of the population are
below 15 years old (IHS Global Inc 2015).
 95.4 % of the population is literate (Central
Intelligence Agency 2016)
 30% of the working employees is unionized
(IHS Global Inc 2015).
Ecological Technological
 The country is classified as the fourth poorest
country in terms of water availability where
most of the areas are classified as semi- arid
to arid region (El-Naser et al. 2014).
 Land degradation problem due to poor solid
waste disposal practices and poor land use
planning (El-Naser et al. 2014).
 Climate change impact such as decrease in
the rain fall by 15% which is expected to create
a 30% decrease in water availability during the
next 20 years (El-Naser et al. 2014).
 Sanitation problem where not all people have
access to wastewater services and sewage
network (El-Naser et al. 2014).
 Energy sector depends on foreign oil and
natural gas where 96% of them are imported
(El-Naser et al. 2014).
 The available knowledge and tools are not
sufficient to face the above challenges
especially for the water/ wastewater
management (El-Naser et al. 2014).
 Jordan is a leader in ICT (information
communication technology) sector in the middle
east where some of the key achievements in
this area are (Ministry of Information and
Communications Technology 2013):
 Late 1970s: developing satellite communication.
 Mid 1980s: introducing mobile telephone
service.
 1982: starting international direct dialling
service.
 Jordan is number 82 in the world in terms of the
number of users who have internet access
(Central Intelligence Agency 2016).
 Jordan spend 7.3% of the GDP for research
and development in the area of science and
technology (Elshuraydeh et al. 2005).
Legal
 Internally, the country is divided into 12
governorates.
 Externally, the country has representatives in
many international organizations such as IMF
(International Monetary Fund), IBRD
(International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development), FAO (Food and Agriculture
Organization) and International Chamber of
Commerce and many more (Central
Intelligence Agency 2016).

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2. Sustainable Development Results in Jordan: 2000- 2015
Since the beginning of the sustainable development journey in 2000, Jordan
embarrassed every single opportunity to create a significant change in each of the
three pillars of the sustainability.
Firstly, on the social sustainability pillar, the country was ranked as 77th
among
other 187 countries in the HDI (Human Development Index) as end of October 2015
(Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016). One of the main initiatives was the development of
3-year executive development programs (EDPs) to set agendas and manage them in
areas such as unemployment and poverty (Fakhoury 2015). As a result, the country
managed successfully to reduce the poverty rate from 21% to 14.4% for the period
from 1997 to 2012, increased literacy rate to 93.3% across the country and reduced
the infant mortality rate (which represents the number of death for infants under one
year) to 17 per 1000 infants (El-Naser et al. 2014).
Equally important, the country managed critical issues such as corruption,
governance and transparency intelligently through the adoption of a 'National
Integrity Charter' that is responsible for monitoring and setting recommendations in
this field (Fakhoury 2015).
Secondly, on the economic sustainability pillar, and despite of the volatility
around Jordan which affects the availability of external investment negatively (El-
Naser et al. 2014), the country adopted new laws that enhanced investment and
created a competitive business environment such as the new taxation law, the new
secured lending law in 2014 (Fakhoury 2015) and competition law (Bertelsmann
Stiftung 2016).
The results are shown in the growth of the GDP by 3.1%, the reduction in inflation
rate by 2.8% and the increase of the export growth rate by 9.4% by the end of 2014
(Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016).
Finally, on the ecological Sustainability, Jordan implemented rigorous steps to
face the severe water condition in the country. For example, the country started one
of the world's most unique water desalination project, or what is called 'Red Sea-
Dead Sea' project, in order to pump the water from Red Sea to Dead Sea. The
difference in the elevation between the two seas will be used to generate
hydroelectricity which will be used in the desalination process and hence providing
safe drinking water to the local community (Global Nature Fund 2013; Fakhoury
2015). As a result, 99% of the population have access to a safe drinking water and
63% are connected to a public sanitary sewage (El-Naser et al. 2014).

