The Human Development Concept

The concept of human development, launched in 1990, implies that the fruits of economic growth and development must be translated into improvements and expanded choices in the lives of people, increasing both their capabilities and opportunities. The first global Human Development Report introduced the Human Development Index (HDI), a measure of human development in a country on the basis of variables covering: a long and healthy life (life expectancy at birth), knowledge (adult literacy rates and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary enrolment ratio), and a decent standard of living (real GDP per capita according to dollar purchasing power parity).

The value for Jordan's HDI rank in the Global Human Development Report 1999 (1997 statistics) was 0.715, placing Jordan in the 94th rank out of 174 countries.

The HDI is supplemented by other important indicators in order to get a broader picture of human development. The Gender-related Development Index (GDI) comprises the HDI variables adjusted for disparity between men and women. Jordan's GDI's value for 1998 was 0.647, ranking it 90 out of 163 countries. The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) attempts to measure opportunities for women in terms of their earned income and their participation in the professional workforce and in parliament.

Jordan's GEM value in 1998 was 0.211 and its GEM ranking was 97 out of 102 countries, reflecting the predominant role for men in public and political life. The Human Poverty Index (HPI) attempts to capture deprivations in the basic HDI variables. Jordan's HPI value in 1999 was just 9.8%, which ranked Jordan 9th out of 92 developing countries.

Jordan has made significant advances in building people's capabilities, yet there is room for improvement in aspects  of gender-equity,  employment,  income, and quality and relevance of education.  These issues are among the concerns most frequently mentioned by young Jordanians.

Priorities and policy implications for applying the human development concept in Jordan include devising a  quality  of  life  index  for youth, designing a Gender- related Development Index that more accurately takes into account the substantial but often 'hidden'  role of women in society, and further researching the full causes   of   the  gaps   between  women's   capabilities and opportunities in society. Collecting gender- and age-segregated data at regional and sub-regional levels could help to achieve these goals.

Youth and Human Development

Most young Jordanians live in stable families and safe communities, have unprecedented access to basic health, education, shelter, and other human services, and enjoy life choices that are much wider than those of any previous generation of Jordanian citizens. Yet when youth are given a voice they tend to stress negative attitudes or trends, reflecting the issues of greatest concern to them.

Profound economic, political and social changes in a largely urban society offer young Jordanians tremendous new opportunities and challenges; they also compound the potential for stress and confusion that young Jordanians experience as they make the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Social or economic distress often reveal themselves first among the young, in signs such as high school dropout or repetition rates, child labor, crime, family violence, organized street commerce by children, drug and alcohol abuse, and other phenomena. Sociologists see these phenomena as signs that some young people need a means of escaping life's stresses and uncertainties.

Young Jordanian women enjoy virtual equality with men in terms of developing their educational and cultural capabilities, but after they graduate their economic and political participation rates are much lower. Fieldwork to gauge the well-being of youth in Jordan requires a credible methodology that accurately captures the condition of the young, while also allowing them to express themselves freely and honestly.

Priorities and policy implications for understanding and relieving stresses on the young: Through school-and home-based counseling and awareness of early warning signs, society must pay greater attention to the mental health and emotional needs of young people who are passing through difficult times that can generate feelings of alienation, uselessness, or hopelessness. More reliable information is needed on the different causes and forms of stress on the young, how they cope with stress, and to whom they turn for guidance or assistance. The quantity and quality of leisure opportunities for the young need to be expanded significantly.
 

Youth's concerns

Whenever young Jordanians discuss issues of importance to them, they consistently express a range of common concerns and hopes, regardless of their age, education level, location, religion, or ethnic or geographical background.  Typical are the following concerns that have been identified by young men and women who participated in youth forums and focus group research in recent years:

