81269281-E-commerce Needs Assessment and Capacity Building for Service Providers in Jordan

The ‘Trade for Employment’ project is part of the BMZ special initiative ‘Tackling the root causes of displacement — reintegrating refugees’. The project has contributed to implementation of the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan 2017-2018 in Response to the Syria Crisis (3RP) and will be implemented as a part of 2019-2020 Plan. Its aim is to support companies short-term as well as to tackle mid-term structural challenges in trade promotion. In the longer term, it seeks to improve the trade for employment conditions for Jordanian companies. The regional political unrest has deeply affected Jordan's export, as it resulted in the loss of main markets that has been traditionally among the top destinations for the local industries, adding more pressure on the national economy, which is already facing internal and external economic challenges. In order to tackle these challenges, the government is setting itself the goal of promoting trade, tapping into new markets and thereby generating economic growth and creating jobs as part of Jordan 2025 — A National Vision and Strategy. The National Export Strategy (NES) further focuses in this context on promoting trade-oriented businesses and improving production quality. In light of this, the Jordanian Government is currently undertaking the necessary steps towards enhancing and restructuring trade services to address the main challenges facing exporters with the aim of promoting trade to current and new markets. The Trade for Employment project's objective, in-line with the government's efforts in this regard, focuses on building capacities and strengthening structures, in a sustainable manner, to enhance the conditions of Jordanian companies to increase their trade performance for employment. This covers a set of activities, including the improvement of the availability and quality of demand-driven trade related services The project implements measures in four outcome areas. In outcome area (1), the project assists the private sector with shaping general conditions conducive to trade by developing the negotiation capacity of chambers of commerce and trade associations and institutionalizing dialogue with the government. Outcome area (2) seeks to develop new demand-based trade promotion services and improve existing ones. In outcome area (3), existing barriers to trade are identified and export procedures and processes facilitated. Outcome area (4) is designed to improve recruitment of personnel in trade-oriented businesses, with a particular focus on the placement of Syrian refugees. This consultancy assignment will be part of outcome area (2).