AMMAN — The
Information and Research Center and the Gender and Adolescence Global Evidence
(GAGE) released a report Tuesday on youth economic security, skills, and
empowerment in Jordan.
اضافة اعلان
Entitled “learning
from positive outliers among youth affected by forced displacement”, the report
focused on male and female youth aged 15 to 24 years old from Syrian and
Palestinian refugee communities in Jordan, as well as vulnerable Jordanians in
host communities.
At an event held to
discuss the report, Information and Research Center General Manager Ayman Al-Halaseh highlighted the importance of the sample group
represented in the report.
“Most of the
studies neglected the economic rights in the youth category,” Halaseh told Jordan
News.
“This is why this
study is highly needed to recognize the problem and work together, as the host
community and the international community, along with the youth, to reach real
solutions with tangible results,” he added.
Nicola Jones, the
director of the UK-based Department for International Development (DFID) and a
co-director of the GAGE program, said the next step would be to take the
findings and discuss them “in more depth with each of the different ministries,
but at the same time continuing to follow up to ensure appropriate living
conditions for the adolescents.”
“We are doing a new
round of research to find out how the situation was managed after the
pandemic,” she added.
A 2015 census in
Jordan found that one-third of those living in the country are non-Jordanians,
with approximately half, or 1.3 million being Syrians, living in two refugee
camps, and informal tented settlements scattered across the Kingdom.
Additionally, there
are 2.4 million Palestinians in Jordan, with most holding Jordanian passports
and enjoying full citizenship rights, except for 20 percent of them who have
little legal rights.
The report captures
the aspirations and experiences of the youth in building independent and
sustainable livelihoods.
It also identifies
and analyzes the factors that promote or hinder youth participation in the
labor market, paying particular attention to gender norms and roles.
The research
involved multiple qualitative in-depth interviews with 68 male and female youth
living in host communities.
The young people
were purposefully selected from four main categories: youth receiving
university scholarships; youth attending technical and vocational educational
training (TVET) programs; youth who have started a small business; and youth
enrolled in economic empowerment programs.
GAGE baseline
survey findings from 2019 showed that adolescent refugees’ occupational
aspirations are high.
At least 73 percent
of girls and boys in the sample — across age groups, nationalities, and
locations — aspired to a professional career.
As for the findings
on their educational opportunities, the survey found that refugee adolescents’
access to education in Jordan remains far from universal. the enrollment rates
were higher for Palestinians than Syrians, and girls of both nationalities were
more likely to be enrolled than boys.
Young people and
their caregivers identified poverty as a key barrier to education. The survey
also found that learning outcomes for refugee adolescents are extremely low.
Fewer than half could read a short story written at the second-grade level.
The findings also
showed that adolescents’ access to decent and age-appropriate employment is
deeply gendered.
Of older
adolescents, nearly two-thirds of boys, but only a tenth of girls, had worked
for pay in the past year.
The qualitative
work highlighted that this gender gap is a result of social norms that position
boys as providers and girls in need of protection.
Only 5 percent of
adolescents reported having any savings, and only married girls mentioned
access to credit.
The report also referred to the factors that helped shape
the positive outliers youth made around economic empowerment choices including
the individual’s drive and commitment, strong family support, and in the case
of youth with academic scholarships, and those pursuing TVET courses.
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