Global shifts in spending policies and international cooperation are creating new challenges for Jordan, while also offering an opportunity to redirect development partnerships toward economic priorities more closely linked to production, investment and employment. This comes as official development assistance worldwide fell by 23.1% in real terms in 2025.
The situation puts the ability to attract and effectively deploy financing at the heart of efforts to advance Jordan’s economic modernization agenda. This requires diversifying financing tools, developing projects capable of attracting partners and investment, and generating sustainable development impacts without undermining fiscal sustainability.
Economic experts said changes in donor priorities call for new mechanisms for development cooperation rather than continued reliance on traditional grants. They recommended expanding the use of concessional financing, guarantees, co-investment and public-private partnerships, while taking into account the nature of each project and its ability to generate economic and development returns.
They said access to financing depends on the readiness of national projects and the clarity of their feasibility. This requires preparing a portfolio of priority projects backed by feasibility studies, risk assessments and measurable performance indicators, aligned with the Economic Modernisation Vision and the priorities of international partners, particularly in water, clean energy, industry, digital transformation and employment.
Experts stressed the importance of directing resources toward projects that boost productivity and exports, reduce production costs and create sustainable jobs. At the same time, they emphasized the need to preserve grants allocated to essential services and social protection, and not to use loans as substitutes for grants without assessing their impact on public debt and repayment capacity.
Jordan’s international relations and credibility with its partners represent an important foundation for expanding cooperation, they said. Turning this advantage into tangible results, however, requires more effective institutional coordination, streamlined procedures and reliable data to monitor project implementation and assess its impact.
Meanwhile, global official development assistance is heading for a third consecutive annual decline. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development expects ODA to fall by 6.9% in 2026 to around $152 billion at constant 2024 prices, its lowest level since 2014, following a 23.3% contraction in 2025.
The decline comes amid changes in spending priorities among donor countries, with funding for health and humanitarian sectors and least-developed countries expected to decrease.
At the national level, Jordan has not published comprehensive official statistical updates on foreign assistance since data released by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation covering January through the end of July 2024. Those figures showed that committed and signed grants and concessional loans amounted to approximately JD1.465 billion.
At the end of October 2025, the government’s “A Year of Work” report revealed that total foreign assistance in the form of committed and signed grants and concessional loans between September 2024 and the end of September 2025 amounted to around $5 billion. No new official statistical data has subsequently been published detailing developments in total foreign assistance.
An earlier analysis by Al-Ghad showed that total grants and assistance received by Jordan between 2013 and 2023 exceeded $35 billion.
Al-Rabadi: Blended Finance Can Unlock New Investment
Former Planning Minister Wesam Al-Rabadi said geopolitical shifts around the world are affecting available resources and allocation priorities, which in turn influences aid provided to recipient countries. He said these changes require Jordan to develop its development cooperation mechanisms and make more effective use of available financing.
Al-Rabadi stressed the importance of moving toward more diversified financing models that can leverage available resources to attract private-sector investment and contribute to financing development projects. He highlighted the importance of blended finance, which combines grants, concessional financing and investment to reduce risks for investors and encourage their participation in projects.
He said this approach could be used for projects requiring substantial financing, such as wastewater infrastructure, by designing financing mechanisms that appropriately distribute risks and provide stronger incentives for private-sector participation. This would diversify financing sources and reduce reliance on traditional grants alone.
Regarding Jordan’s ability to maintain aid flows amid international changes, Al-Rabadi highlighted the importance of Jordanian diplomacy and the Kingdom’s relations with international partners. He also pointed to the role of King Abdullah II in strengthening Jordan’s international standing and its credibility with partners.
A decline in global aid does not necessarily mean that assistance to Jordan will be cut off, Al-Rabadi said, given the continued international relationships and partnerships. He stressed the need to make more efficient use of available financing, strengthen its ability to achieve desired economic and social objectives, and simultaneously work to attract new investment.
Al-Rabadi also highlighted the upcoming European investment conference as an opportunity to strengthen investment prospects and economic partnerships. He stressed the need to treat grants, concessional financing and investment as complementary tools within an integrated development financing system, enabling Jordan to broaden its resource base and strengthen its ability to finance economic and development priorities.
Badran: A Ready Project Portfolio Can Boost Financing Prospects
Reem Badran, a member of Jordan’s Economic and Social Council, said Jordan has opportunities to strengthen its development partnerships and improve its approach to changes in international development assistance by building on national economic priorities and expanding cooperation with international partners.
She said aligning national priorities with the interests of international partners provides an important foundation for expanding financing opportunities, particularly in industry, exports, clean energy, water, the digital economy and employment. These sectors overlap with several targets of the Economic Modernisation Vision and the World Bank’s partnership framework in Jordan.
