USAID Jordan Economic Development Program launches Professional Communities

Professional Communities provide forums for Jordanian professionals to access international best-practice resources to support their reform efforts.

Communities also encourage Jordanian professionals to support each other through the transfer of ideas, experiences, and expertise, and serve as market makers for Jordanian consulting firms.

The program's pilot Professional Communities are: 1) Human Resources, 2) Strategic Management, 3) Trade, and 4) Risk Management.

Professional Communities leverage the program's assistance initiatives and external resources, captured and packaged to be easily accessed, understood, and applied by Jordanian professionals.

Each Community is led by a technical specialist. Direct assistance is complemented by an interactive web-site that provides an additional meeting place for collaboration, a consolidator of each group's collective intelligence, and a provider of resources and expertise.

Professional Communities thus consist of live and virtual activities and assistance. Live community events include Quarterly Community Meetings.

These regular forums bring community members together to fortify personal relationships, discuss best practices, hear from top local and international experts, and learn about newly available resources and tools.

Community sub-groups meet separately in Executive Round Tables to learn about and apply niche topics of interest.

Virtual (web) assistance makes numerous best practice templates, presentations, newsletters, case studies, and other resources available to community members to download and use.

Community members drive the technical direction of each community through on-line surveys and polls, and USAID Jordan Economic Development Program (SABEQ) will tailor additional assistance to the demands of community members accordingly.

Professional Communities empower prospective Jordanian reformers.

They provide reformers with the understanding of best-practices, the motivation to affect change, and the means to do so.

Self-selecting Jordanian Professionals commit to contribute as well as to take from the communities in which they participate.

Members drive the technical direction of each community and the additional assistance that USAID Jordan Economic Development Program (SABEQ) provides.

Ultimately, community management will be handed off by SABEQ to a local organization chosen by the community members themselves.

Communities will continue under local sponsorship long after SABEQ assistance ends.

The Kaizen Company, a USAID Jordan Economic Development Program (SABEQ) subcontractor, will continue to make new content available to local community sponsors into the future.