As for the recommendations related to the legislation regulating local administration, the committee called for a phased, transitional approach to reach good local governance, capable of carrying out the tasks of local development and services independently and effectively, based on programs chosen by citizens through free and fair elections.
The first phase of the plan includes building the capacities of the elected and appointed structures in the governorates and municipalities, and improving the quality of services provided to meet the aspirations of citizens. The committee also proposed reducing the age of candidacy for local councils to 22 years instead of 25, and increasing the quota for women to become at least 30% of seats, in addition to allocating a seat for people with disabilities in the elected structures at the governorate and municipal levels.
In the second phase, regional councils will be created to be the elected supreme bodies for local administration in its final stages, meaning the stage of local government at the level of the executive authority (developmental and service).
The committee also made a number of recommendations related to financial decentralization, such as dedicating a special chapter to the budget of each governorate in the General Budget Law, and transferring administrative and financial powers to the governorates to become responsible for preparing and implementing their budgets.
This is in addition to opening a special account for the provincial councils in the Cities and Villages Development Bank, to which the provinces’ budget allocations are transferred directly after the approval of the General Budget Law, in order to prevent the provinces’ budgets’ allocations from not being disbursed by seizing or reducing part of them by the Council of Ministers.
The committee said that it reached a set of recommendations related to youth empowerment, covering four life stages, each of which has different psychological, cultural, social, economic and political characteristics.
It also formulated general recommendations aimed at developing legislation, policies and practices from a youth point of view. These recommendations seek to ensure fair representation and participation between young men and women by 50/50 in programs aimed at developing young people’s skills and supporting them at the technical, academic and political levels.
Source: jordan News Agency