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JICA Jordan’s Chief Representative hopes for ‘peace and stability’ in the Middle East

JICA Jordan’s Chief Representative MIYAHARA Chie in the Amman office. (ANJ Photo)
JICA Jordan’s Chief Representative MIYAHARA Chie in the Amman office. (ANJ Photo)
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13 Jan 2022 02:01:29 GMT9
13 Jan 2022 02:01:29 GMT9

Diana Farah

DUBAI: The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has a vision and strong presence in the Middle East, with offices established in Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria and Jordan.

Speaking exclusively to Arab News Japan, JICA’s Jordan office’s Chief Representative MIYAHARA Chie said she joined the organization in 1999, where she was mainly in charge of Middle Eastern countries.

Her first assignment in Jordan was in 2005-08, after which returned to JICA’s HQ for 11 years, before returning back to the Arab country.

“Four years of those 11 years in HQ, I was working at the department of the Middle East in different capacities,” she said. “In a way, it is very natural to come back to the region, especially Jordan. My first assignment here was very interesting, I asked my Human Resource department if I could come back.”

Chie said one of the more stable countries in the region was Jordan, with its “good diplomatic relations” with its neighboring countries.

“During my first assignment, we didn’t call the Jordan office a regional one, but we brought a lot of experts to the Jordan office and these experts help neighboring countries,” the chief representative said, adding: “the “regional” experts I worked with were in the water sector, the environment sector, the health sector. These experts helped not only people in Jordan, but also Palestine, Syria and Egypt at the time.”

With regards to the water sector, Chie explained that Jordan’s water usage caused some challenges.

“What we do is to help people get water in more effective ways, so we improve the water distribution pipeline,” she said. “We want to make sure the water distribution is equal between Jordan’s citizens and Syrian refugees after 2011. We focus on the area where the refugee presence is larger, for example in the north.”

Chie told Arab News Japan that JICA cooperates with Jordan’s Zai Water Treatment Plant, which is one of the biggest water provider in Amman.

She said, in a way, the plant helps provide good quality water to Palestinian and Syrian refugees, living in Amman.

“For Syrian refugees, our support includes the water distribution, solid waste management and health sectors, among others” she added.

JICA’s Chief Representative explained that they also provided assistance to Jordanian citizens in the south with family planning and gender empowerment. “We use the same methods from the past with Jordanians to help Syrian refugees in the north. We aid in the health sector,” Chie said.

In Syrian refugee camp, namely Zaatari camp, several instructors trained from JICA trained Syrian refugees so that when they can go back to Syria, they can find a job. There is also a group of volunteers who work with Syrian refugees in Zaatari Camp.

“Before COVID-19, we had 4 volunteers working in the camp, who worked with different NGOs,” she said. “Sometimes the Japanese volunteers teach English language to young students, or they teach and work together to do some sports, like football and gymnastics.”

JICA also provides a Master’s degree program, where Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon are invited to study in Japan” Chie explained.

The program is named the ‘JISR’ program, which translates to ‘bridge’ in Arabic.

Chie said she hoped her work in the region will help achieve stability and peace. “Some things take many years, we have to work patiently,” she added.

She also said Japan was a neutral country in the Middle East, which could help mobilize the relationship in the region.

With regards to COVID-19’s impact on JICA’s activities in Jordan, Chie told Arab News Japan that the pandemic forced all of their volunteers in Jordan to go back to Japan due to safety restrictions and border closures in March 2020.

“Until now, only one of the volunteers has come back. Now we have 4 or 5 in total, including new volunteers” she said.

Chie’s interest in the region sparked during childhood when she read history books about Egypt’s dynasty era. During her university years, she took one year abroad in Egypt. She then joined the UN upon graduation from master’s program in the US and covered countries like Somalia, Afghanistan and some Iraqi operations.

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