News

Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for Promoting Coordination and Partnership in Family Issues

03-07-2022

Amman, March 7th, (Petra)- On Monday, March 7nth, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the National Council for Family Affairs  (NCFA) signed an MoU to activate means of cooperation in several areas including protection, early childhood, the elderly, family counselling, and reviewing legislation and amendments thereto.

The MoU signed by her Highness Surra Bint Ghazi, Director of IRC office in Jordan, and the Secretary-General of the Council, Dr. Muhammad Miqdadi, discussed the cooperation in exchanging experiences and studies, dissemination of specialized knowledge of common interests, raising the efficiency of human resources, and participating in the development of training programs and holding seminars and conferences.

The MoU will result in preparing an annual action plan that defines the cooperation areas and activities to be carried out every year.

Her Highness Surra Bin Ghazi said, "We are pleased to work side by side with NCFA in order to strengthen our national systems, especially with regard to the protection of women, family counselling, and early childhood development, and we look forward to the results of our fruitful partnership”.

“During crises, women and girls report increased violence against them. This has been proven during the Covid-19 crisis. Through this partnership, we will ensure the protection of more women and a safer environment for children”, she added.

Miqdadi, in turn, noted the importance of the MoU and the partnership with IRC with respect to various issues in order to improve the services provided to the family and its members.

He mentioned that NCFA seeks to achieve a better quality of life for the Jordanian family through a national vision that supports development policies and enables the family to achieve its highest aspirations and preserve its entity, stability and protection.

Additionally, he stressed the importance of the government's passage of the Child Rights Bill, which will reflect positively on childhood issues through the enactment of a comprehensive law that broadly includes all themes that affect childhood, explaining that the provisions of the bill are currently under review by the Legislation and Opinion Bureau.

The MoU was signed in presence of Mohammad Zubi, the Assistant Secretary-General for Technical Affairs, Mohammad Daoud, the Assistant Secretary-General for Financial and Administrative Affairs, and a number of technicians and workers in various programs of both IRC and NCFA.

It should be noted that IRC began its partnership with NCFA  and the Ministry of Social Development last year by developing and launching a quality management system to enhance child care services organized by the Ministry of Social  Development, to improve nurseries, whether home or official, and help them achieve their goals, taking into account the development of children, improving staff skills, providing an appropriate learning environment, and strengthening monitoring and evaluation procedures.

Furthermore, NCFA and IRC held a national workshop to define the national strategic priorities to advance the early childhood system in Jordan for the years 2022-2024, resulting in a matrix of priorities. The said matrix has helped complement the implementation of the strategic objectives of early childhood education and development contained in the Human Resources Development Strategy 2016 - 2025, which was prepared in response to the message of His Majesty King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein in 2015 calling for the formation of a national committee on human resources development. (Petra