This report examines social development in Jordan with respect to childhood education and literacy. The survey presented examines the status of children’s literature and encouraging reading in Jordan. The report assesses the promotion of children’s literature in Jordan through various axes;; including the quality and prevalence of libraries;; the effectiveness of policies;; and the existence of civil institutions active in the field of children’s literature. The report also identifies various trends with respect to children’s literature through concentrated discussion groups with families;; teachers;; children;; and writers of children’s literature.

The annual report summarizes and evaluates the humanitarian and developmental assistance of the UNICEF Jordan Country Office (JCO) in 2012. The report also includes evaluation of the ongoing projects such as providing humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees in camps and host communities;; establishing foster care programme for children deprived of parental care;; and supporting advocacy work on children’s rights to education and women empowerment. The analysis of the report is based on the progress and assessment of the JCO’s projects in partnership with other organizations in relevant fields. In the report;; the limited capacity and number of social workers and lack of technical support from the government in budgeting and social policy reforms are identified as major obstacles.

The 2011 annual report provides a comprehensive summary of the ongoing projects by the UNICEF Jordan Country Office (JCO). The programmes and projects include social protection initiatives for the National Aid Fund and Zakat Fund;; national perinatal and neonatal mortality study and development of nationwide computerized violence tracking system. . The analysis of the report is based on the progress and assessment of the JCO’s projects in partnership with other organizations in relevant fields including the Ministries of Interior;; Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and other UN agencies (UNDP;; UNFPA;; UNWOMEN;; UNHCR and WHO). The report specifies the organization’s methodology in collecting data and evidence and monitoring mechanisms to track and assess programme progress. In evaluating the development of ongoing projects;; the report summarizes future work plans and examines critical factors and constraints in each project.

The annual report provides an overview to the country situation in regards to children and women and summary of the humanitarian and developmental assistance of the UNICEF Jordan Country Office (JCO) in 2010. The report includes Jordan’s progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals in addition to the analysis of the organization’s projects. The projects focus on assisting Iraqi children in education and strengthening young child survival and development and adolescents’ participation and empowerment. The analysis of the report is based on the progress and assessment of the JCO’s projects in partnership with other UN agencies;; local agencies and government ministries. Some highlights of the 2010 annual report include the Ma’An campaign to end violence in school;; the UNICEF’s partnership with the government in supporting Iraqi children in gaining access to public education and a joint programme to develop a tracking system to monitor family violence and abuse cases with other UN agencies and Jordan’s National Council for Family Affairs.

The report presents the findings of the government institutions efforts survey;; which is designed for the purpose of reviewing the government agencies’ current and past communication activities in water;; energy and environment. The specific objective of this survey is to review the Donor Position Paper on Outreach targeted sample of 36 staff from 22 government institutions from Aqaba and Karak. As part of the Public Action for Water;; Energy and Environment Project (PAP);; a public education and behavior change communication program developed to support USAID’s technical and policy investments in the Jordanian water and energy sectors;; this report finds that many government institutions have more than one role;; overseeing solid waste management;; industrial water and reuse and environmental laws. The report also finds that the communications programs are scattered and credibility and trust between service agencies and their clients is a concern. The interview analysis suggests that the Public Action Project needs to focus on two or three specific areas;; and the report recommends all capacity building activities to be focused on one goal of developing;; implementing and measuring national communication strategies and action plans.

This national report is designed to trace the progress of women in various fields;; monitoring achievements;; and highlighting gaps and failures;; as well as analyzing indicators;; recommending measures;; and measuring levels of achievements in the implementation of plans and strategies. The main themes were selected according to national priorities dictated by each stage: Legal Protection for Women's Right to Access Justice;; Participation;; the Economic Empowerment of Jordanian Women;; Equality;; Citizenship and Decision-Making in Public Life. The conclusions of this report confirm that a much smaller effort was exerted at the level of providing information;; data and the provision of services in the area of providing justice and facilitating ways of achieving it. The lack of knowledge about available services among women;; whether provided by civil society organizations or government institutions;; affects women's ability to access justice negatively. Regarding the economic participation the Policies and plans that targeted empowering women economically show that the result of these policies was weak and limited. Difficulty of women’s access to job opportunities in the private sector and inequitable pay between the sexes;; lack of supporting services to working women;; including childcare Facilities;; poor matching between education outputs and skills required in the labor market and the traditional social standards that contribute to directing females towards certain professions. The report proposed general recommendations and directions that include quick solutions to deal with the main highlighted challenges.

This report provides an overview of the status of early childhood care and education (ECCE) in Jordan;; Lebanon;; Sudan;; and Syria. It examines the contextual factors influencing ECCE;; highlighting current policies;; challenges;; and strategies for improvement and expansion. The report underscores the paucity and limitations of available data. Findings show that ECCE services have improved but regional disparity and dominance of the private sector prevail. None of the four countries but Jordan has a full-fledged national strategy and policy on ECCE. Challenges identified include lack of qualified teachers;; societal misconceptions about the unique features of early childhood;; and lack of research-based studies. Innovative projects show that NGOs have been instrumental in addressing the needs of marginalized children.

The second phase of the Program Education Reform for the Knowledge Economy Program (ERfKE II) continues to build on the achievements of the first phase and follow the same implementation arrangements that have proven to be successful in (ERfKE I);; and in the same time;; focuses on schools as the locus of change as well as on the need to enhance capacity building at the central and field levels. The development objective of (ERfKE II) is to provide students enrolled in pre-tertiary education institutions in Jordan with increased levels of skills to participate in knowledge economy. Also the Mid-Term review highlighted the concrete progress achieved by (ERfKE II) in several key areas related to policy development;; quality of education interventions and school construction;; and identified the key issues as a summary of the overall progress that will be tackled and addressed during the remaining stage of implementation.