The Secretary-General of the Higher Population Council, Prof. Dr. Issa Al-Masarouh, and his assistant, Rania Al-Abadi, met with the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Local Administration, Eng. Hussein Muhaidat, in a dialogue meeting in which the Director of the Comprehensive Development Planning Directorate, the Acting Director of Organization, and the Director of the Training and Institutional Development Directorate also participated from the Ministry of Local Administration. The Director of the Councils Directorate, the Director of the Social Adaptation and Municipal Services Project, the Director of the Provincial Councils, the Director of the Solid Waste Department, the Deputy Director of the Bidding Directorate, the Head of the Nomenclature and Numbering Department, the Director of the Local Development Directorate, and the Head of the Urban Environment Management Department, Mrs. Lina Khalil Atiyat, the coordinator of the dialogue meeting session.
The meeting began with the Secretary-General of the Higher Population Council presenting an enhanced briefing on statistics and evidence on the current demographic and household scene in Jordan and its current and expected effects on all sectors and national needs, with a focus on the impact of the population explosion, the young age structure of the population, and the poor management of population distribution among the governorates, which affects the nature of land uses. And in the lack of cultivated and agricultural lands and natural vegetation cover due to the concentration of the population and refugees in the northwest of the Kingdom accompanied by urban flooding on these lands, which entails exorbitant financial and administrative costs and severe damage to the environment, the rural economy, food security, traffic and urban environment management in general.
A discussion took place among the participants in the meeting about the demographic changes that Jordan is witnessing in terms of population size, distribution and composition, and the challenges arising therefrom. The Secretary General of the Ministry of Local Administration and senior officials in the Ministry emphasized that the Ministry is currently working on approving a set of instructions and action plans aimed at improving the urban landscape. One of the measures is working to update the land use map. The ministry's plan, within the executive program for the vision of economic modernization, also includes reviewing and amending the Cities and Villages Organization Law and related regulations, In order to apply the standards of future cities and improve the quality of life by protecting agricultural lands from urban and housing expansion, with the aim of strengthening our rural economy and food security, providing job opportunities for rural women, protecting our environment and natural resources, and distributing development revenues in a fair and sustainable way.
The meeting included a briefing on the tasks of the Higher Population Council, its plans and projects that it worked on with provincial and municipal councils in the field of taking the demographic and gender dimension into the work of these councils.
