Amman: The president of the Service and Public Administration Commission (SPAC), Fayez Nahar, emphasized the importance of qualified human resources in driving administrative modernization in Jordan. He highlighted that the Public Sector Modernization Roadmap serves as a critical component of the nation’s reform strategy, which includes political and economic modernization. The roadmap’s effectiveness, according to Nahar, heavily relies on the availability of skilled human capital.
According to Jordan News Agency, Nahar shared these insights during a panel at the National Dialogue titled “Toward a Strategic Partnership with Civil Society in Developing Public Administration in Jordan.” The event was organized by the Al-Hayat Center – Rased, in collaboration with the European Union and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation. Nahar pointed out that human resources are pivotal in areas such as institutional leadership, service delivery, legislative development, and organizational culture. This necessitates a comprehensive overhaul of the human resources system to align with ongoing political and economic reforms.
Nahar further stated that human resource systems need to be adaptable and responsive to global changes, allowing civil servants to integrate these developments into their performance and productivity. He introduced a new human resources framework based on three core principles: competency-based recruitment with open calls for applications to ensure fairness, a shift from personal classification to job-based classification systems, and the transition to centralized policy planning with decentralized implementation. This transformation has notably affected SPAC.
He also noted the imbalances in staffing across various departments in Jordan’s public sector. Some departments have a surplus of employees, while others face shortages. This has led to the implementation of a new regulatory framework that mandates a thorough review of institutional structures to ensure alignment with strategic plans and modernization goals.
Nahar mentioned that a joint committee, which includes civil society experts, has been established to monitor and review the annual staffing schedule. This committee evaluates the size and efficiency of the public workforce, with the 2025 staffing schedule expected to reflect modern trends in public sector employment.
According to SPAC’s statistics, there has been a significant interest in public sector jobs, with 485,000 individuals expressing interest as of early this year. This includes those unemployed or seeking to transition from the private sector. In response, the government has committed to fully adopting open, merit-based recruitment practices that focus on job-specific competencies to build an efficient and high-performing civil service.