• A lack of sports facilities and leisure activity centers.
• A contradiction between youth's perceptions of their own roles and identities, and society's perceptions of the young's place in society, both within the family and in society as a whole.
• Lack of communication between young men and women, which negatively affects their understanding of each other.
• Unequal educational opportunities and discrimination, particularly in university admission.
• Economic pressures on youth, especially on young men; a high rate of expatriate labor that appears to reduce  youth's job opportunities; limited extracurricular programs that link education with employment; and, a serious lack of vocational training centers, combined with society's under-appreciation of vocational professions.
• Anxiety resulting from the secondary school (tawjihi) exam as the decisive factor that determines a student's future, and school curricula that are not relevant to market job demands or other aspects of Jordanian life.
• Shortage of social rehabilitation and counseling centers for young men and women.
• Restrictions on girls' involvement in decision-making related to all aspects of their lives.
• Limited political involvement of youth.
• Negative peer pressures on youth, reflected in phenomena such as smoking and drug use.

Women tend more often than men to describe a gap between their own self-image and that which society has of them, while men's self-image usually corresponds to that which society has of them. Many young people say they feel bored, empty, depressed, or constrained by social norms, with few outlets for their energy, lack of opportunities to express themselves, and no adults who understand their needs, listen to them, or talk with them about their concerns. Young people's limited political participation is due to lack of opportunities and to skepticism among youth about the efficacy of political action. About half the youth voted in previous parliamentary elections, mostly for their tribal candidates. Most Jordanians between 15 and 29 years of age rate the performance of government institutions as excellent or good.

Priorities and policy implications for increasing youth participation in public opinion formation, decision-making, and community activities, and for promoting social integration through diversity, democracy, and tolerance: Expanding young Jordanians' opportunities to express themselves and to contribute to setting public priorities can be achieved through schools, the mass media, government agencies, private companies, NGOs, a democratically elected youth parliament, and lowering the age of candidates for municipal and national office. New policies could promote community service, summer volunteer and work-study programs, and a national Jordanian Youth Service Corps. To strengthen their roots and sense of belonging by freely expressing their individual identities, young Jordanians need particular understanding and assistance in two areas: first, in finding their own balance among the often contradictory local and global cultural values to which they are exposed; and, second, in mastering the freedoms, responsibilities, and personal rights that come with democracy and pluralism.

The crucial role of education

The education and training system is the single most important factor in determining the future qualifications, attitudes, and capabilities of the Jordanian population, and thus the well-being of Jordanian society. Positive values and productive skills that students absorb in the education and training system can quickly translate into the increased economic productivity and competitiveness that Jordan requires to compete successfully in the global economy. Activating and actualizing youth's enormous potential require education reforms that generate graduates with creative, entrepreneurial, and problem-solving abilities, and with the precise technical and managerial skills required by the economy. Skills that can promote the information technology sector of the economy will be particularly important in the immediate future.

Education reforms should also translate the very high female education enrolment rates and capabilities into greater participation by women in the labor force and in public life in general.

The education and training sector generates graduates for fast changing domestic and regional markets, which makes education sector planning difficult. Graduates' skills often do not match those required in the domestic economy, while the traditional, rote-based learning system does not respond to the economy's need for graduates with capabilities in problem-solving and creativity. The education system remains largely non-market driven, due to parental pressure on students' fields of study, lack of student career counseling, few linkages between the marketplace and the education system, and a common reluctance among educated young Jordanians to take manual labor jobs.

Jordanian primary students fare well compared to their international colleagues in areas such as science knowledge and application, but rank lower in cognitive skills. Parents express high satisfaction levels with the basic education system in Jordan, yet quite a number of Jordanian young men and women are dissatisfied with the system's ability to equip them for their future careers and responsibilities. The major immediate challenge facing the school system is to raise quality and relevance of education in order to allow graduates to excel in the global economy. A long-term challenge will be to sustain and raise per capita spending at basic and secondary levels, in the face of a youth population that is increasing in both absolute and relative terms.

Priorities and policy implications for enhancing youth's skills, attitudes, and entrepreneurial capabilities: The education and training system needs to adopt new policies that empower young graduates in three related areas: factual information and knowledge, personal values and attitudes, and intellectual modes of thinking and analysis. This will require significant new policy changes in education and training, school-society linkages, and life-long education.

