Jordan Roots & Innovation Fellowship

The comparative evidence base is unusually strong: Birthright Israel (900,000+ participants at roughly $5,000 each) and Onward Israel prove the model at scale, and Birthright Armenia shows a small program converting roughly 300 of about 2,400 alumni into permanent settlers. But no heritage program anywhere publishes rigorous alumni investment or business-formation data — the economic case must be built by design (an alumni pipeline into the Talent and Investment Networks), not assumed from precedent. Launch requires host MoUs, multi-year funding, safeguarding infrastructure and a visa-extension solution, which is why this is not a year-one deliverable.

Cohorts of 15–20 (scaling to at most 30) placed with accelerators, hospitals in strictly observer status, university labs, companies and social enterprises — every fellow ships a deliverable: a consulting sprint for a Jordanian SME, an innovation-challenge capstone, or a co-authored research output, at about 30 hours per week. Modeled all-in cost is roughly $4,550–6,500 per fellow for eight weeks, against a subsidized participant contribution of $1,000–1,500 with means-tested scholarships — a fully free model is deferred because it rests on philanthropy at a scale a new program cannot assume. A reciprocal J-1 intern track for Jordanian youth at Jordanian-American U.S. companies pre-empts one-way-extraction criticism.

Jordan: host organizations receiving vetted, managed analytical capacity; the longer-run alumni pipeline. The U.S.: young Jordanian-Americans gaining professional roots and Arabic-language grounding. The diaspora: the next generation converted from audience into participants, with a five-year longitudinal evaluation copying the Brandeis matched-control methodology.

A neutral program operator — an existing Jordanian or diaspora NGO or foundation — runs delivery; universities partner on credit, recruitment and evaluation; ecosystem partners (accelerators, the cancer center, youth-foundation programs) host. Safeguarding is designed in: ages 18 and over only for the pilot, codes of conduct, host vetting with named supervisors, a 24/7 in-country point person, evacuation insurance and an incident log. The eight-week format exceeds the 30-day visa-on-arrival, so program-managed extensions are budgeted and verified each cycle.

Not yet authorized

A 20-person pilot cohort costs roughly $100–130K at the modeled per-fellow cost — scenario-labeled. Funding: participant contributions, Jordanian and Jordanian-American philanthropy, corporate sponsors and diaspora giving campaigns; public co-funding only if the concept were ever adopted. No outcome is promised beyond what the published evaluation measures.

Scenario estimate — not a commitment, not a forecast.

Economic impact scenarios

Months 0–6: design, two-year funding, at least ten host MoUs, an evaluation partner. Months 6–12: pilot cohort of 15–20. Discontinue if completion falls below 70% for two consecutive cohorts, after any unresolved serious safeguarding breach, if host satisfaction falls below 3/5 for two cycles, or if secured funding falls below 70% of budget.

Completion (at or above 90%); capstone delivered (at or above 85%); host satisfaction (at or above 4/5); 12-month network retention (at or above 60%); three-year return-to-Jordan rates measured against matched non-participants; alumni entries into the Talent and Investment Networks.

Perceived as tourism — work contract, 30 hours per week, deliverable-or-no-certificate. Safeguarding — 18+ only, codes of conduct, vetting, 24/7 point person, removal protocol. Immigration and medical compliance — observer-only hospital tracks, program-managed visa extensions, compliance officer. Funding collapse after free-model expectations — subsidized-not-free from day one with two years secured before cohort one.

• concept — not funded
• Not yet authorized

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