Fifty development centres across Jordan’s twelve governorates, run by people from the communities they serve.
The Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (Johud) has fifty centres across all of Jordan’s governorates: 14 main centres and 36 sub-centres.
Our presence rests on relationships, not buildings – and relationships outlast funding. Centre teams live where they work, so they notice change before anyone else.
We are not trying to make every centre the same. We want each one trusted on what matters to its community. Being close to people is not the same as being able to act for them, so we are working on two things:
Turning what a centre hears into evidence a municipality or ministry can act on. Some centres already do this well; we want all of them to.
Room for dialogue and advocacy, and real relationships with the institutions whose decisions shape daily life. These take years to build, and they are stronger in some governorates than others.
Much of our network works in rural Jordan: the irrigated fields of the Jordan Valley, the hills of Ajloun, the grazing lands of the Badia, the terraces of Tafileh.
Here, water decides whether a season pays. Where we have worked with communities on water and climate, savings of 40 to 55 per cent have been recorded.
Women carry much of this work – planting, harvesting, sorting, packing, and managing what the household drinks and grows – often without it being counted as work at all. We see them as partners in rural development.
Rural Jordan is not the margins. It is one of the places where the country’s future is made.
Read: Rural Transformation in Jordan
NorthIrbid is a city of energy and trade, and the work follows: connecting jobseekers with skills employers want, and helping women and young people start small and home-based businesses, from digital marketing to food processing.
NorthAjloun’s green hills, forests and heritage sites shape everything here. Our centres help protect the forests, help farmers improve and sell what they grow, and train young people and women in photography and guiding, opening the door to community-based tourism.
NorthJerash has tourism, farming and natural beauty, and too few local jobs to match. The centre focuses on small business in tourism and agriculture, protecting heritage and nature, and partnerships that give young people and women a steadier living.
NorthMafraq is a border governorate whose towns and villages have opened their doors to many refugees, and where displacement, poverty and unemployment weigh on everyone. Our centres work close to people on education and training, social care, youth, women’s livelihoods and small finance.
CentreIn the capital, the Nuzha centre works amid a rich mix of nationalities, cultures and languages, and treats that diversity as a strength in its work with women, young people, children, refugees, older people and persons with disabilities. The Sahab centre serves one of Amman’s busiest, most crowded districts, focusing on livelihoods, work and support for families.
CentreZarqa is Jordan’s industrial heartland and one of its most crowded governorates, with real pressure on jobs, services and social protection. The centre listens to people in Zarqa city, Russeifa and Hashemiyah, and works to turn the governorate’s economic weight into opportunities for the people who live there, especially the young.
CentreBalqa runs from the floor of the Jordan Valley to the highlands, and grows much of the country’s food. The centre works on farming and water, and with the women and men whose incomes depend on the land.
CentreA city of tourism, culture and history, Madaba was Arab Tourism Capital for 2022 for its historic, religious and cultural heritage, and has real promise in crafts, the environment and farming.
SouthKarak runs from the highlands through the valleys to the Southern Jordan Valley and the eastern Badia. Led by young people, the main centre and its sub-centres connect youth and women with training, initiatives and ways to make a living.
SouthTafileh has it all in one governorate: hot springs, nature and ancient sites for tourism, promising farmland, and a large share of the Kingdom’s wind energy. Our centres work to turn these assets into jobs for young people and women.
SouthOne of the Kingdom’s largest governorates by area, Ma’an is a place where women have become trusted community leaders. With unemployment high, especially among women, our centres focus on skills, small business, crafts and marketing.
SouthAqaba is more than its coastal city: the villages inland matter just as much, so our focus is on making sure they share in the governorate’s opportunities. Our centres work on vocational training, youth employment, women’s businesses and sustainable tourism.
