ESCWA with its partners UNCIEF Jordan and the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC) in Jordan have organized their first two day online training for staff from MOPIC and Jordan’s Ministry of Finance on “Computable General Equilibrium modelling”. Around the world governments and policymakers have a growing interest in designing smarter economic policy options, particularly in the context of assessing the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and developing a national recovery plan. ESCWA is responding to this demand by directly supporting Member State in respect to capacity building and ESCWA’s Modelling Toolbox.

Within its Modelling Toolbox, ESCWA developed an interface that utilizes CGE modeling techniques to evaluate the implications that policy reforms have on a country’s economy through simulating scenarios and providing results at the macro-economic level. Additionally, the CGE model enables its users to make inferences on the impact that different sources of funding (e.g. domestic borrowing, foreign borrowing, etc.) of a particular policy reform may have. The CGE interface is country-specific and depends on the input- output table and the social accounting matrix. While, ESCWA supports in the development of country-specific CGE models, its vision and ultimate goal is to transfer the competencies needed for Member States to develop their own models and assessments.
 
The purpose of this two day training was to introduce CGE modeling techniques and the ESCWA designed CGE model interface to MOPIC staff, along with receiving their feedback for the final version of Jordan’s CGE model and providing them with a guided hands-on exercise that would consolidate the knowledge acquired during the training using ESCWA’s CGE interface.  
 
Day 1 of the training began with an introduction on the theoretical basis, the structure and the different functionalities of a CGE model. This was followed by a presentation of the beta version of Jordan’s CGE model. Finally, the session was concluded by showcasing the ESCWA designed user-friendly CGE interface through a demo of a COVID-19 productivity choc and its impact on 12 macroeconomic indicators. Day 2 took the form of a practical hand-on exercise guided by ESCWA experts regarding on case study specific to Jordan.