Category: General

The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation has launched task teams to prepare Jordan’s 2nd Voluntary National Review report, or VNR, which is scheduled to be presented at the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) meeting next July in New York.

According to a ministry statement on Saturday, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Jordan, Ghulam M. Isaczai, attended the workshop to outline 2nd VNR, alongside all stakeholders who include representatives of government institutions, United Nations organizations, civil society institutions and the private sector.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, the ministry’s Secretary-General and Chairman of the Supreme National Committee for Sustainable Development, Marwan Rifai, said this workshop represents an “true” beginning to develop a document that includes the “real” evaluation of national efforts aimed to achieve the sustainable development goals.

The 2nd VNR will be presented next July during the HLPF meeting at the United Nations in New York, under the title: “Building Forward Better after Covid -19 towards achieving the 2030 Agenda,” Rifai pointed out.

Jordan, he said, has committed to implementing the sustainable development agenda since its launch in 2015, and has accomplished many of its objectives related to eradicating poverty and hunger, and improving the citizens’ living standards by providing quality education and health services.

In parallel, he noted measures are taken to conserve environment, provide clean energy and water, and intensify efforts to contain the climate change impacts, noting that Jordan submitted its first VNR in 2017, and was one of the first countries to launch the review process.

Challenges related to the Syrian refugee crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic still ravage the Kingdom’s developmental gains made over years. However, Jordan’s government continues to work to link sustainable development goals with various governmental and national policies, strategies and programs, with the aim of accelerating the desired progress in implementing the agenda items, Rifai pointed out.

SOURCE: JORDAN NEWS AGENCY

The Ministry of Agriculture said Saturday its emergency teams responded to hundreds of incidents and complaints, many of them were falling trees, during the snowstorm that swept across the Kingdom.

Agriculture Minister Khaled Hnaifat said crews dealt with dozens of incidents of downed trees that blocked roads or branches falling on power lines and causing outages or disruptions, adding that the Amman response crews were reinforced to promptly deal with citizens’ complaints.

Hnaifat directed ministry personnel to assess the damage to trees at institutions and sports facilities, and replace fallen trees with ones that withstand severe weather conditions and snow, such as carob, cypress and peppertree.

The minister said post-storm work continues to trim or remove trees that were affected by snow, adding that the ministry is monitoring any attempt at deforestation, using the weather as a pretext.

Hnaifat said the ministry is tracking weather forecasts and possible frost formation and assessing the impact of freezing in production zones.

SOURCE: JORDAN NEWS AGENCY

Saturday will see a slight rise in temperatures, and the weather will be very cold. However, light showers of rain are forecast in Kingdom’s northern and central areas with southwesterly moderate winds, Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD) said in its daily update.

In its report, the JMD warns of the danger of slippery roads due to the accumulated snow, fog-caused low horizontal visibility and frost formation in the early morning and late night hours, especially over hilltops and the possibility of flooding due to melting snow.

On Sunday, another slight rise in temperatures is forecast and the weather will be stable and very cold almost countrywide and relatively cold in the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea and Aqaba, During the late night hours, many areas will see frost formation, the JMD noted.

As for Monday, the weather will be very cold almost countrywide. During the evening hours, the Kingdom will be affected by a weak state of atmospheric instability, and showers of rain are forecast occasionally in the Kingdom’s northern and central regions, the JMD pointed out.

Also on Saturday, mercury in the capital Amman will range between a high of 7 degrees Celsius and a low of -2 degrees during night hours, meanwhile Aqaba will see a fair 19C, dipping into 8C at night.

SOURCE: JORDAN NEWS AGENCY