ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to give an overview of the NGO sector in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. One can most readily distinguish between NGOs, on the one hand, and civil society actors, like political parties, professional associations, trade unions and business associations, on the other, most obviously in terms of what the NGOs do not do. For, unlike the civil society actors, the NGOs’ function is, ideally speaking, not to achieve direct political or economic gain, power and influence on behalf of their own constituency within the sphere of state or economy. The primary objective of their activities is to promote the common interests and/or convictions of (groups of) citizens outside of the realm of competition and struggle for direct political or economic power within these two spheres. They can serve this objective in various ways, such as delivering services to certain target groups that need them or advocacy work aimed at influencing legislation and policy (albeit from the outside) on behalf of a constituency. It must be noted, however, that in actual Jordanian practice, links between NGO work and competition (by NGO representatives) in the economic and especially political realm do exist.
