Strengthening social entreprise initiatives to combat poverty and exclusion in Jordan SUMMARY 
The objective of the project (January 2019-June 2021), carried out by Plan Jordan, Alfanar, EURICSE and Ruwwad, is to enhance the contribution of social enterprises [SEs] and social entrepreneurial initiatives [SEIs] in Jordan. The goals are poverty reduction and social inclusion of disadvantaged and marginalized groups - particularly girls/women - through their integration into the formal economy.
The project has a strong focus on strengthening existing SEs/SEIS and social entrepreneurship support structures. Thus creating an enabling environment that allows the SE eco-system to start-up, scale up, and flourish. Growth and acceleration of existing high potential SEs/SEIs is a precondition to contribute to tangible socio-economic improvements for the most marginalized groups. The most notable effects are formal job creation, social innovation and social impact and for strengthening the national SE ecosystem in the long run. Although Jordan is doing better than several of its neighbours in terms of human development, ranking 86 on the Human Development Index (2016), the country still faces a number of socio-economic devel-opment challenges, including a low economic growth, and an unemployment rate of  18,4 %. These challenges are particularly prevalent in the marginalized and remote areas such as Tafilleh and Ajloun, and in pockets of Amman. The ability of Jordan’s government to improve the poor socio-economic situa-tion of its citizens is further strained by the recent influx of refugees from especially Syria. This in addi-tion to an already large population of displaced Palestinians who are living in what has turned into semi-permanent settlements, especially in Amman, Zarqa and Irbid Governorate. In the education sector, youth skills are not aligned with labour market demands/lack of entrepreneurial culture among youth & in education system. The schooling system is under serious strain from the Syrian refugee crisis. More generally, due to retrenchment of the public sector, service provision in key social sectors such as edu-cation, health and the environment is falling short. Vulnerable communities have to fend for themselves. SEs and entrepreneurship in general have a high potential for job creation, but entrepreneurial activity remains at low levels. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey and the Total early stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) index, Jordan is ranking amongst the lowest countries (the 46th position out of 65). Especially regarding the start-up of new business ventures. Since there is no legal categorisation for SEs, they are registered either as CBOs or private businesses which generates fiscal issues, reluctance among credit suppliers and service providers to cooperate and in general a low status of SEs.  
The country’s youth and women, especially those living in the most disadvantaged communities, are disproportionately affected by the lack of economic opportunities. The national youth unemployment rate is hovering at 33%, while for university graduates it is estimated to be at least 16.7% (AlNasser 2016). Young Jordanians in other words struggle to find decent work which can sustain their livelihoods. The employment rate in the informal sector is rated at more than 50% (ILO, 2015) mostly consisting of low income, unskilled labour, lacking any legal protection. Women, especially young women, are particularly disadvantaged in the labour force and face issues, including discrimination, harassment and cultural barriers to access the job market. Entrenched gender norms position women and girls in an inferior position compared to boys, and girls from especially poor and rural households are discouraged from participating in civic and economic activities. Jordan ranks 135 out of 144 countries worldwide on the global index on gender equality, and for women economic participation Jordan ranks even lower, 138 out of 144 (GGGI, 2017). 
Following the Arab Spring, it was expected that youth across the region would start to be included in decision making processes and the hope was that this could lead to greater socio-economic inclusion. However, this is hampered due to intergenerational conflict among youth and adults, low capacity of decision makers to engage meaningfully with youth; the power dynamics within the local structures which favour the participation of those with connections inside those structures and gender inequalities and norms; 
SEs/SEIs are increasingly seen as having the potential to attain sustainable development in Jordan and to create new job opportunities, yet SEs/SEIs are constraint to develop to their full potential: Jordan lacks laws and regulations for social enterprises, hampering registration and complicating access to national and international funding. Due to their unclear status, private sector and service providers are reluctant to cooperate with SEs/SEIs. Moreover, while some SEs are finding ways to navigate a restric-tive and unconducive environment, they often lack the capacity and support structures to accelerate their enterprises and make them socially inclusive and sustainable. The typical social entrepreneur tends to be young (under 35), ambitious, and male and coming from predominantly middle to upper so-cioeconomic backgrounds (Halabi et. al 2017).  SEs often fail to attract, mobilize and include youth and women from marginalised areas, who therefore are not convinced of the value of social enterprises and their capacity to influence change whether at the local or national levels. Accor-dingly, youth from mar-ginalised areas tend to refrain from participating within them and create their own spaces instead –mostly informal groups. However, in reality this is still quiet challenging, as they are not recognized by the law and accordingly they cannot receive funds to have their capacity built and implement their own initiatives. By strengthening at least 1 existing facility in each governorate to function as SE Support Centre as well as incubator for SE support activities, exchanges and events (OP1.1), the action will build the capacity of  existing SEs and SEIs to accelerate growth and contribute to tangible socio-economic improvements for the most marginalized groups, most notably formal job creation, social innovation and social impact. To do so the action will first assess the SE support structures in East Amman, Tafilleh, Ajloun