Jordan ranks 83rd globally on ‘Social Progress Imperative’ index

AMMAN — Jordan ranks 83rd globally and fourth in the Arab region on the “Social Progress Imperative” index.

This is the seventh edition of the report issued by The Social Progress Imperative, a global nonprofit based in Washington, DC. 

The index evaluated 168 countries worldwide, using framework that aggregates 52 social and environmental indicators.

According to the report, social progress is defined as the capacity of a society to meet the basic human needs of its citizens, establish the building blocks that allow citizens and communities to enhance and sustain the quality of their lives, and create the conditions for all individuals to reach their full potential.

The average world social progress score is 65.05, while Jordan's overall score is 68.77.

According to the report, Jordan performed relatively poor in the freedom of expression and political rights category. 

As for environment quality, Jordan also performed relatively poor in species protection and attributed deaths to air pollution. 

The report highlighted that Jordan over-performed in the rates of child stunted growth and maternal mortality rates. 

As for the lowest component scores, Jordan scored lowest in access to information and communication, environmental quality, access to advanced education and personal rights.

As for the highest scores, Jordan ranked 166 out of 168 participating countries in the indicator of “young people not in education, employment or training”.

In regard to access to electricity, Jordan topped the list of participating countries, whereas in access to improved sanitation Jordan scored 19 out of 168 participating countries. 

Globally, Norway ranked first, followed by Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland.

In the Arab region, Kuwait topped the index followed by Tunisia, the UAE, Jordan and Oman. 

“As for the freedom of speech indicator, I absolutely disagree with the index’s findings,” Mwafaq Kamal, a media expert, told The Jordan Times. 

Kamal noted that people articulate their opinions and ideas “without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction in Jordan”. 

Kamal said that social media platforms, especially Facebook and Twitter provide users with the opportunity to speak and express themselves without limitation. Moreover, people “cross all the red lines on social media".

“Freedom of expression is and has always been recognised as a human right in the Kingdom," Kamal added.

However, he noted, “We have a problem with the access to right and accurate information in the Kingdom”. 

He added that officials often do not have the authority to publicly speak to media channels about the challenges or problems faced in Jordan, especially in the public sector. 

“Officials do not have the authority to publicly speak to media channels about the challenges or problems faced in Jordan, especially in the public sector,” Kamal added. 

Furthermore, often institutions’ official websites do not carry “valuable and accurate” information, Kamal noted.