Maximizing the benefits of this alignment requires developing projects that are ready for implementation and supported by clear feasibility studies, well-assessed risks and measurable performance indicators. Financing models should also be tailored to the nature and needs of each sector, allowing resources to be directed more efficiently while maintaining support for public services that cannot be based solely on commercial profitability.
Regarding financing options, Badran stressed the importance of combining grants, concessional financing, guarantees, co-investment and public-private partnerships. This would allow each instrument to be used according to its strengths in supporting development projects and attracting additional investment.
Grants, she said, can help finance studies, public benefits and capacity building, while guarantees and blended financing can encourage private-sector participation in eligible projects by reducing associated risks.
She emphasized that financing diversification should take into account the nature of projects and their ability to generate economic and development returns, while maintaining a balance between development needs and fiscal sustainability. Loans should not replace grants without assessing repayment capacity. Development impact, added value and the overall cost of risk should be among the main criteria when selecting financing instruments.
Badran also highlighted the importance of preparing a national portfolio of priority projects containing feasibility studies, financing requirements, risks and expected returns. Projects should be classified according to their suitability for commercial investment or their need for concessional or blended financing, helping determine the most appropriate financing instrument for each project.
She added that prioritizing projects that increase productivity and exports, create sustainable jobs and expand private-sector participation would link financing more closely to national economic priorities and help address structural imbalances in the economy.
She also stressed the importance of adopting clear performance indicators and transparently monitoring implementation to ensure financing is directed toward tangible outcomes that improve people’s lives and strengthen the economy’s ability to grow.
Badran concluded that changes in international development assistance require new approaches to building development partnerships, while providing Jordan with an opportunity to diversify its financing instruments, expand cooperation and investment opportunities, and link available resources to projects more closely connected to production, employment and economic growth.
Awad: Diversifying Partners and Financing Can Cushion the Decline
Ahmad Awad, director of Jordan’s Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies, said changes in donor spending priorities require Jordan to develop its approach to development cooperation while taking into account financial pressures, rising defense spending and the growing link between financing and donors’ geopolitical and economic interests.
He said the 23.1% real-terms decline in official development assistance in 2025, according to preliminary OECD data, reflects a shift in the international financing environment. This requires realistic plans that account for the possibility of continued declines rather than assuming aid will remain at previous levels.
Warnings over shrinking resources available to address economic and development challenges further underscore the need to prepare for these changes and diversify financing options, he added.
Awad said that despite Jordan’s important regional position and broad network of international partnerships, the Kingdom needs to strengthen its ability to manage development cooperation under multiple scenarios, diversify its partners and seek multi-year financing agreements.
He stressed the need to distinguish between financial pledges and funds actually disbursed, as well as between grants, loans and investments, to ensure clear commitments and accurate estimates of available resources.
International changes also create opportunities to expand partnerships in areas where economic modernization priorities overlap with the interests of international partners, particularly water security, clean energy, digital transformation, skills development and employment.
Turning these opportunities into economic results requires developing mature projects supported by reliable feasibility studies, responsive to Jordan’s economic needs, and capable of increasing productivity, boosting exports and strengthening local added value, Awad said.
He emphasized the importance of diversifying financing tools through concessional financing, co-investment, guarantees and climate finance, while selecting the most appropriate instrument for each project and assessing its costs, risks and future obligations.
Reducing reliance on grants, he stressed, should be linked to strengthening the national economy’s ability to produce and generate resources, rather than simply replacing grants with loans or guarantees that could impose additional burdens on the Treasury and citizens.
Grants remain an important tool for financing essential services and social protection, as well as helping share the costs associated with hosting refugees. Preserving this type of support should therefore remain a priority in development dialogue with international partners.
Awad called for financing to be directed toward projects that reduce production, transportation, water and energy costs, strengthen links between local businesses and supply chains, and create economic opportunities in the governorates. This would broaden the economic base and ensure that different regions benefit more from development.
Achieving these objectives requires better coordination among institutions, streamlined procedures, reliable data for partners, and stronger transparency and public oversight of financing choices and spending, he said.
Awad stressed that the success of development partnerships should ultimately be measured by their actual impact on the economy and society, particularly the creation of stable jobs with decent wages, expansion of social protection, transfer of knowledge and technology, and improvement of public services.
Linking financing agreements to publicly disclosed performance indicators and subjecting them to independent evaluation would improve resource efficiency, increase Jordan’s productive capacity and reduce its future dependence on aid, he concluded.
Source: Al-Ghad
