By: Rana AlHajaia
Former Mayor
Jordan Daily - The proposal to transform Irbid and Zarqa into metropolitan authorities like Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) is being advanced without a clear public diagnosis of the challenges facing either municipality. While the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) is often presented as a successful model, its experience reflects unique economic, financial, and governance conditions that do not exist in other governorates.
Moreover, no evidence has been presented demonstrating that adopting the GAM model would improve governance, service delivery, financial sustainability, or local development outcomes in Irbid and Zarqa.
What is clear, however, is that such a model would significantly alter the relationship between local government and the central state. Through appointment mechanisms and expanded central oversight, it would increase government influence over local leadership, raising legitimate concerns that the reform is moving toward greater centralization rather than stronger local governance.
Public policy reform should begin with diagnosing problems, not prescribing solutions before their causes are fully understood. Yet no comprehensive administrative, financial, or governance assessment has been made public to explain why transforming Irbid and Zarqa into metropolitan authorities is the most appropriate solution.
Furthermore, the proposal extends far beyond a simple institutional change. It would require merging multiple municipalities into a single authority and significantly expanding administrative boundaries, creating larger and more complex governance structures whose benefits remain unproven.
The diverse development needs of communities across Irbid and Zarqa governorates cannot be ignored. A single authority may struggle to address the priorities of urban centers, rural areas, and smaller municipalities alike, potentially concentrating resources and decision-making power in major cities at the expense of peripheral communities.
At the same time, responsibility for existing municipal challenges cannot be placed solely on local councils. For more than a decade, the Ministry of Local Administration has exercised extensive authority over municipal affairs through legislation, oversight, and policy direction.
Any serious reform effort must therefore examine not only municipal performance but also the effectiveness of the centralized governance framework that has shaped the sector.
The real question is not whether municipalities should be transformed into authorities, but how Jordan can build a more effective, accountable, and development-oriented local governance system.
Meaningful reform should focus on strengthening elected local institutions, integrating planning and implementation, expanding local authority, and enhancing accountability.
Jordan does not need larger institutions or new administrative labels. It needs a modern local governance framework built on three core principles: genuine representation, genuine authority, and genuine accountability. Sustainable reform begins with understanding the real challenges and designing evidence-based solutions—not by restructuring institutions before clearly defining the problems they are meant to solve.
