JABA- the American Chamber of Commerce in Jordan is fully committed to community development through promoting, facilitating and fostering meaningful economic engagement of the underprivileged communities by way of starting and managing viable micro and small enterprises. To that end in October 2001, JABA has accepted through a transparent selection process the role of Focal Point institution to proliferate and manage the Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) program upon appointment by the Ministry of Planning. The program provides comprehensive business-management training and non-financial support to the owners/managers of micro, small and growth-oriented small-medium enterprises in Jordan. The SIYB has been developed and piloted in 1999 under the "Support to Business Training for Micro and Small Enterprises" project of the Ministry of Planning/ Social Productivity Program Unit, through joint funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with project execution being carried out by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The Government of Jordan represented by the MOP has signed an agreement on 20th July 2003 with the United Nations Development for starting phase II of the "Support to Business Training for Micro and Small Enterprises" project. The ILO was contracted to develop a comprehensive set of practical training materials under the name Expand Your Business (EYB) geared for owners and managers of growth oriented small and medium enterprises with the ambition and resources to develop to their full growth potential. JABA was contracted to implement the administrative aspects of the project. The EYB program is based on four modules covering the following topics: Strategic Management, Strategic Marketing, Strategic Human Resources Management, and Strategic Financial Management.

The second phase of the project will exit in the first quarter of 2004, having fulfilled its mandated tasks of completing the development of the EYB training package, in addition to providing adequate technical capacity for the SIYB program to deliver its interventions to the beneficiary target groups.