| Tackling urban poverty
More
than 80% of the people of Jordan
live in communities that are considered to be 'urban'. Of these, the majority live in
the towns and cities of the three most populous governorates: Amman, Zarqa and Irbid.
Increasingly, poverty
and vulnerability is an urban phenomenon. Drawing on data from the 2003 Household Survey, it is estimated that over half a million people living in urban areas, survive on less than JD2 a day. Most live in densely populated communities, and suffer from multiple
exclusions in terms of access to health, education, employment, social welfare
and a clean and healthy environment. These are the communities where significant investment is required to ensure that they have equal access to their entitlements and that institutions are strengthened so that the poor feel that they have a genuine voice, responsive institutions and a stake in their own future.
JOHUD
recognises also that the process of rapid urbanisation is a result of migration
patterns, and that many of the poor living in urban areas have a 'rural mindset'
- their culture, and their core knowledge and skills may be more relevant to a
rural livelihood. JOHUD, with its wealth
of experience in remote rural areas, aims to help them find new livelihood strategies
that are better adapted to a urban context.
People who have grown up in rural communities often find it difficult to participate in the institutions of urban life. They may have little experience for example, of accessing entitlements, dealing with bureaucracy, finding out about services, negotiating with powerful urban elites. As a result, they often feel alienated and excluded from participation in local level decision-making that affects their lives. Through its long history of community based planning, JOHUD helps ensure that their opinions are heard and that service providers respond fairly to their demands.
Urban
CDCs
Fifteen of the JOHUD CDCs are located in urban communities such as Sahab. They provide a focal
point for local people to gain access to training, information, skills and
project opportunities. Most urban-based CDCs have Knowledge Stations, Employability Centres, and Job Clubs. The CDCs organise regular meetings with employers, the local Chamber
of Commerce, and local business associations so that they CDC can direct job
seekers to employment.
Through these meetings JOHUD is also able to design and
deliver appropriate training programmes to meet local needs, for example
teaching women the skills of stitching when they know that a garment
factory is die to open, or food hygiene when a food processing operation is planned.
Much
of the work of the urban CDCs lies in providing poor and vulnerable people with
information about the range of services available from a range of service
providers - government, NGOs and the private sector. Many CDCs act as a
'one-stop shop' - helping people identify a range of strategies to improve their
situation. Central to this approach has been the highly successful Makana
programme (click here).
The
urban CDCs also serve as a hub for the 'satellite' CDCS in more remote rural
areas. In this way, they also act as a bridge between communities and try to
make the process of migration less disruptive.
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