Towards Good Water Governance: An Analysis of Jordan’s National Water Strategy

Jordan is considered one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. As a result, Jordan took several steps toward good water governance by setting goals, policies, strategies, and plans. However, several research studies show that it should be strengthened and improved. Research has shown that good water governance is necessary to achieve water security, and several frameworks have been developed to research these challenges (e.g., Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) framework). This study aims to evaluate water security governance in Jordan and identify gaps and challenges for good water governance. To achieve the research objective, various qualitative methods and analytical frameworks were used. A two-level framework was followed by combing the OECD Principles on Water Governance (2015) and the OECD Water Governance Indicator Framework (2018) to analyze Jordan’s National Water Strategy 2016–2025 (NWS) through direct content analysis. The study findings showed that Jordan’s NWS managed to capture to some extent, good water governance principles for Policy Framework, but failed to provide Governance Mechanisms for implementation. Furthermore, the study showed that the water governance Institutional Setup is relatively well established. Regarding the implementation and functionality of the principles analyzed, the performance of each of the principles tended to vary. The study revealed that Jordan should take serious steps toward a water governance reform that puts good water governance principles and practices in the center, to achieve water security.