Reverse Linkage

127 DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION Showcasing Jordan’s knowledge economy Beyond Triangular Cooperation, Jordan has embraced direct South-South Cooperation (SSC) as a means of contributing to the sustainable development and capacity building efforts of its regional and even its global counterparts. For the past two decades, Jordan has successfully positioned itself as the region’s hub for knowledge, IT, education and higher education, research and innovation, and health. It show- cased this success by exporting development know-how and talented, skilled human resources to other countries in the MENA region and to Gulf Cooperation Council countries by concluding Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) and running executive programmes. Jordan and the Federal Republic of Somalia have signed an MOU encouraging open dialogue and exchange between universities and research centres. Beyond traditional capac- ity building, the MOU aims to prepare the ground for seconding experts from Jordan to assist with laying long- term sustainable development plans in Somalia, establishing a planning and statistical capacity building institute, and providing intensive, short-term courses. Jordan and Egypt concluded an MOU to establish technical cooperation in strategic planning and local development. Sharing stability – South-South Cooperation in the form of post-conflict reconstruction In a region of turmoil, conflict, and change, Jordan has displayed a formidable ability to remain peaceful and resil- ient. The country has never been able to afford to ignore the woes of its neighbours and so, almost inevitably, has invested in their peace, stability, and resilience as part of maintaining its own. Jordan’s constant quest for reform, growth, and a competitive public sector has provided ample space and impetus for it to be a key partner in post-conflict reconstruction and stability-building, perhaps the most promising and valuable form of SSC. Over the course of the past 15 years, Jordan has shared its public sector reform with Iraq through providing continuous and unconditional training support to Iraqi civil servants in key sectors and areas in preparation for embracing good governance in a remodelled state. Given the current political scene in the MENA and wider regions, Jordan is more than ready and willing to continue to expand these forms of cooperation, and actively supports the rebuilding and reconstruction efforts in post-conflict Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Reversing the stall – the Sustainable Development Goals and South-South Cooperation Jordan’s steadfast commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda is creat- ing space for enhanced cooperation with its partners from the Global South. Despite numerous challenges, Jordan embarked on implementing the 2030 Agenda and achieving the SDGs in hope of safeguarding the development strides and previous successes with the Millennial Development Goals. Accordingly, the Government of Jordan presented its first Voluntary National Review (VNR) on SDG progress at the High Level Political Forum in July 2017. Jordan has ranked fifth in the Arab world in terms of achieving the SDGs, obtaining the best performance results on the SDG 1 – poverty elimination – where no citizen earns less than $1.9 per day. That said, the VNR highlighted challenges and stalled progress in achieving the SDGs. The overall implementation of the SDGs is a fifteen year process, and the first VNR marks the infancy phase of implementation. And now, Jordan is ready to integrate SSC into its strategy for implementing the SDGs. The country not only serves as a global model for SDG progress, given its lower-middle income, resource scarce, and refugee- impacted economy, but also as a working model for sharing expertise with other developing countries. The world can count on Jordan as an indispensable and growing development partner. Jordan remains keen to further cooperate with partners to explore new and promising terrains of SSC exchange experience, reforms and knowledge, to deliver on the promises of the future as well as contributing to building, stabilisation and reconstruction efforts. Visiting delegation to KACE from the Egyptian Central Agency for Organization and Administration Training session at KACE