This multi-stakeholder meeting organised by SPARK in collaboration with the European Union (EU) and SPARK’s entrepreneurship development partners in Jordan, TTi, Ruwwad Al Tanmeya and Alfanar to review and validate the startup ecosystem in Jordan and how existing programmes and services can be strengthened. 

The meeting, chaired by Rodrigo Romero Van Cutsem, Delegation of the European Union to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, was attended by various institutions, universities, donors, governmental entities, international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), startups and private sector businesses. 

Four main presentations were made during the opening ceremony, including that of Mr. Rodrigo Romero Van Cutsem,  who emphasised that: “The EU reaffirms its commitment to the modernisation, greening and diversification of the economy supported by innovation-driven growth and knowledge sharing”. 

The Regional Director and Head of Programs of Ruwwad Al Tanmeya, Mrs. Samar Dudin, expressed her gratitude for the dialogue between public-private and civil society partners in the sectors based on data, impact measurement tools and technical expertise. “We need to nurture tolerance to learn from failure; only then can we advocate reasonably and collectively.” 

Mrs Suha Abdul Rahim, Programs Director at Alfanar, stressed the importance of this programme to help enterprises to convert their data into meaningful decision-making metrics for the future and the of using the outcomes of this meeting for future discussions on the national and regional level, with a specific focus on internationalisation, scaling and synergies between stakeholders.

Afterwards, round table discussions took place to identify challenges and opportunities for strengthening innovation in the Jordanian start-up ecosystem. These discussions also covered joint research and joint programmes, in addition to enhancing lessons learned and research cooperation, sharing best practices and experiences between all actors in the ecosystem with the aim to increase the capacity of the ISOs (Innovation Support Organizations). 

This meeting is part of a series of meetings on the local and regional levels under the “Strengthening innovation through supporting cluster cooperation and start-up ecosystems in the South Neighbourhood countries” programme, funded by the European Union aiming to improve local policies/regulations supporting business support centres and Innovation hubs, and growing a business and innovation network beyond borders to exchange knowledge.