On Wednesday 21st August 2019, EU-JDID, Component Parliamentary Support, held its seventh Youth workshop in Madaba Governorate. Around 50 young people in the age from 17 to 25 years met and discussed with MPs and the Governor of the Madaba Governorate. Thematic Discussions focused on “Youth Political and Economic Participation in Madaba Governorate”. The discussion explored how to increase youth political participation and the role of political parties in this.
As for the second part of the activity, a discussion took place on how to increase youth economic participation to overcome youth poverty and unemployment. Unemployment is a big concern in Jordan, in particular for youth. In their debate, youth talked about reasons behind these two challenges, how they can contribute to creating better chances for themselves and how MPs, in particular the MPs in the Committee on Education and Youth of the House of Representatives and Madaba MPs can support their demands and take them into real action.
The seminar in Madaba is part of a series of activities targeting youth to be implemented by EU-JDID, Component Parliamentary Support, throughout the 12 Governorates. The main objective of these activities is to support youth engagement in parliamentary work, to raise their political awareness, to build their capacities and to give them a platform to meet their elected representative in the House of Representatives. During these seminars, youth share challenges they face and raise concerns to seek possible support from MPs and the government, especially in terms of unemployment, poverty reduction and limited life opportunities.