In a meeting held via Zoom on Sunday, April 24th 2022 between the Higher Population Council (HPC) and stakeholders from the Iraqi Ministry of Planning, to discuss exchanging experiences between the two sides in the field of population and development.

Assistant Secretary General/ HPC, Rania Al-Abbadi, emphasized the depth of relations between Jordan and Iraq and the importance of benefiting from mutual experiences in various fields, including population and development, indicating that Jordan attributes great importance to these causes through the HPC and in cooperation with many concerned national institutions, by preparing national strategies and plans, policies, and implementation of programs and projects that aim to support and serve these causes and contribute to achieving the well-being and prosperity of the Jordanian citizen in various fields.

Ms Abbadi pointed to the importance of exchanging knowledge and experiences amongst Arab countries on issues of population and development concerns, in such a way that contributes to upgrading and enhancing capacities and efficiency in supporting population and development issues, and developing qualitative and purposeful programs and initiatives to support these issues, and achieving the well-being of Arab societies.

During the meeting, Ms Abbadi reviewed the tasks, programs and strategic objectives of HPC, while Dr Sawsan Al-Da`jah/ Director of the Programs Unit/ HPC, gave a presentation on the National Population Strategy (2021-2030); Mr. Ghaleb Al-Azza, Technical Director and Principal Investigator/ HPC also gave a presentation on achieving and investing the population opportunity in Jordan.

On the Iraqi side, Dr Maha Al-Rawi, Director General of the Department of Human Development/ Iraqi Ministry of Planning, reviewed contents of the national document for population policies in Iraq and the rationale for updating it. Director of the Executive Department of Population Policies in the Ministry, Ms Fowz Saleh, also made an intervention on the population opportunity in Iraq.

It is noteworthy to mention that this meeting comes within the framework of the HPC endeavour to achieve one of the goals of the Arab Council for Population and Development, related to the exchange of expertise among Arab countries, as well as, based on Resolution No. (13) issued by the Arab Council in its third session regarding: coordination and exchange of experiences between Arab countries members of the Arab Council for Population and Development and the State of Iraq.