why jordan of all places?

So why did I choose Jordan for my internship? Many of my international development (we call ourselves MPA-ID) buddies are off to more exotic places, or at least to larger places with arguably bigger development problems. Jenny, Oyebola, Jacob and Momar are in Liberia; Abhilash is in Kenya; Soham is in Sierra Leone with Tony Blair's commission, Paul is running TAMTAM (http://tamtam-africa.blogspot.com/); Helena, Olga, Martin and Dany are in India; Widhar and Jaun Pablo are in Vietnam; and the list goes on....


Jordan's annual per capita GDP is $5,300 (PPP-adjusted). Compare that to Liberia's $500. It's also small with a population of ~$6.2 million (July '08 estimates) up from about 4.4 million ten years ago, largely due to the influx of Iraqis into the Country over the past 8 years. So why care about Jordan when there are so many bigger development problems to tackle?

First, Jordan does have significant development problems. Jordan is a low middle-income country with very few natural resources but an abundance of high skilled human capital. However, the Country has failed to attract significant amounts of outside investment capital. Further, an interesting dynamic exists where there is a small upper class and a large, often well-educated, lower middle class that is unwilling to perform the unskilled labor tasks. As a result, the unskilled labor is mostly imported from Egypt and the far East. And there is a significant degree of unemployment and underemployment - often among people who are educated.

Next is my personal interest in the Levant region - the region comprising what was historically greater Syria and what is today Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine and Israel. As a Palestinian, this is the region I am from (Jordan is also an estimated ~60% ethnically Palestinian). While I speak Arabic fluently, and have been to the region often, I have never lived or worked in the region for any significant period of time. For me, being closer to my heritage and learning the ins and outs of the business culture in my region, is very important.

Further, Jordan is already making a big push at the government level to develop a bottoms-up knowledge-based economy so there is some activity going on for one to take part in. And Endeavor, a U.S. non-profit supporting high-impact entrepreneurs in developing countries, just opened its newest office in Jordan late last year.

Finally, while the Middle East is of strategic importance to many Western countries, there is a general lack of understanding of what the Middle East (and the Arab World more specifically) really is. What do westerners typically think of when they think of the Arab World? The Gulf? Oil? Wealth? The U.S.'s war in Iraq? Mysterious, exotic people? Radical Islam? Terrorists? ...Well, what about all of the "regular" every-day Arabs? I think the world doesn't really care to know about them; but I also think these are the most important people in the region to care about. I truly believe that ensuring the economic stability and security of a region is the surest way to foster strong allies and squelch violence.

So westerners don't really know much about the Arabs of the Levant region. And the oil-rich Gulf states invest their capital in Western infrastructure and industry (Chrysler building, Ferrari, etc.) and in local (Gulf) infrastructure projects. They largely do not invest in Arab entrepreneurs, despite the fact that education and human capital is arguably one of the Levant's greatest resources; and that the financial capital required to unlock its potential is lacking.

Why doesn't Gulf money find Arab entrepreneurs to be interesting investments? Why aren't there more Arab entrepreneurs? What are the biggest challenges to entrepreneurship in the Levant region? What are the barriers to getting things done? And how can lessons learned be applied to other regions such as Lebanon and Egypt? These are some of the questions I hope to study while I'm here.