The Industrial Intelligence Unit (IIU)

About

The Industrial Intelligence Unit (IIU), hosted by the Economic Policy Department (EPD) and the Industrial Development Department (IDD) of Jordan’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply (MITS), undertakes industrial intelligence to support consultative and evidence-based policy-making at the Ministry.

The Unit is supported by UNIDO’s institutional capacity building program for strategic industrial intelligence through continuous capacity-building concerning data, methodologies and tools to empower its team members to assess the performance, capabilities and market opportunities of the industrial sector in Jordan.

Regular coaching of the team is complemented by a series of awareness raising and training seminars for high-level decision makers from other stakeholders, including the Chambers of Industry in Jordan.

  •  embraces other countries, especially those in the MENA region as well as showing the regional development situation in Jordan itself whenever data are available.
  •  demonstrates the progress of women’s empowerment in the region
  •  serves as a powerful analytical tool to aid researchers and policymakers
  • acts as a communication channel between the global industrial databases: UNIDO has interlinked the observatory with the OECD to include Jordan in its databases related to TiVA.* (hover explainer on TiVA)
  • supplies the necessary data and will also contribute to convey the message of how data really talks to support evidence-based policy making in the region.
  • evaluates the quality and efficiency of the input data by conducting a comprehensive assessment of the national industrial databases that are currently in use.

Purpose

 The Industrial Intelligence Unit (IIU), together with the Industrial Intelligence Observatory (IIO), undertake industrial intelligence to support consultative and evidence-based policy-making at the Ministry. A major output of the Unit will be a Jordan Industrial Competitiveness Report. While IIO focusses on the centralisation and dissemination of industrial statistics (including through a dedicated website), IIU focusses on the analysis and drafting of the Competitiveness report and recommendations for industrial policy.

 

Analytical outputs from the Unit are developed and validated in a consultative process with public and private stakeholders and recommendations are made to feed into the next industrial policy cycle.

The expected impact will be at two levels:

  • An increased efficiency of the Ministry in formulating, implementing and monitoring an evidence-based industrial policy to support inclusive and sustainable industrial development of Jordan.
  • For the private sector in Jordan, the availability of industrial and market intelligence will facilitate the identification of opportunities for innovative products and services, as well as for markets with potential for export diversification.

Strengthening the capacities of BDS to support the development of selected Value Chains

Based on needs assessment, we provide tailored capacity reinforcement programmes, in which youth and women are specific beneficiary targets.

Capacity building of the selected institutions is provided as per developed programmes through:

  • Training of Trainers (ToT),
  • training of facilitators,
  • on-the-job training,
  • revision of training curriculums, with particular emphasis on the development of basic entrepreneurial know-how,
  • non-financial services, such as business plan formulation,
  • access to market and technology,
  • financial literacy,
  • counselling and coaching and
  • any other topic for which a need has been identified (soft skills for instance).

The specific needs of women and young people, in both rural and urban areas, will be taken into account in the design of the training content. To increase the sustainability of the programme, the newly trained will be immediately involved in the provision of direct coaching and training to entrepreneurs.

Overall, the intervention will result in the strengthening of the capacities of the selected support structures to effectively accompany the development of the targeted value chains, including by providing existing and nascent young and women entrepreneurs with the adequate services for the creation and development of competitive SMEs.