A Royal Decree was issued to form the Council on October 23, 2007, while it was officially established on July 7, 2009, to serve as an advisory body providing the Jordanian government with counsel on economic and social issues and policies.
The Council's experience was not built in isolation from the cumulative efforts of its successive leaderships, cadres, and employees. The founding stage, along with subsequent administrations and general secretariats, contributed to solidifying its experience, developing its working tools, and expanding its presence in national discussions related to the economy and society.
Throughout this journey, the Council has passed through various phases, each leaving an impact on its experience, accumulating expertise, studies, working papers, and research and dialogue experiences, making it a present party in many discussions related to the economic and social challenges facing Jordan.
Dialogue.. The Core of the Idea
When speaking about the Economic and Social Council, the talk is not limited to an institution that provides studies and recommendations, but relates to an idea whose core is based on dialogue and plurality of viewpoints before issues reach the decision-maker.
The Council represents a space where expertise and competencies from various sectors meet—including the government, employers, workers, experts, and civil society institutions—to discuss economic and social issues from multiple angles, listen to different opinions regarding them, and arrive at visions and recommendations based on knowledge, expertise, and dialogue.
The establishment of the Council came within the framework of His Majesty King Abdullah II's vision, which emphasized the importance of participation and listening to various opinions and perspectives when dealing with national issues, stemming from the conviction that the formulation of public policies cannot be based on a single-sided vision, but rather requires engaging various sectors, experts, and stakeholders in discussing challenges and opportunities.
Hence, the dialogue led by the Council has acquired special importance as a means to reach more balanced decisions and policies connected to the needs of society, and in line with the path of development and economic and social reform in the Kingdom.
Knowledge in the Service of Policies
Over the course of its years of work, the Council has been able to build a cumulative record of studies, working papers, and research related to economic and social policies, benefiting from the dialogue circles and meetings it has organized to discuss various national files, and from the participation of experts and specialists from multiple fields.
The importance of this role lies in transforming dialogue from a mere exchange of opinions into a process for producing knowledge and employing it to understand challenges and propose applicable alternatives and policies.
The added value of the Council is not only linked to the recommendations it issues, but also to the space it provides to gather experts and specialists around national issues, and to afford the opportunity for a plurality of opinions and viewpoints, thereby enhancing the quality of public debate on economic and social policies.
Broader Partnerships and New Priorities
The Council continues its journey relying on the accumulation of academic and research expertise and the experiences built by its successive leaderships and administrations, at a time when the recent period has witnessed remarkable activity in expanding partnerships and cooperation with national and international institutions.
This has included concluding memoranda of understanding and partnerships aimed at exchanging expertise, developing studies, enhancing dialogue on public policies, and supporting sustainable development goals in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme.
The Council has also worked on expanding the circle of cooperation with government entities and the private sector, which enhances integration between research knowledge and practical, administrative, and legislative expertise in formulating public policies, and contributes to following up on the outcomes of dialogue and recommendations, turning as many of them as possible into practical steps on the ground.
These efforts come at a time when Jordan is facing a set of vital economic and social files, foremost among them unemployment, education development, investment attraction, enhancing social protection, and accelerating digital transformation. These are files that require continuous dialogue between various parties and reliance on knowledge, data, and expertise in formulating appropriate policies and responses.
17 Years.. And the Future is the Compass
Seventeen years after its establishment, the experience of the Economic and Social Council appears as the culmination of a cumulative path of dialogue, research, and exchange of expertise, to which successive councils, administrations, general secretariats, and cadres have contributed, accumulating through it institutional experience in dealing with the economic and social issues most closely related to the lives of Jordanians.
The importance of the Council remains in its ability to continue performing its role as a national platform that brings various parties together around one table, bridges viewpoints, and conveys the voice of experts and stakeholders to the policy-making circle.
In light of rapid economic and social transformations, the challenge facing the Council is not only to preserve what has been achieved over past years, but to build upon it, develop the tools of dialogue and research, and anticipate upcoming issues, making it more capable of contributing to the formulation of policies that respond to the requirements of the present and anticipate the needs of the future.
The journey that began seventeen years ago was not merely a temporal journey for a national institution, but a cumulative experience in dialogue, knowledge production, and the pursuit of narrowing the distance between opinion and policy, so that the compass always remains directed toward a future more capable of facing challenges and achieving sustainable development.