Youth, labor, and the economy

Securing satisfactory employment at a reasonable wage level may be the most common concern among young Jordanians in today's increasingly competitive job market. Public sector employment accounts for the largest share of the job market (37%), mainly due to its many attractive fringe benefits. The labor market is also characterized by the simultaneous import and export of labor.

The unemployment rate ranged between 10-15% in the period 1995-1999, while an independent Jordanian university survey using a different methodology put the unemployment rate at over 25%. The largest unemployment differentials are between men and women, and between all community college graduates and women graduates. Hidden unemployment (including part-time workers) may be a problem in parts of the country.

Unemployment disproportionately affects the young. Official surveys since 1996 show that 60% of all unemployed people are below the age of 25. The highest unemployment rate in 1997 -- 76% -- was among 15-29-year-olds. The highest rate -- 82% -- was among women of that age group. Women constitute 48% of the population, but their economic participation rate does not exceed 17% of the total labor force.

The causes of unemployment include: a) behavioral and attitudinal reasons that cause young graduates to shun some manual and service jobs that are deemed inappropriate or unappealing, b) recurring economic slowdowns since the mid-1980s, combined with an increase in labor supply following the return of several hundred thousand Jordanians from the Gulf after 1990, c) school graduates who lack the skills needed in some economic sectors, d) poor career guidance counseling for students, e) shortcomings in job training and continuing education, and, f) low-cost foreign labor in Jordan.

Priorities and policy implications for enhancing youth's economic productivity and contributions: New policies should promote greater economic self-reliance and initiative by youth, reduce their traditional dependence on government jobs, services, and subsidies, and provide young potential entrepreneurs with the assets, opportunities, and support they need to participate directly in the development of society. Greater linkages between the marketplace and the education-training system are urgently needed, in the form of counseling, work fairs, summer and part-time jobs, internships, and others. Research is needed to determine accurately whether some young people refuse to accept available jobs due to cultural factors or to more material factors such as pay and future prospects.

Youth and social integration

Youth express a strong desire to participate in responsible decision-making at various societal levels, and to end what many of them perceive to be their marginal role in society. To do so, they need greater opportunities to make their voices heard in society, and greater choices in their education, training, work, cultural, and leisure activities.

Knowledgeable professionals and officials in Jordan agree that the majority of young Jordanians, in both urban and rural areas, enjoy a warm family environment, satisfactory schooling, and relatively smooth entry into young adulthood, the labor market, starting their own families, and assuming adult rights and responsibilities. Yet, Jordan's young today live in a dynamic marketplace of values and identities in a fast changing society. The identity and sense of belonging of Jordanian youth are still firmly rooted in traditional social structures, while simultaneously the young are widely exposed to global, multicultural influences, even within their own homes. Educators and counselors have identified a high need for youth to receive guidance in processing often conflicting information and lifestyle models -- but such help is not widely available through formal or informal mechanisms.

Signs of social stress and alienation have started to appear among some young Jordanians. According to the common observations of educators, sociologists, and youth workers, some young people express identity confusion, a sense of insecurity, and concerns about the future. Jordanian sociologists now speak routinely of 'value disorientation' among the young. The young themselves express an interest in learning from and adapting the technological developments of the West, but they do not wish to fully adopt Western lifestyles.

The young's sense of belonging and support stem primarily from their identification with their family, tribe, religion, profession, and state. In most cases, though, these institutions, along with schools and workplaces, perpetuate patriarchal socialization of the young; this often delays young Jordanians' development of confidence, self-esteem, and a sense of autonomy. Many of them feel caught between a traditional, patriarchal, communal social value system that promotes conformity and obedience, and a modern, individualistic lifestyle that promotes personal initiative, creativity, and self-assertion. The young also feel that they have few channels for self-expression that could help them overcome this dilemma, or sources of assistance and guidance that could help them deal with it.

Priorities and policy implications for safeguarding the integrity of the family: Important work needs to be done by all sectors of society to understand the causes, symptoms, and consequences of the gradual loosening of family ties in Jordan, within both the nuclear and extended family. The challenge is to formulate policies that can maintain the traditional strengths of the family unit, while also offering the young the freedom they need to develop to their full potential as productive, wholesome citizens.