BIREEN - Over the past few years, the Bireen Municipality had struggled to offer basic services such as sewage collection and disposal.
With a population of 20,000 spread over in 27 different neighbourhoods located in a 250-square-kilometre area, the municipality faced pressure to continue its services with limited financial and physical resources, according to Bireen Mayor Mohammad Ghoweiri.
"We face several challenges to meet citizens' needs," he noted, adding that financial restrictions often prevent the municipality from meeting growing demands.
The duties of Ghoweiri and eight other mayors became easier on Monday, when they received 32 pieces of heavy equipment under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)-supported Local Governance Development Programme.
Ranging from water tankers to tractors, bulldozers, sewage trucks and street sweepers, the machinery is meant to help municipalities address sanitation, public works and health services.
The $2 million worth of equipment was presented to the Bireen, Madaba, Al Shafa, Burqush, Al Hassa, Shobak, Al Kura, Fuheis and Jerash municipalities in a ceremony held yesterday highlighting the programme and the importance of strengthening governance at the municipal level.
Under the initiative, Bireen has also received computers while its municipal building and municipal hall, which also acts as a recreational gathering place for citizens, were expanded.
"We have tripled the number of computers at the municipality, and with the expansion, we are now able to have more departments and offices to better organise our activities and duties," Ghoweiri said.
"If it were not for this project, I as a mayor would not have been able to meet my citizens' demands," he told The Jordan Times.
The focus of the initiative is not only to aid committed and transparent municipalities, but to encourage civic participation in local government, according to US Ambassador Robert Stephen Beecroft.
"Provide funds to ensure that municipalities don't act alone, but respond to the needs of their citizens and identify what needs to be done for the municipality, which is good governance," Beecroft told The Jordan Times.
"This is a core principle of democratic governance," he added.
Through the programme, the US has worked with municipalities in several projects, including erecting walls at Bireen schools, providing a geographic information system for urban planning in Shobak and rebuilding the Madaba municipal hall, which was destroyed in a fire, according to the US ambassador.
During yesterday's ceremony, Minister of Municipal Affairs Shihadeh Abu Hdeib highlighted the importance of partnership between the public and private sectors in order to achieve development at the local level.
"This initiative is in line with our desire to improve local governments," he said, noting that the ministry has developed a four-year strategy to improve the institutional and financial capacity of municipalities to create job opportunities and combat unemployment.
"Partnership between municipalities and NGOs, the private sector and local communities is important in order to meet challenges and prioritise resources," Abu Hdeib added during the event, which was also attended by USAID Mission Director Jay Knott.
The Local Governance Development Programme, which is designed to empower local governments, is funded by the MCC through USAID and implemented by the ministries of planning and municipal affairs.
By Taylor Luck
© Jordan Times 2009
