ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of foreign aid in the economic development of Jordan. The World Bank sent a mission to study the economy of Jordan and to make recommendations. The mission reported that Jordan had achieved a rapid expansion in economic activity since 1948, but the report added: Overall, the expansion of economic activity has been far from sufficient to absorb the increase in the population of the working age, and all those displaced by the Arab-Israeli war. In April 1978 there were 677,945 refugees registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in East Jordan and a further 309,359 on the West Bank. Thus, the influx of Palestinian refugees, the meagre natural resources and the high natural rate of population growth compounded Jordan's need for foreign aid if the country was to develop and grow.
