Deputizing for His Majesty the King, the Prime Minister Inaugurates the Launch of the National Social Protection Strategy (2025–2033)

Deputizing for His Majesty King Abdullah II, Prime Minister Dr. Jafar Hassan inaugurated the launch of the National Social Protection Strategy (2025–2033) on Saturday at the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention Centre at the Dead Sea. The event was attended by Senate President Faisal Al-Fayez, Speaker of the House of Representatives Ahmed Al Safadi, a number of ministers and officials, heads of diplomatic missions in Jordan, and representatives of relevant organizations.

The government pledged, in the ministerial statement presented by Prime Minister Dr. Jafar Hassan to the House of Representatives, to launch the updated National Social Protection Strategy in the second quarter of this year. The aim is to expand the scope of the strategy in line with best practices and standards, enhance economic empowerment programs, and increase the efficiency of social assistance.

The National Social Protection Strategy is built around four main pillars: Karama (Dignity), Tamkeen (Empowerment), which focuses on social services, Fursa (Opportunity), which focuses on social security and the labor market, Sumood (Resilience), which aims to build an adaptive social protection system capable of responding swiftly and effectively to shocks and crises.

Minister of Social Development and Chair of the High Steering Committee for the National Social Protection Strategy, Wafa Bani Mustafa, presented the four pillars of the 2025–2033 National Social Protection Strategy— Dignity, Empowerment, Opportunity, and Resilience. She also outlined the stages of its modernization, starting with the institutional framework for updating the strategy, followed by the launch of national consultations on the draft strategy with representatives of the voluntary sector, civil society organizations, members of the councils of governors and municipalities in all governorates. The consultations also included committees from the House of Representatives and the Senate, the academic sector, the media sector, and representatives from the private sector and political parties.

Bani Mustafa also addressed the overarching goals of the updated National Social Protection Strategy and its vision of building a Jordanian society that lives with dignity, is empowered, prosperous, and more resilient. The strategy aims to enhance the inclusiveness and sustainability of the social protection system, strengthen its capacity to deliver integrated and coordinated social services, and expand opportunities for economic participation.

Additionally, it seeks to improve the efficiency of spending on social protection programs, achieve better complementarity and integration among various programs through digital connectivity, strengthen the role of civil society and the private sector in the social protection sector, raise public awareness, enhance communication and outreach mechanisms, and increase the system’s ability to respond to shocks.

Bani Mustafa also highlighted the key directions and expected outcomes under the Karama (Dignity) pillar, which include enhancing targeting mechanisms and increasing economic empowerment pathways. This involves integrated social assistance programs, improved targeting approaches, expanding empowerment opportunities for assistance recipients, and institutionalizing and scaling up the national school feeding programme. for aid recipients, in addition to institutionalizing and expanding the national school feeding program.

Regarding future directions under the Tamkeen (Empowerment) pillar, she noted that regulatory instructions have been approved to professionalize social work, and a digital platform for social workers will be established. In the area of social responsibility, the Social Protection and Care Fund will be activated, and a regulatory framework for social responsibility will be established. Additionally, a digital registry of social care beneficiaries will be established, along with a classification mechanism for civil society organizations. Inclusive educational and training services will also be expanded.

In the framework of comprehensive primary health coverage, she added that a unified social health insurance programme will be introduced, based on the national social registry for targeting. Primary healthcare services will include an increase in the number of health centers offering family medicine, along with a monitoring and evaluation system to ensure quality of services.

She also reviewed the main directions and expected results under the Fursa (Opportunity) pillar, focusing on establishing a sustainable social security system that provides comprehensive protection to all workers. Efforts will include extending coverage to workers engaged in flexible, part-time, and alternative forms of employment, and ensuring decent working conditions across all sectors.

As for the Sumood (Resilience) pillar, she pointed out that effective national coordination mechanisms will be put in place to institutionalize preparedness and response within the social protection sector. This includes establishing an emergency financing mechanism within the Social Protection and Care Fund, developing infrastructure for rapid crisis response, and creating a social early warning system connected to the National Center for Security and Crisis Management and other institutions. The goal is to ensure the availability of flexible, shock-responsive social protection programs and services.

The event also featured a video presentation introducing the strategy update process and its main foundations, as well as a creative performance on social protection by children from Al Hussein Society – Jordan Center for Training and Inclusion. 

The Minister thanked European Union and UNICEF for their support of the development of the updated strategy.