VZCZCXRO5670
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHAM #2404/01 3051334
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
P 011334Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY 0381
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6212
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 002404 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
PLEASE PASS TO NEA/ELA, MEPI, NEA/PPD, S/P, AND R 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/01/2019 
TAGS: EAID PREL OEXC SOCI JO
SUBJECT: JORDAN:  NSC DELEGATION DISCUSSES CAIRO INITIATIVES 
 
REF: AMMAN 1676 
 
Classified By: Ambassador R. Stephen Beecroft for reasons 1.4 (b) and ( 
d) 
 
¶1.  (SBU) A five-member delegation led by NSC Senior Director 
for Global Engagement Pradeep Ramamurthy visited Jordan from 
October 6-9 to discuss initiatives laid out in the 
President's June 4 speech in Cairo.  The delegation also 
included representatives from the Secretary's Policy Planning 
Staff, NEA/PI and R/PPR. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) In-house meetings included sessions with the 
reduced Country Team, USAID, the regional Environment Science 
and Technology Hub officer, Public Affairs, and the Middle 
East Partnership Initiative coordinator.  Discussions focused 
on current Jordanian and Mission activities in key areas for 
engagement laid out in the Cairo speech, as well as potential 
for broadening these efforts, as described earlier this year 
in reftel.  The delegation also met with local contacts 
involved in civil society and interfaith dialogue, exchange 
programs, workforce development, entrepreneurship and science 
and technology, who expressed the following: 
 
--Interfaith Dialogue/Outreach to Muslims:  In a coffee at 
the DCM's residence, community leaders, professors and 
Islamic Studies students praised the President's Cairo speech 
and its focus on renewing the relationship between the U.S. 
and Muslim communities around the world.  They expressed 
eagerness in concrete mechanisms to facilitate a fair, 
balanced dialogue with the U.S., especially to calibrate U.S. 
perceptions of Islam and the Middle East and to get a better 
understanding of this partnership. 
 
--Educational Exchanges:  In meetings at the office of the 
Middle East Partnership Initiative Alumni (MEPI) coordinator, 
alumni asserted that Jordanians who have returned from U.S. 
exchange programs are natural allies and have effectively 
shared their experience with their fellow citizens, including 
those from isolated areas who assist in community organizing. 
 MEPI alumni have been particularly active in organizing 
community outreach projects and involving Jordanian youth in 
alumni activities.  Separately, alumni of the office of 
Educational and Cultural Affairs voiced a desire to leverage 
their U.S. experiences more effectively to contribute to 
needs in Jordan. 
 
--Workforce Development:  USAID hosted an off-site discussion 
on workforce development for delegation member Greg Behrman 
of the Secretary's Policy Planning staff.  Jordanian business 
leaders and USAID-supported workforce development projects 
emphasized the critical need to develop both technical and 
"soft" skills in young Jordanians seeking employment in 
competitive industries such as tourism and IT.  Lack of 
"soft" skills such as the ability to work effectively in 
teams was cited as a major barrier to youth employment.  To 
address this challenge, USAID is serving thousands of 
Jordanian youth--85,000 total last year--with 
capacity-building training, internship experiences, and job 
opportunities through its education and economic growth 
portfolios.  Jordan's growing youth population and the 
related issue of rising urban poverty form major pillars of 
USAID's development program. 
 
--Entrepreneurship: At a lunch for Science and Technology 
entrepreneurs and in a meeting with alumni from the Middle 
East Entrepreneur Training, contacts expressed renewed 
optimism in U.S. support to the Middle East and voiced 
appreciation for a U.S. focus on economic development 
opportunities.  They highlighted several obstacles to 
regional economic development and entrepreneurship, 
including:  a lack of education/training, a lack of an 
entrepreneurial spirit that led most graduates to seek stable 
government jobs, a fear of failure and taking risks, the lack 
of access to capital, a lack of sustainability, and an 
increased need for mentoring and networking.  Entrepreneurs 
sought U.S. support for training and technology and financial 
assistance for innovative research and development. 
 
--Science and Technology:  At a roundtable, leading S&T 
experts spoke of the support that Jordan is offering 
scientists through the Royal Scientific Society and the 
Higher Council for Science and Technology.  They noted that 
despite the number of S&T graduates in Jordan, the country 
lacked a mechanism to nurture scientists and engineers, which 
led the most qualified Jordanians to go abroad for work. 
Experts sought improved access to funding programs for 
training, research and scholarships for Jordanians to study 
abroad to improve the efforts of scientists here. 
 
AMMAN 00002404  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶4.   (S/NF) In in-house meetings, delegation members 
expressed particular interest in initiatives being led by the 
regional U.S. Environment, Science and Technology Hub officer 
(such as the proposed Arab American Science Partnership), 
Embassy engagement with Islamists, ongoing entrepreneurship 
and job creation programs, including USAID's Jordan Business 
Development project (otherwise known as SABEQ), and education 
and exchanges. In coming weeks, Post plans to send in a 
series of primers via septels laying out how Jordan and the 
Mission are engaged and suggestions on how these initiatives 
could be broadened and strengthened. 
 
¶5.  (U) NSC members of the delegation cleared this cable. 
Beecroft