A People-Centered Justice Approach to Rule of Law Education in Jordan
March 1, 2024
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For the sixth year in a row, rule of law declined in most countries worldwide, including the United States.[i]
Jordan was an exception to this trend and was among the top five countries that saw the most improvement in rule of law from 2022 to 2023.
For four years, Street Law, Inc. has worked closely with the Jordanian government, academia, community activists, and young people on a range of people-centered justice projects designed to empower the people of Jordan to play an active role in forming, influencing, and advocating for a dynamic society that upholds the rule of law.
One flagship project of Street Law, Inc.—Rule of Law for Peaceful Society—recently concluded. The program worked both with system actors and young people, and benefited thousands of Jordanians from across the country. An independent evaluation of the project found that government officials and community members experienced enhanced dialogue and increased trust and communication. It also found that the project enhanced citizen awareness of and knowledge of rule of law principles, and it empowered youth leaders, who now see themselves as change agents in the rule of law space.
Institutionalizing Rule of Law Education
Street Law, Inc. began its work in Jordan in 2019, with support from the German Federal Foreign Office.
Inspired by the belief that the people best equipped to meet a community’s needs are the people within that community, Street Law partnered with a local organization—Arab World Center for Democratic Development United for Human Rights and Democracy (UniHRD).
Over the past four years, Street Law and its partners developed practical curricula; rolled out capacity-building programs; and hosted academic conferences, interactive workshops, and training with thousands of government officials, youth, and community leaders to increase their ability to engage with each other through civic and rule of law processes and institutions and to develop a stronger rule of law culture.
“By working closely with the government of Jordan, educators, and youth leaders, Street Law is helping to institutionalize rule of law education within Jordan,” said Street Law’s Chief Program Officer Jennifer Whatley. “The curriculum we and our Jordanian partners developed will continue to be taught well after Street Law’s direct role in this initiative ends.” In fact, the curriculum has been integrated into two universities as credit-bearing courses.
Building upon this work, Street Law’s most recent project in Jordan—Rule of Law for Peace—aimed to enhance government officials’ and community members’ knowledge, skills, and willingness to engage with one another on relevant rule of law issues. To achieve this, Street Law and its local partners trained nearly 1,000 government officials from the Social Development, Youth, Health, Culture and Agriculture directorates as well as governorate and municipal-level government, in addition to dozens of youth leaders using its rule of law curriculum.
In a showcase of how impactful this curriculum was, of those 1,000 government officials, 89% reported improved skills to engage with citizens and 90% reported being more willing to collaborate with citizens.
Embedding rule of law concepts and a willingness to collaborate and listen within political systems is crucial, because when government officials show a greater readiness to collaborate with these systems, it helps to close the gap between citizens and the government, fostering a relationship of mutual trust.
A key activity of the project was the Ed O’Brien Fellowship Program, which challenged and equipped young people to apply their newfound knowledge about rule of law to a challenge in their community.
Ed O’Brien Fellowship Program
The Ed O’Brien Fellowship Program—named after Street Law’s late co-founder and longtime leader—gave young Jordanian changemakers resources to bring together state and community stakeholders to solve or mitigate a community problem in the area of rule of law.
In spring of 2023, after a rigorous review period, six youth-led projects were chosen from a competitive pool to receive $5,000 USD to develop and implement a local rule of law-based advocacy project.
The winning projects focused on various themes ranging from rule of law education to countering corruption and nepotism, to civic participation. Each fellowship utilized different methods to enhance rule of law in their respective communities, including trainings, awareness-raising workshops, printed materials, animated films, apps, social media, and murals.
With guidance and support from Street Law, Inc. and the Arab World Center for Democratic Development, the fellows implemented their projects throughout 2023. Each project was matched with mentors from local governments and/or experts. The fellowships were a clear, resounding success, with each one being met with strong engagement and interest from their communities and a broad array of government actors, such as youth centers, youth activists, universities, municipal council members, mayors, and representatives from national ministries.
Youth as Rule of Law Change Agents
One fellowship launched an app to handle government complaints for the city of Aljoun. It had more than 3,000 downloads and, over a short period of time, resulted in the municipal government effectively resolving several citizen concerns.
Another fellowship culminated in the painting of a mural with a rule of law message in Azraq. The mayor liked it so much that he requested more murals be painted throughout the city. The same fellowship also led to a directorate head creating a “good governance and anti-corruption civil society council” through which youth and other citizens can now engage with the executive government directly and have their concerns and opinions inform government decision-making.
Overall, throughout Jordan the fellowships reached nearly 2,000 people in person, and more than 250,000 people through online interactions, with rule of law information relevant to their lives.
An independent program evaluation conducted by Integrated International found that 68% of government officials and 77% of community leaders noticed improved government-citizen relations, transparency, responsiveness, and governance. Both groups also reported enhanced dialogue and increased trust and communication with each other.
In addition to the direct impact the fellowships made to enhance citizen’s rule of law awareness and knowledge, was another important outcome—a change in the fellows themselves.
The evaluation found that after implementing their project, the fellows saw themselves as “change agents in the rule of law space,” and many reported their active participation in various councils since the fellowships began.
Learn more about the evaluation findings.
Conclusion
Street Law, Inc.’s rule of law programming has had a positive impact on individuals, communities, and institutions throughout Jordan.
Through the development and implementation of the Rule of Law Matters curriculum, the training of government officials and youth center leaders, and the empowerment of youth through the Ed O’Brien Fellowship Program, Street Law has helped foster a culture of active citizenship, collaboration, and engagement with rule of law principles. However, the conclusion of Street Law’s direct involvement in Jordan is not the end, but rather one stop on a continuing journey towards a more just and equitable Jordan.
Though the external evaluation showed the gains made by Street Law’s programming, it also showed an ongoing need for training programs among both government officials and community leaders to address specific knowledge and skills gaps.
Given the success of the program, Street Law and its partners are currently exploring opportunities to scale up and expand youth-driven community engagement initiatives in Jordan.
The impact of Street Law’s work will continue to be felt as citizens and government officials work together, based on the principles of the rule of law, to achieve democratic progress and create positive change in their communities for many years to come.
[i] “Rule of Law Index,” World Justice Project, https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/downloads/WJPIndex2023.pdf.
