With support from The Hague Academy, the Ministry of Interior (Jordan), UNDP and the University of Jordan, will collaborate to develop a Master’s Degree on Local Administration and Development.
The Minister of Interior Salamah Hammad, UNDP Programme Manager Majeda Al-Assaf and President of the University of Jordan, Prof. Abdel-Karim Al-Qudah, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the 4th of July for the development of a curriculum aimed at strengthening the capacity of civil servants and CSOs in local administration and local development. In support of the ongoing decentralisation process in Jordan, the new programme will provide a unique combination of state-of-the-art international insights and thorough knowledge of the historical, cultural and institutional context in Jordan.
The programme is an initiative of the Decentralisation and Local Development Support Programme (DLDSP), funded by the EU and implemented by the UNDP in partnership with the Government of Jordan. In collaboration with the University of Groningen, the University of Jordan, and the ARCO Research Centre of the University of Florence, The Hague Academy will develop the curriculum and syllabus of the programme, and will conduct teacher trainings.
With 30 scholarships available for the 1st class of the programme, applications are now open for candidates from CSOs and from the Ministries of Interior, Municipal Affairs, Political and Parliamentary Affairs and Planning and International Cooperation. Students of the new curriculum will be able to apply the tested international insights and methods in decentralisation and local development processes to their context specific circumstances. The individual and group assignments that are part of the programme include actual cases from the ongoing implementation of decentralisation in Jordan.
Through the programme, the DLDSP seeks to empower the entities responsible for the decentralisation process, ensuring that key ministries develop the organisational and human capacities needed to direct and coordinate the reform.
Left to right; Tala Khais (Liaison officer for The Hague Academy), Toon Kerkhoff (Leiden University), Asma Fashno (UNDP), Lennard Nijenhuis (The Hague Academy), Mario Biggeri (University of Florence).