EU, MOPIC and Prime Ministry partner to support improved government performance

AMMAN — The European Union in Jordan, via its M&ETA Jo2025 project, is supporting the government in organising a series of trainings for officials in the areas of performance management, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and delivery, as a response to governmental efforts in improving its performance towards citizens, a Planning Ministry statement said. 

Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Mary Kawar said: “The expected outcomes of this training fall in line with the directives given by His Majesty King Abdullah to Prime Minister Omar Razzaz. The knowledge shared throughout these sessions will reinforce our efforts towards effectively measuring government performance, evaluating plans and developmental programmes, and assessing overall delivery.” 

Kawar noted that M&E and transparent reporting constitute the cornerstones of the much-needed government reform efforts, supporting effective decision-making and overall government performance. 

“Everything that the government is trying to achieve — economic growth, citizen welfare — is related to performance,” explained the M&ETA project’s team leader Amadeo Watkins.

“But there is a need to move from performance measurement and create conditions for effective performance management. In other words, monitoring is very important but alone it achieves nothing. We need to improve the planning, M&E system, as well as government communication," he continued, stressing "What is most important is the delivery mechanism as a whole-of-government approach. This is possibly the weakest link at the moment.”

The trainings will be delivered by the Paris-based think tank EuropaNova, in collaboration with international experts from HEC Business School (France), Cranfield Business School (UK) as well as support from practitioners from the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, the statement read.

EU Ambassador in Jordan Andrea Matteo Fontana emphasised the importance of the initiative, saying “the European Union is proud to support the efforts of the government of Jordan to bolster performance and establish a system-wide foundation for measuring and improving performance”.

“Effective performance management is essential to governmental organisations as it helps them align their employees, resources, and systems to meet their strategic objectives, and allows managers to know when to make adjustments to keep things on track. What it is really about is the management of the many complexities of delivering results, which if done well leads to effective execution," he continued.

Supported by the European Union for a period of three and a half year, the M&ETA Jo project aims to contribute to Jordan’s economic growth by supporting the government in two areas: an improved M&E system designed to assist improved delivery.