and based on the assessment at least 3 SE support structures will be strengthened through the establishment of a physical space (SE Support Centres) in each of the target areas. Additionally, multiple service providers will be linked to these SE Support Centres to provide needs based technical, financial, public, entrepreneurial support to the SE/SEIs, with a priority for youth-led and women-led SE/SEIs. Conferences and events will be held for SE/SEIs to raise awareness among SE/SEIs and the community around this action and identify which support is required to accelerate existing SE/SEIs, and assess what is needed to ensure the inclusion of the most marginalized groups as women and youth, either as youth-and women-led SE/SEIs. Additionally, we will identify through an assessment which (especially youth and women led) 70 SE/SEIs have high potential to sustain, scale, and flourish to be supported with the sub granting scheme. This will lead to the identification and support of 40-60 SEs/SEIs through sub-grants (OP1.2). A sub-grant scheme will be developed based upon the partners sub granting experiences and these sub-grants will be awarded through a competitive process, with start-up grants given to SEIs and accelerator grants for scale-up more advanced SEs. Once the sub-grants have been provided the capacity of the selected 40-60 SEs/SEIs will be strengthened to create jobs for youth and women in particular, to become financially sustainable and competitive, and to translate social needs into business cases (OP1.3). This will be realized through the collaboration and support of all SE stakeholders in the action and experts in the SE support structures. The trainings of each SE/SEI will consist of 7-8 training sessions, on different topics, based on their needs, and in total around 120-180 participants will be participating in these trainings and further coached throughout the sub-grant cycle. Impact: These 3 outputs will create more sustainable and inclusive SE/SEIs in Jordan. Their success can be an example for other SE/SEIs, it will make other marginalized youth and women aware of the job opportunities which are available through SEs and social innovation, but also showing the social impact of the activities. It will create and support new SE/SEIs and provides jobs for the most marginalized and disadvantaged youth and women. This is how the action will lead to the acceleration of existing SE/SEIs and as a snow ball effect, it will create new SE/SEIs contributing to tangible socio-economic improvements of the most marginalized and disadvantaged groups in Jordan.
By establishing a national SE platform (“Jordan Social Enterprise Initiative”) (OP2.1) for peer-to-peer learning, networking, experience sharing and best practice dissemination, where all actors in the SE ecosystem in Jordan will be linked to each other and to their counterparts in Europe and the MENA region, the action will create a solid foundation for the SE eco-system to develop, scale and flourish. Through the engagement of the consortium partners, especially Alfanar and Euricse, the action will link the SE ecosystems in the MENA region and Europe to the eco-system in Jordan. A national SE platform will be established during a founding conference acting as the central unit to strengthen the eco-system in Jordan. Annually 2-3 conferences and seminars will be organised by the platform with the participating SE/SEIs in the action and other relevant SE stakeholders (in Jordan, MENA and Europe) to share peer-to-peer learnings and disseminate best practices. An advisory panel will be established consisting of technical, financial, SE experts, relevant authorities including our consortium partners. The aim of the panel will be twofold: 1) To provide high level technical advice on SE development taking into account the legal, policy, political and economic context, and 2) to engage authorities, business, social entrepreneurs, finance institutes and financiers to increase awareness of the impact that SEs can have as a driver for inclusive growth. This will result in strengthened capacity of relevant authorities to facilitate the development of the SE ecosystem and easier access to effective SE support services, based on international good practices for SE development adjusted to the Jordanian context (OP2.2). The project is relevant to a number of policies in Jordan. It specifically contributes to the recent Jordan Economic Plan 2018-2020 as the action is aiming to foster job creation and income generation through the support of start-up businesses and expanding existing ones, promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation across different economic sectors, age groups, providing consultation services to enhance productivity and competiveness and access to financing. Additionally, the government of Jordan Youth and Employment strategies and policies has prioritized the encouragement of young entrepreneurs, which besides women entrepreneurs is the most important target group of this action. A very important target group as the National Strategy for Entrepreneurship Development and SME Growth (2015-2019) highlighted that young entrepreneurs make up only 10.2% of enterprise owners. Women entrepreneurship is another Government priority and priority of the action, as women participation to the labour market is less than 14%. In line with the Jordan Vision 2025, the action creates concrete linkages with priority sectors and themes of the CfP by awarding sub-grants to SEs/SEIs that propose projects focusing on for instance education/TVET, employment, environment or public private participation (PPP). The action builds on global efforts to enhance economic development, Goal 8 of the Sustainable Development Goals (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and on the Jordan Compact, now being implemented, representing new commitments to expand access to markets, open up investment opportunities, create the institutional frameworks necessary for the private sector to thrive.Social enterprises in Jordan have high potential to create inclusive growth, innovation and social impact, yet many SEs and SEIs lack capacity and support structures to start-up, scale and flourish. This action builds on current and past experiences of the consortium partners on social enterprise development and economic empowerment of women and youth in Jordan, the MENA region and Europe. In preparation of the action, a mapping of SEs and support structures was carried out, and consultations with successful SEs and government stakeholders informed the design. During a design workshop in Amman with consortium partners and SE representatives the framework of the action was agreed upon. The action is based on Plan’s long track record in youth economic and women empowerment and in specific Plan’s experience to enhance employment for vulnerable young men and women confined in the informal economy. The co-applicants, Ruwwad and Alfanar bring in strong experience in supporting community-based and youth-led social enterprise initiatives, and the action draws on Alfanar’s ASSET model for capacity building and acceleration of SEs in the MENA region. Euricse’s expertise in supporting SE ecosystems in Europe provided strong basis to this action in terms of SE support structures and on policy and institutional frameworks. 