Reviving the folklore and cultural heritage

1. Amman and culture

Amman is Jordan’s capital, and its economic, political, and cultural hub. It represents around 42% of Jordan’s overall population, with a population growth mostly due to an enormous influx of refugees and internal migrations. This has brought about various obstacles, such as the blending of diverse cultures and the dispersal of society’s cultural identity; a high unemployment and poverty rates; and poor awareness of folklore especially among children.

The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM), through the Community Development Sector and Zaha Center, worked to identify the needs of the inhabitants through various cultural events, nominal community focus group and needs studies. The most common needs were affordable courses in handicrafts, economic empowerment, and job opportunities for the youth.

The needs of the inhabitants were identified through various cultural events, nominal community focus groups and studies.

2. Objectives and implementation of the project

2.1. Main goal and specific objectives

The general aim of the program is to revitalize the popular and cultural heritage through the development of cultural awareness, cultural heritage and introduce less-known tourist areas, and train on traditional handicrafts. The specific goals are:

1. Promoting cultural awareness and cultural heritage, and introducing lesser-known tourism destinations.
2. Training on traditional handicrafts through workshops and training courses.
3. Spreading the culture of digitalization, technology, and innovation by connecting handicrafts to 3D manufacturing, with a number of popular tourism destinations picked in each governorate of Jordan.
4. Training and empowering beneficiaries to work in the vocational and handicrafts sectors; supporting them to raise income with advice and capacity building in project management and marketing programs; collaborating with the Agricultural Credit Corporation (ACC) to support these projects.
5. Consolidating the volunteer culture and improving social cohesion.

The project revitalizes popular and cultural heritage through the development of cultural awareness and cultural heritage, while introducing ledd-known tourist areas and training people on traditional handicrafts.

2.2. Development of the project 

The GAM Community Development Sector and Zaha Center launched this program in 2022, which includes:

• Awareness workshops to introduce popular folklore (costumes, songs, dances, foods, and handicrafts).
• Training workshops in popular handicrafts (hoop and stitch, straw and clay industries, resin, mosaic, paint on ceramics and pottery, sand drawing and embroidery).
• Assistance to trainees to sell and promote their work, and revitalize the cultural legacy. In this regard, festivals and bazaars were organized, assembling popular folklore teams of trainees, and enabling their participation in local and international festivals.
• Contribution to tackling poverty and unemployment, empowering participants cognitively and economically through project management training, job opportunities, utilizing distinguished trainees by appointing them as certified trainers or volunteers at the center, and, finally, facilitating loan obtaining in collaboration with governmental institutions and NGOs.

The program was conducted in two phases. The first was in 2022 in the center’s main branch (Amman Khalda), comprising:

1. Cultural awareness through workshops and training courses.
2. Handicrafts.
3. Festivals and cultural events.

The second phase was in 2023. Due to the increasing demand, the implementation of these projects expanded to include all of the center’s 25 branches, 7 in the capital, Amman, and 18 in the governorates of the Kingdom. This aimed to reduce waves of internal migration from villages to the capital, thus reducing pressure, unemployment and poverty rates. In 2023, a new project was also launched: the Economic Empowerment and Employment Project.

To ensure the success of the program and achieve its objectives, an operational plan was prepared, where the actions, time frame, responsibilities, human, material and financial resources, and expected risks were determined. The main projects actions were as follows:

1. Workshops to raise cultural and heritage awareness for children, youth and women, with 1150 cultural awareness courses, and 15 979 beneficiaries.
2. Arts and performing arts programs (folklore) for age groups from 6 to 18 years, with 300 courses (drawing, photography, Dubka, theater...) and 4300 beneficiaries. Also, more than 790 festivals and cultural events were organized in the center, with 98505 beneficiaries.
3. Popular handicraft programs for children, youth and women, with 238 courses, 3565 beneficiaries, 9000 products produced, and a 15 000 dinars revenue from the sale of products.
4. Design and production of handicraft products and using technology and AI in some of the production lines.
5. Opening Zaha shop and organizing cultural events, festivals and bazars.
6. Assembling and forming popular folklore teams by attracting outstanding trainees specially youth and children.
7. Participation of Zaha teams in local, Arab and international events and festivals.
8. Empowering youth and women and providing funding to start their own businesses in cooperation with the Agricultural Credit Corporation.

