Intern Alumna Ms. Asma Ibrahim Abu Hussein

Why Shabakat Al Ordon is a Unique Opportunity

Shabakat Al Ordon is committed to empowering citizens to meet the demands of emerging economic opportunities in order to improve the overall conditions of their lives. With the ongoing support of a strong network of stakeholders, Shabakat Al Ordon’s results in the field have demonstrated great potential for the program.  Since 2006, Shabakat Al Ordon has empowered 9,229 Beneficiaries by incubating 2,535 life transforming projects through enabling 496 young people, (including 260 young women) to work in 180 locations across local communities.

In 2002, the original NetCorps Jordan (NCJ) program was created as a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MOICT), the Queen Zein Al-Sharaf Institute for Development (ZENID), and DOT.  This DOT pioneering community development program centers its strategies on local youth, who are enabled with technical, professional and facilitation skills in order to empower others, build communities of practice, and incubate initiatives that respond to their community needs through the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) in their day-to-day lives.  The outcomes of this approach help to create sustainable impact contributing to the economic development of the country and to the broader effort of poverty alleviation in Jordan. 

Formally launched in July 2003 by HM King Abdullah II, the program was incubated within ZENID with the assistance of an extensive network of program partners, including NITC’s Knowledge Stations, Jordan Education Initiative, the Ministry of Education, and the King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD).  In June 2005, DOT established NCJ as an independent non-profit company as part of the DOT global network, with the support of the USAID-funded AMIR Program and Cisco. A team of 9 staff members and 7 board members are currently in place to run the program. 

The Board of Director’s recently approved the transition of the name ‘NetCorps Jordan’ to ‘Shabakat Al Ordon’ (Jordan Networks) as the new name of the program – reflecting its commitment to mobilizing partnerships to build sustainable programming throughout Jordan and the Middle East.

Shabakat Al Ordon’s success highly depends on its strong network of national, international, governmental, private sector and public sector partners who support the implementation of programs and projects at various levels.
 

Shabakat Al Ordon’s current and pending projects fall under two main theme components:

•  “Promoting Entrepreneurship through ICT” Theme Component:

• Support to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Project
• Community Tourism Development Project (Wadi Rum Information Technology Network Project for Community Tourism) 

•  “ICT for Education” Theme Component:

• Support to the Jordan Education Initiative (JEI) Project
• Mother and Child Project

Impact

In its first two years of operation during the pilot phase implemented with ZENID, 150 NCJ Interns were trained and placed across the kingdom.  In turn the Interns trained and impacted approximately 1800 community members from a range of backgrounds.

Since its inception as an independent organization in 2005, Shabakat Al Ordon’s main program achievements are:

• Two program themes designed and four projects implemented.
• Over 160 Jordanian Interns strengthened their technical, professional and soft skills, as well as gained practical work experience.
• Interns impacted the lives of over 4000 community beneficiaries in about 18 communities in 8 Governorates through the various projects.
• Nearly half of the Interns have found good employment opportunities
• Approximately 90% of the participating mothers in the ‘Mother and Child’ project learned basic computer skills for the first time
  

Updates

• Implementation and Expansion of Four Programmatic Themes: Shabakat Shabab (Youth), Shabakat Taleem (Education),  Shabakat Al Um Wal Tifl (Mother & Child) and Shabakat Tawasol (MSME Linkage)
  

• Expansion of the Mother and Child Project The project will be expanded to 8 governorates (Madaba, Jerash, Ajloun, Mafraq, Aqaba, Ma’an, Tafileh, and Kerak) in cooperation with the Jordan Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD) and the Knowledge Stations (KS); 32 local interns and 8 field support will be recruited and trained to implement project activities in 18 locations with approximately 1,400 children (3-5 years), 300 mothers, and 45 KG teachers.
  

• Shabakat Tawasol - Capacity Development of MSEs through ICT expands upon the success of the pilot project implemented with SMEs in Zarqa and targets to reach 1600 Micro and Small Enterprise during year 2008 in the governorates of Zarqa, Irbid and Al Balqa.  The program helps to enable and empower these beneficiaries through the provision of practical tools and applications, in addition to a set of technology-based skills allowing them to integrate ICT into their day-to-day operations. The program graduates then incubate projects within their business environment aiming to create positive changes by enhancing their business practices in management, marketing, product designs and development, quality and delivery of services, efficiency, performance, and productivity.   Graduation ceremonies for the MSE beneficiaries were held in each of the three governorates in July 2008.
  

• Women in Technology (WIT) Program - Jordan Branch launched in July 2008. The program empowers women through IT and business skills.
  

• Positioning of Shabakat Al Ordon as a Regional Hub.  Development of a Middle East outreach strategy and leveraging of Shabakat Al Ordon’s expertise and experience in other Arabic-speaking countries
  

• Shabakat Al Ordon hopes to impact 10 million Arab beneficiaries by the year 2015

To learn more about our programs, go to the Shabakat Al Ordon website.