AMMAN — Ambassador of the Netherlands to Jordan Harry Verweij on Wednesday hosted a ceremony celebrating the selection of eight Jordanian companies that will receive financial support in the second phase of the Dutch Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) in Amman.

CEOs, private sector representatives, universities, ecosystem actors and government officials attended the event.

The second phase of CFYE aims to create more jobs and improve the quality of work for young people, especially women, according to a CFYE statement.

This phase will provide the eight Jordanian businesses with a total of 5.5 million euros. During the event, the selected businesses introduced their solutions for increasing youth employment opportunities within their companies.

“The Netherlands is committed to promoting a strong and thriving private sector in Jordan. The CFYE approach is unique; private businesses receive direct investments to incentivise them to grow. These investments are conditional to creating decent jobs and prospects for young people,” said Ambassador Verweij.

The CFYE operates by inviting the private sector, civil society and knowledge institutions to submit proposals for initiatives that will pave the way towards creating scalable solutions for more and better jobs for youth.

“We are looking forward to kicking off these eight new partnerships with private sector entities in Jordan. All the selected initiatives will provide scalable and sustainable solutions to create, improve and match youth to jobs. These solutions will focus on bridging the mismatch between the demand for high-quality jobs and the supply of skilled labour. They aim to help fulfil the aspirations of young women and men in Jordan,” said Lina Alkhawaja, Country Lead- CFYE Jordan.

The eight selected businesses are: Al Durra International For Food Products, Livinc, Green Circle, International Company for Outsourcing, MadfooatCom for ePayments PSC, Najeeb Dawabeh and Partners Co, Webhelp Jordan and Al Shaab Roastery. It is expected that these different solutions will create, match and improve 12,570 new jobs.

The first CFYE call in Jordan was launched in 2020. A total amount of 1.4 million euros was awarded to three businesses: International for Uniforms and Giveaways (IUG), Anabtawi Sweets and Salalem. Altogether these projects created, matched and improved 2,464 jobs, the statement said.

The CFYE is a seven-year programme funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The fund is managed by Palladium Group, Randstad and Voluntary Service Overseas. It aims to create a prosperous future for 230,000 young women and men in the Middle East, North Africa, Sahel, West Africa and the Horn of Africa by supporting youth employment initiatives that create opportunities for decent work — work that provides better chances for personal development, is productive, offers a stable income, social protection and safe working conditions. To achieve this, the fund has committed a total of 150 million euros globally.

 

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