Poverty

Inequality and disparities are two main concerns related to poverty in Jordan. Inequality is reflected in the income share of the poorest quintile which increased marginally from 6.5% to 6.9%. (If all things are equal, this figure should be 20%).

On the other hand, the regional (governorate) perspective of poverty, in Jordan, is evident.  Geographically, the progress in poverty reduction has always been uneven on the governorate, sub- governorate, and rural-urban levels.  Findings from the Annual Survey of the Household Income and Expenditure 2002-2003 revealed that:

• In the three governorates of Balqa’, Karak, and Aqaba there is no strong evidence that suggests that poverty either increased or decreased..
• In the remaining governorates, with the exception of Zarqa, poverty declined, significantly in Ma’an and Mafraq to 24% and 10.6%, respectively, compared to more than 30% in 1997.
• In Zarqa, poverty significantly increased from 16 % to 22 %.
• On the district level, 13 out of 73 sub-districts suffer from severe poverty, where more than 34 % of the population is poor. Most of those are located in remote desert areas, where the chronic poverty, low literacy rate (20 %), and nomadic nature of the poor pose serious challenges for development.
• Almost 19 % of the rural population is poor compared to 13 % in urban areas.
• Rural areas witnessed a slower rate of poverty reduction than urban areas, resulting in a widening rural-urban gap over the period from 1997 to  2002.

Reducing poverty in poorer regions requires national policies that relocate resources to such areas.  The top policy priority, here, is increasing equity and not just economic growth.

What is the status of Jordan in relation to human development worldwide?

According to the Human Development Index (HDI) classification, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) ranked Jordan in the middle in terms of human development.  Its overall human development ranking is 90 (among 177 countries) and the HDI value is 0.743.

What is the Human Development Index (HDI)?

The UNDP's Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite indicator of welfare that combines a weighted sum of three indices related to life expectancy at birth, educational attainment, and per capita income

 Jordan witnessed a steady improvement in human development over the last two decades.  Jordan's life expectancy has improved from 67 years in 1990 to 70.6 in 2003.  Over the same period, adult literacy rate has increased from 75% to 90.3% and real GDP per-capita (US$ PPP) has increased from 3161 to 3870. Compared with other Arab countries, Jordan's human development efforts are of favorable status.  Lebanon is the only non-oil producing Arab country that ranks higher than Jordan on the human development scale.  In terms of life expectancy, Jordan is just behind Lebanon and Tunisia in relation to the rest of the Arab world.

Thus, in the two non-income dimensions of human development- health and education – Jordan is leading the way.

As expected, there are still disparities in the Human Development  Index (HDI)  among governorates which range from a high 0.767 for Amman to a low 0.697 for Ma'an, while the average for the country is 0.750 (JHDR 2004). 

The persistent disparity of the poor and non-poor in non-income dimensions of poverty, such as education and health, will hamper efforts by the poor to improve their earning potential, especially for the next generation.