Jordan’s Minister of Social Development, Wafaa Bani Mustafa, said Tuesday that social protection services are at the “forefront of Jordan’s priorities due to their impact on citizens.” During the closing ceremony of the EU Support to Social Protection in Jordan Programme, Bani Mustafa talked about the project’s achievements that focused on supporting the Ministry to leverage technology in providing its services and rehabilitating residential centres for persons with disabilities. Ambassador of the EU to Jordan Maria Hadjithodosiou said the work carried out as part of the programme “laid a solid foundation for strengthening the social protection sector in Jordan for the coming years.” Hadjithodosiou said the social protection programme “is one of the most important programmes of the EU,” adding that it focused on supporting and empowering persons with disabilities, women, youth, and children. She added that the programme was keen to strengthen the capabilities of social workers, civil society organisations and Ministry of Social Development officials. Founded in 2013, the EU-funded social protection programme was implemented by Northern Ireland Co-operation Overseas (NI-CO), Expertise France (EF) and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in partnership with the Ministry of Social Development. With a fund of pound 23.6 million, the programme was aimed to support social reform by improving the quality and performance of social protection. The programme supported policies on moving from institutional care for persons with disabilities to community-based, inclusive care. It supported the Professionalisation of Social Work by developing a career path for social workers and legislation, training and introducing a Common Core Curriculum (CCC) for university social work programmes.
Source: Jordan News Agency