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On another important environmental impacts, the country adopted different targets
related to climate change, introduced codes for green building, lunched incentive
programs for hybrids and electrical cars and finally embraced a 'Solid Waste
Management Strategy' (Fakhoury 2015).
3. Status Quo and Future Plans: 2015 – 2030
The sustainability development in Jordan continues with the new Sustainable
Development Goals. Within the political turbulence in the Middle East region, the
journey becomes more challengeable. Syrian crisis alone created 4 million refugees
to neighbour countries and 8 million internally displaced in five years. Jordan hosts
1.4 million Syrian refugees which is the largest recipients for Syrian refugees and
resulted in impact with USD 6.6 billion as direct and indirect costs (El-Naser et al.
2014; Fakhoury 2015).
In order to achieve the sustainable development goals by end of 2030, the country
has to bridge different gaps. The below discussion will illustrate these challenges and
the path that should be followed for a brighter future under three themes namely:
 Social challenges and transformation,
 Economic challenges and transformation and finally,
 Ecological challenges and transformation.
3.1 Social Challenges and Transformation
The three key areas that are crucial for a social development in Jordan are:
1- The growth in the number of population which was doubled since 1980
including the refugees over the last three decades. This growth creates a
pressure on the limited natural resources and the current infrastructure (El-
Naser et al. 2014).
2- Healthcare: according to the official statistics in the country, only 77% of
Jordanian citizens are covered by health insurance pension (Bertelsmann
Stiftung 2016). Additionally, the county has to manage the health services for
a huge number of refugees and patients from neighbor countries (The High
Health Council 2015).
3- Human rights and especially women rights: the official numbers for the
unemployment rate revealed that the unemployment rate for females is twice
more than what it is for males (Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016).
In order to tackle these problems, the country should:
 Eliminate all kind of stereotypes about women and promote equal
employment opportunities in the kingdom (United Nations 2013).

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 Jordan developed 'National Strategy for Health Sector for 2015- 2019' to
improve the quality of the healthcare services in the kingdom. One of the
main tasks in this strategy is to issue a new 'Health Insurance Law' that
will organize the process between the government, the insurance
companies and the recipients (The High Health Council 2015).
3.2 Economic Challenges and Transformation
The two key areas of concerns for a successful economic development in Jordan
are:
1- Dependency on financial aid: Jordan depends heavily on external financial
supports (aid, long term loans and grants) (Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016).
2- Poverty: Jordan has a high poverty rate where 2% of the population are living
on less than 3 USD per day (Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016), in addition to the
low GNI (Gross National Income) for a medium- income country (The
European Commission 2014).
The required reform should introduce programs to reduce unemployment rate
and poverty, encourage SMEs (Small and Medium Size Enterprises) and
finally the reform of the 'personal income tax' (Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016) and
'state pension system' (IHS Global Inc 2015). In order to face these
challenges, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Sector
Development sat strategies to lead the reform across the country. Some of
the current strategy is called 'Comprehensive Reform of Jordan's Public
Financial Management 2014-2017' (The European Commission 2014) and
Jordan Fiscal Reform Project (FRP) that is sponsored by USAID (USAID
2015).
3.3 Ecological Challenges and Transformation
On the ecological development side, the four key areas that are mandatory in Jordan
are:
1- Water scarcity and climate change: according to the official meteorological
forecast in Jordan, the country is predicted to have an increase in
evapotranspiration by 3%. That also is expected to be combined with a
decrease in rainfall by 15% and an increase in the demand of irrigation water
by 18%. As a total, the available water in Jordan is expected to be decreased
by 30% by 2035 (El-Naser et al. 2014). Not also the climate change is the
major contributor to the water scarcity, but also the domestic misuse of water
resources and the increase number of Syrian refugees who consume
approximately one million liter of water per day (Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016).

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In order to tackle this challenge, the country should:
 Limits the fresh water usage for irrigation and agriculture to recycled
water only (Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016).
 Continue with the agreement that was signed with the related authorities
in Palestine and Israel for the Red Sea-Dead Sea project. The project is
expected to be fully operated by 2018 (Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016).
 Seek financial aids to fund local projects for sanitation solutions
especially in rural areas (El-Naser et al. 2014).
 Increase the awareness and possibilities of reusing reclaimed water for
irrigation and other applicable uses (El-Naser et al. 2014).
 Protect the groundwater by decommissioning any active cesspits,
rehabilitate the current wastewater network to prevent any leakage and
adopt new sewer systems that depends on new technologies so the
operations and maintenance costs will be reduced (El-Naser et al. 2014).
2- Sanitation: the current wastewater network is not capable to handle all the
wastewater discharge in the country. Official numbers sate that only 63% of
the population are connected to a public sewer system. This also means
losing the opportunity of collecting, treating and reusing the wastewater for
other beneficial uses (El-Naser et al. 2014).
As solutions, the country should:
 Invest in new wastewater sewage systems that can handle the effluent
in efficient ways (El-Naser et al. 2014).
 Conduct rehabilitation and expansion for the existing sewer networks
and plants. Currently, there are 29 central wastewater treatment
stations which are expected to treat 280 Million cubic metre annually
by 2030 given that the government will implement the needed the
rehabilitation and maintenance projects (El-Naser et al. 2014).
 Prevent the improper discharge and illegal water/ wastewater drilling
through official laws and regulations alongside with regular monitoring
for the quantities withdrawn (United Nations 2009).
3- Land degradation and desertification: the country suffers from the land
degradation due to improper use of the land, soil erosion, poor solid waste
disposal practices and the immigration from rural to urban areas (El-Naser et
al. 2014).
The solutions for this ecological problem lay in:

