MSSRP holds employment drawing for labourers in 5 municipalities

AMMAN — The Municipal Services and Social Resilience Project (MSSRP) on Tuesday conducted a drawing to select labourers in five municipalities with large concentrations of Syrian refugees.

This drawing came as part of the second phase of the project’s strategy, aimed at recruiting labourers in innovative municipal grant projects.

Speaking with The Jordan Times on Tuesday, Director of the project management unit, Tufiq Al Khawatra, said that “the project management unit seeks to establish a new way of thinking about municipal work management and communal development in Jordanian society”.

According to Khawatra, the main objective of the MSSRP is to strengthen municipal capacity, thus providing additional public services, particularly in the 28 municipalities that have received the largest populations of Syrian refugees.

Funded by a multidonor trust fund that represents four different governments, including the Jordanian government and the USAID, the MSSRP’s first phase lasted from 2013 until 2016. The current phase began in 2017, according to organisers.

“Today the five municipalities include Irbid, Mafraq, Junaid, Yarmouk, Zaatari and Manshia,” the director added. 

He added that the project, which is executed by the World Bank and supported by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), includes various activities that are either funded by the innovation fund or the municipal grant.

“The activities are in different sectors of industries, including infrastructure and construction projects, and investment and innovation projects,” he added.

Since the founding of the MSSRP, which is one of the projects of the Ministry of Local Administration, around 2,700,000 people have benefitted including service recipients and persons recruited. In this period, 432 permanent jobs have been secured, and 600 temporary jobs were created, he said.

Khawatrah highlighted that the MSSRP is primarily focusing on achieving local inclusion of Syrian refugees with Jordanian society.

The event was attended by municipal representatives, ILO and World Bank specialists and donors.