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UN DESA | DPAD | Development Policy Analysis Division

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Capacity Development and Advisory Services

UN-DESA • Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC)

Final workshop Amman, Jordan
3-5 June 2014


Jordan workshop, June 2014

DPAD completed its capacity development activities in Jordan with the final intensive training workshop of the project in the country. The workshop provided simulation exercises and analysis that will serve the team in MoPIC to provide technical and policy advice to policy-makers in the creation of the country’s Economic Development Plan (EDP). The workshop completes the successful transfer of capacities on the use of the modelling tools needed for the design of policies to achieve human development goals.

Specifically, the workshop had three objectives:

(i) Performing and analysing a number of examples of policy simulations with ISIM-MAMS that could eventually be used as inputs for the Economic Development Plan (EDP) of Jordan.

(ii) Describing a microsimulation model by means of which results from MAMS scenarios are used to determine impacts on poverty and inequality of said policy simulations.

(iii) Transferring a computer-based routine to implement the microsimulation model in combination with ISIM-MAMS. The workshop was attended by a select group of technical and policy experts at the MoPIC who had previously participated in the project’s training activities to learn the use of macro‐micro modelling tools to assess policy issues. During the workshop, the DPAD team accomplished the following:

  • The project’s objectives and time line were overviewed and progress since the previous workshop was discussed.
  • A complete set of course materials, including key bibliography, manuals, codes and exercises was distributed.
  • The Excel-based interface ISIM-MAMS continued to be used to generate new policy scenarios. Real-time simulations were presented and discussed to facilitate the understanding of the functioning of ISIM-MAMS – and the underlying Maquette for MDG Simulations (MAMS).
  • Participants were taken through policy simulation exercises that were specifically designed to provide inputs for the EDP. These exercises included: (i) an increase in direct tax rate for the 20% of households at the top of the income distribution, (ii) an elimination of subsidies for bakery products and/or refined oil, and (iii) an increase in public spending in tertiary education. An additional analysis of the effect of an increase in FDI was also conducted.
  • The team of trainees from MoPIC agreed to evaluate the simulation results in more depth in order to decide if they are ready to draw conclusions for the EDP. The team will also decide if any adjustments are necessary as the MoPIC team see fit.
  • Results from said policy simulations from MAMS were used to implement the microsimulation model using the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HEIS) for 2010. In this way, poverty and inequality indicators were estimated for all scenarios.

The workshop is the final in a series of training events under the project "Strengthening Macroeconomic and Social Policy Coherence through Integrated Macro-Micro Modelling", conducted by DPAD, in close collaboration with Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC) of Jordan. The activities of the project succeeded at strengthening the capacity of Jordan policy makers to assess policies and strategies that contribute to human development, and to become better prepared to anticipate and respond to global economic crises and other external adversities that may affect human development.
Previous activities in Jordan:

 

 

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