1.1.3 Culture and Youth The growth of the culture and youth sector during the past few years has led to raising awareness among all segments of society and developing youth cultural civil society institutions, by contributing to the provision of financial and logistical support to them, which is one of the most important factors in the sustainability of their positive impact. It has also led to activating the role of youth in the multiple aspects of the development process. Despite the modest cultural, youth and sports infrastructure, Jordan has made remarkable progress by increasing the number of cultural center and sports cities in several governorates. This has had a clear positive impact in the development of this sector by increasing and diversifying cultural youth activities. Large segments of society, whether individuals or civil society institutions, have benefited, from these infrastructures, which has positively increased community awareness and contributed to the economic and social development. The culture and youth sector can be an effective economic and social lever for promoting national development by investing in the cultural industries sector, known for their efficiency and ability to spread to Arab countries, especially film and drama industry, knowledge, publishing and festivals. If activated, this sector can also be a real driver for tourism development, or more specifically cultural tourism, in Jordan. ‘The promotion of cultural development in its holistic sense, and raising awareness and enlightenment, is the basis for protecting stability and ensuring civil peace in light of the growing negative societal phenomena that is threatening the stability and civil peace, such as violence in its many forms, intellectual extremism and exaggeration. The culture and youth sector, as well as the education sector, bear the greatest burden in this regard. 1.1.4 Participation in the Workforce A new development model must be built; the current development model is unable to encourage young population to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the national economy by finding decent job opportunities and support youth Innovation and entrepreneurship. The levels of participation in the workforce, and the revised participation (workforce “employed and unemployed” relative to working-age population), clearly show that Jordan, according to the World Bank, ranks215th out of 218 countries in the world in terms of level of participation in the workforce. Jordan has made little progress on this dimension of development for the past two decades. The numbers behind this outcome are important to acknowledge. The Jordanian workforce in 2013 was estimated at 1.7 million people in both formal and informal sectors. It is estimated that only 37.1% of the working age population are economically active, while 62.9% (or 2.5 million people of working age) are inactive. Distribution by gender shows that 65% of males are economically active compared to only 15% of females. In comparison, averages in the MENA region are 76% for males and 27% for females, and the world averages are 77% for males and 51% for females. Our single biggest challenge over the next decade is addressing this workforce participation challenge. Our current development model is clearly not creating the number and quality of jobs demanded by our citizens; and our citizens must be willing to take-on the jobs that are available in our economy. This is a multi-dimensional problem that requires an equally multidimensional set of policy and program responses. In particular, the low female participation rate is a significant lost opportunity for Jordan. Our current 15% rate of female participation in the workforce is amongst the lowest in the world reinforced by Jordan’s rank on the Gender Inequality Index of 99 out of 146, and 134 of 142 in the Global Gender Gap Index. Jordan ranks 13 out of 16 countries in the Middle East and Africa, lagging behind most Arab countries, including Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt Mauritania and GCC countries. Furthermore, average wage for females is 67% lower than the average wage for males in all types of jobs. 27%