Jordan: Women Contribute 8% of GDP

AMMAN - Jordanian women’s contribution to GDP stood at 8 per cent last year when female employees constituted 37 per cent of the workforce in the public sector and 12 per cent in private enterprises, official figures show.

One in every four women in the working age was jobless in 2007, while the unemployment rate among men stood at half that ratio, according to Minister of Industry and Trade Amer Hadidi.

Speaking on Sunday at the opening of the “Trends in Global Business and Advocacy: Perspective from the United States and Jordan” forum, the official said the flow of investments into the Kingdom last year helped create more than 360,000 job opportunities, only 8,375 of which were taken by women.

But he noted a growing trend among women towards self-employment.

Citing official statistics, the minister said the number of women who received loans to establish small-sized projects doubled seven times from 1995 to 2006. The number of women recipients of microfinance loans constituted 48 per cent of total borrowers two years ago, he said.

He highlighted sustainable human development that is based on enhancing individuals’ skills and social solidarity as key factors in economic development. Education, he said, enhances women’s engagement in the community’s economic and social activities.

Within this context, he underlined the Kingdom’s achievement in fighting illiteracy among women, noting that Jordan ranks first at the Arab level in this regard with 81.8 per cent of its women being literate.

Jordanian women are also doing well in terms of higher education achievements.
According to Meisa Batayneh, president of Business and Professional Women’s Association (BPWA), 55 per cent of the university graduates were females over the past decade. One major obstacle to higher employment rates among women, she said, is that many of these female graduates have trained on skills not demanded in the labour market. Linking education to labour requirements is very essential, she told the two-day forum.

At the regional level, the situation of women entrepreneurs is encouraging, said Global Vice Chairperson of Ernst &Young Beth Brooke.

She cited a recent World Bank (WB) study which shows that “Female-owned firms in this region are just as well-established, sophisticated, productive and globally connected as their male-owned counterparts”.

“We came here today to discuss the goal of expanding the number of women in business and advancing the role of women in society through entrepreneurship,” she said.

Brooke, a leader in an organisation with 130,000 people in 140 countries, said the WB survey also indicates that non-business barriers, i.e., social issues related to culture, are making it difficult for Middle Eastern women entrepreneurs to fulfil their full potentials.

“This is not just happening in the Middle East. It happens everywhere around the world,” she added.

She pointed out that when women are given the opportunity, they prove they can succeed.
Natalie Brown, counsellor to the US ambassador to Jordan for Economic Affairs, agreed.

She said women “have the creativity, ingenuity and stamina to succeed in business if given the chance”.

An array of participants in the forum, representing local and foreign public and private institutions, exchanged ideas about trends in global business and advocacy.

Organisers said the event serves as a venue for networking and “building upon the almost 60 years of strong ties between the US and Jordan”.

“Seventy per cent of Jordanians benefiting from US assistance programmes are women. The US has invested $200 million in healthcare improvements that primarily target women of productive age,” said Brown.

She added that over 24,000 women, 80 per cent of whom reside outside of Amman, have been secured access to finance to start their own businesses, in addition to training thousands in practical skills valued by the knowledge-based economy.

The BPWA is a non-profit NGO established in 1976 by a number of professional and dedicated women in Jordan. The association is located in five major cities: Amman, Aqaba, Irbid, Madaba and Zarqa.

By Hani Hazaimeh, Jordan Times