14,400 disadvantaged youth (aged 18-35), women working in the in-formal economy and other marginalised groups from the poorest communities in East Amman, Tafilleh and Ajloun will benefit from the strengthened SEs. 307,075 people will benefit from the platform ac-tivities. To ensure the full potential of SE/SEIs in Jordan, as key contributor to tangible socio-economic im-provements for the most marginalised groups, the action is designed with a strong focus on growth and acceleration of existing high potential SEs and SEIs (SO1) and strengthening the national SE ecosys-tem (SO2). To accelerate existing SEs and SEIs in East Amman, Tafilleh and Ajloun, a key outcome is strengthening the capacity of SE/SEIs. The SE/SEIs will be strengthened in two ways, namely by provi-sion of sub-grants through a competitive call for proposals and capacity building support. The SE/SEIs selected for a sub-grant will be provided with tailor made trainings and extensive coaching and mentor-ing during the implementation of the sub-grant. The capacity and quality of SE/SEIs is also enhanced by making SE Support Centres available to them. These centres will be set up in such a way that SE/SEIs are linked to information-and key resources. Also, In order to have a sustainable and broader impact, the action will contribute to the establishment of the “Jordan Social Enterprise Initiative”. A national plat-form, organizing conferences with key stakeholders, including SE/SEIs, followed by the identification of networking, learning and experience sharing events and activities. Ultimately this will lead to the dis-semination of good practices and recommendations for further improvement of the national SE ecosys-tem. In order to take lessons and experiences of the MENA region and Europe into account as well, an advisory panel, consisting of national, regional and global experts, will be established. In collaboration with relevant authorities an appraisal of the national SE ecosystem and a forecast will be developed to further strengthen the ecosystem up till 2030. Based on these concrete recommendations for relevant changes to the policy and institutional framework for SEs in Jordan will be made. The outcomes will be shared with key government actors in order to influence the policy framework on SE in Jordan. This will lead to strengthened capacity of relevant authorities to facilitate the development of the SE eco-system and easier access to effective SE support services, based on international good practices for SE devel-opment adjusted to the Jordanian context. At technical level the action is expected to have a direct impact on the capacity of 40-60 SEs/SEIs operating in East Amman, Tafilleh and Ajloun as well as a wider section of Jordanian SEs/SEIs benefitting from an improved SE eco-system with better coordination and learning. SEs/SEIs will become financially sustainable and competitive and will be better able to translate social needs (particular job creation and skill development) into financially sustainable business cases. The SEs/SEIs will have ability to engage in productive dialogue and collaboration with both their target communities and public and private sector stakeholders. Furthermore, the action will also strengthen existing SE support structures. Some directly as they will become SE Support Centers and some indirectly as they will benefit from the improvements in the eco-system and better coordination and learning.  

At economic level the action is expected to have a direct impact for 14,400 marginalised youth and women and their family members as they will access employment/self-employment, benefit from social services and develop the needed skills for inclusion in the formal economies. Access to employment or self-employment will increase income levels at individual and household level. Secondly, the action’s focus on building partnerships with private sector actors at national, MENA and European level is expected to create/ open up new markets to private enterprises operating in the target areas creating employment opportunities, social inclusion and economic growth. Finally, Ruwwad – and in extension Wamda Capital – are central actors in the ecosystem, will mobilise their networks to create linkages between investors and communities thus attracting further investments to SEs/SEIs.

At social level the action is expected to benefit 307,075 disadvantaged and marginalised people (youth, women, PWD and refugees) especially living in marginalised communities in East Amman, Tafilleh and Ajloun, as well as authorities, and all relevant SE stakeholders in Jordan, MENA Region, Europe. In addition to the raised income levels and inclusion in the formal economy the activities of the SEs/SEIs will deliver other tangible socio-economic improvements such as environmental (cleaner environment), health related or socially. 

At policy level, the action will increase the awareness of representatives of the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Social Development, and the Ministry of Labour on the potential impact, characteristics and needs of SEs/SEIs. The engagement of authorities in key activities, including the national JSEI platform, the Advisory Panel and the participatory appraisal will enhance the development of the SE ecosystem and will contribute to improvements in the legislative and policy framework for SEs/SEIs. All of these activities aim to ensure a high level of engagement of authorities by creating networking opportunities with other ecosystem actors in the MENA region and Europe, allowing platform actors to learn how to improve the legal and fiscal framework and policies.