RIO Project aims at mainstreaming Rio Convention provisions into key national sectoral policies and/or legislation in Jordan, and strengthening the national drought governance system in Jordan, in addition to promoting more systematic approach to drought response planning and management. 

Main Outputs

The project is expected to produce the following results:

• Enhanced institutional capacities in Jordan to develop policies and/or legislative frameworks for effective implementation of the three Rio Conventions
• Improved awareness and understanding of Rio Conventions’ contributions to sustainable development in Jordan
• Enhanced institutional and technical capacities in respect to drought management and response
• Practical measures to improve the national prepardeness to drought management are demonstrated.

Achievements

The project contributed to strengthening the regulatory framework of the National Rangelands Strategy through the development of selection criteria and designation procedures of the natural rangelands reserve, and strengthening the drought management governance in Jordan through the development of new institutional set ups, in addition to the participatory approach to the analytical framework carried out by the project to define the main constraints hindering the mainstreaming of Rio principles into the national sectoral policies, the new construct and responsibilities and SOPs for the three national Rio committees, all have contributed to legitimate and clarify the role and mandate of key government institutions responsible for key environmental issues in Jordan and enhanced the national collaborative and co-management framework to effective natural rangelands management and drought preparedness. On the other hand, the project contributed to enhance the role of media sector in covering the important national and international environmental issues.

The project succeeded to bridge the planning process at upstream level (the analytical framework) with the development processes taking place at downstream level “Municipal Level”, through the engagement of grassroots in the consultation process and implementing 9 pilot projects at municipal level as practical demonstration to the mainstreaming of Rio principles into the targeted selected sectoral strategy/plans.

• Tailored and implemented a training scheme, which targeted technical staff from the partner institutions and other beneficiary institutions.
• Convened plenty of consultation and discussion workshops on the benefits that Rio Conventions bring to the socio-economic development processes in Jordan
• Produced the national policy statement for drought management in Jordan
• Contributed to the establishement and support the drought management unit at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation
• Designed and initiated the set up of the national drought early warning system