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 Implementing physical solutions to prevent soil erosion such as some
agricultural practices and water irrigation system (United Nations
2009).
 Limiting the rural immigration by improving the living conditions in
these areas (United Nations 2009).
 Setting regulations for the improper use of lands and monitor that
regularly (United Nations 2009).
4- The energy sector: Jordan lacks the needed resource to generate electricity,
therefore, around 96% of its fossil is imported (El-Naser et al. 2014). Given
that all power plants in Jordan are operated by fossil (IHS Global Inc 2015),
the expected increase in demand means high financial risk within the volatile
prices (El-Naser et al. 2014).
Some of the suggested solutions are:
 Introduce renewable energy: some strategies and laws are already sat
such as the 'National Energy Strategy of 2007-2020'. This national
strategy states that 10% of the energy should be from renewable
sources by the end of 2020, therefore, the government authorized nine
licenses for solar-energy project and two wind energy projects in 2015
(Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016).
 Exploit the oil shale that is already in the country where some
researchers showed that there are more than 40 Billion tons in 21 sites
across the country. The government started the exploration, research
and assessment process with the 'Royal Dutch Shell Company' in
2009 but more efforts are needed to commercialize it (IHS Global Inc
2015).
Before concluding the discussion about the road to solve the above challenges, it is
worthy to mention that the success of a sustainable development agenda
incorporates other managerial aspects such developing integrated communication
and information sharing platforms, developing community outreach programs, the
lunch of community awareness and education initiatives and finally providing training
programs for all personnel involved in the deployment process (United Nations
2009).
Additionally, the sustainable development journey is similar to any management
process. The success depends on following five stages which are: evaluation,
review, assessment, audit and monitoring (Berger & Steurer 2006, p.1).

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Moreover, policymakers should acknowledge the conflict that might happen between
the three sustainability pillars. Developing a common understanding, clarifying any
conflict of interests between the related parties, trust and open discussion can help in
resolving the conflict and hence successfully leading the discussion and negotiations
processes (Pisano et al. 2013) .
Finally, sustainable development is an ongoing process. As Baker (2016) described
it: "Sustainable development is a dynamic concept. It is not about society reaching an
end state, nor is it about establishing static structures or about identifying fixed
qualities of social, economic or political life" (Baker 2016, p.9). The process includes
continuously prompting the sustainability thinking in all aspects of life rather than
insisting on achieving a steady state of performance (Baker 2016, p.9).
4. Conclusions and Recommendations
As a conclusion, although Jordan is a small country and with limited resources, the
country achieved many great results and improve the living conditions year on year.
As a summary for the sustainable development in Jordan is shown in table 2.
For future researches in this area, it is recommended to:
1- Combine the literature review that was done with interviews, focus groups or
even questioners. The purpose of combing more than one data collection
methods is to get a deeper understanding for the subject and more
contemporary information.
2- Compare and contrast the UN approach for sustainable development, which
was expressed here in terms of the Millennium Development Goals and the
Sustainable Development Goals, with other approaches to have a
comprehensive picture about the research topic.

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Table 2 Summary for the Sustainability Development in Jordan
Achievement from 2000 to 2015 Challenges from 2015 to 2030
SocialSustainability
 Ranked 77th
in Human Development
Index
 Poverty was reduced from 21% to
14.4%
 increased literacy rate to 93.3%
 Reduced the infant mortality rate to
17 per 1000 infants.
 The dramatic growth in the number
of population
 The healthcare sector especially
the health insurance service
 Human rights and women rights in
specific
Economic
Sustainability
 GDP (Gross Domestic Product) grew
by 3.1%
 Inflation rate reduced by 2.8%
 Export growth rate increased by
9.4%
 Reduce the dependency on
external financial aids
 Reduce the poverty level which is
currently 2% (the rate measure the
percentage of the population who
are living on less than $3/day)
Ecological
Sustainability
 99% of Jordanian citizen have
access to clean water
 63% of the people are connected to
a sewer system
 Introduced green building codes
 Promote the use of hybrids and
electrical cars
 Lunched a Solid Waste Management
Strategy
 Water scarcity where it is expected
to have a decrease in the available
drinking water by 30% (end of
2035)
 Upgrade the current sanitary
system
 Land degradation and the increase
in land's desertification
 Around 96% of the fossil used in
the country is imported, therefore,
implementing renewable energy
solutions is a must

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References
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https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-
factbook/geos/print_jo.html.
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