These works were carried out by all departments of the Zaha Center included in the organizational structure, accredited trainers and volunteers from local civil society. Also, the project had partnerships with international organizations and governmental institutions, with NGOs, Civil Society Organizations, private companies, and government partners (such as Local Municipalities, Development and Employment Fund, Agricultural Credit Corporation, and Crown Prince Foundation). The program is also aligned with the GAM Strategic Plan (2022-2026).

3. Impacts

3.1. Direct impacts

The program has had a tremendous impact on the city and its citizens as follows:

• Raising the cultural awareness index by 3% (2023).
• Supporting the local economy by reducing unemployment and employing a large number of trainers, in addition to training and empowering young men and women to start their own projects.
• Raising awareness about the importance of integrating arts, culture and heritage into municipal planning. 17 local municipalities adopted the program, also reducing internal migration rates from villages to the capital.
• Improving the tourism index in Jordan by introducing important and lesser known tourist areas in the kingdom. This was done by manufacturing copper models of ancient archaeological sites with a brief description (their history, heritage and culture), and then selling these craft products to the local and foreign tourists. Also, government institutions and ministries of tourism adopted these products as souvenirs for visitors and delegations.

Youth and women were empowered to start their own businesses in cooperation with the agricultural credit corporation.

3.2. Evaluation

Completion rates for the programs are monitored periodically. Key performance indicators are determined to monitor and evaluate the outcomes, according to a time frame compatible with the program’s operational plan.

Then, the KPIs results are provided by Zaha Center to the Strategic Planning Department in GAM to be presented to the institution’s management. Among the most important indicators are: number of training programs, number of beneficiaries, beneficiaries’ satisfaction, number of beneficiaries who started their own projects, number of funded trainees, number of trainers and operators.

Internally, projects are monitored and evaluated through the follow-up and evaluation guide used at Zaha Center, by preparing follow-up plan. The used tools, including cameras (all training halls are covered with them), field visits, and satisfaction surveys.

3.3. Key factors

The program success factors are:

• The good reputation of Zaha Center, as it is one of the administrative units of GAM. It is safe area, easily accessible, with 25 branches spread all over Jordan. In addition, the diversity of services and target groups contribute to achieve this.
• The diversity of cultural training sessions that designed to serve the general program goal and to meet the needs of the local community.
• Trust and mutual interactive participatory relationship between the center and inhabitants through GAM communication approach and plans that clarify the goal, means and purpose of communication.
• The center is the first accredited center in the region that provides free services for training and empowering inhabitants especially in handcrafts. As it is locally accredited by the Technical and Vocational Skills Development Authority, governmentally accredited by the Ministry of Education, and internationally accredited by the International Labor Organization.
• Availability of the infrastructure and resources required to implement the program, especially the specialized trainers.
• Spreading the culture of volunteer work among the center’s pioneers (reaching 60 thousand volunteers).
• Societal inclusion of refugees into Jordanian society, their acceptance and participation.

3.4. Continuity

GAM, Zaha Cultural Center, was keen on the continuity of the program through:

• Effective planning and preparation of plans that identify actions, responsibilities, resources, budget, risk plans, follow-up and monitoring plans, and continuous improvement plans in accordance with the center’s studies, community needs, receive feedback and KPI results.
• There is a royal support for the center and the program, as:
  1. Allocating a budget from the Royal Court to implement the program.
  2. The Crown Prince Foundation provided 3D printers, contributing to raise product quality and reducing defects, as well as introducing technology and AI to the program.
• Zaha Center bylaw provides the center with the financial and administrative independence, thus facilitating implementing the program, cooperating with national and international organizations and signing many agreements to implement the program (namely, the Jordanian Red Crescent, the Agricultural Credit Corporation, and the Development and Employment Fund).

4. Further information

Greater Amman was a candidate for the sixth UCLG Mexico City – Culture 21 – International Award (November 2023 – March 2024). The jury for the award drew up its final report in June 2024, and requested that the Committee on Culture promote this project as one of the good practices to be implemented through Agenda 21 for culture.

This article was written by Raniah Ibrahim Subeh, CEO of Zaha Cultural Center, Amman, Greater Amman, Jordan.

Contact: CEO (at) zaha.gov.jo / najoud.a (at) ammancity.gov.jo / rama.o (at) ammancity.gov.jo
Web site: www.ammancity.gov.jo