Governorate councils were established in Jordan in 2017 under the decentralization law of 2015 and given the responsibility to develop policies, plans and projects that respond to the needs of their local communities. Although these councils held authority, they had no history or foundation of how to take on such tasks. With the support of USAID CITIES, all 12 Governorate councils officially approved their own 2019-2022 Strategic Development Plan. Considering that governorate projects used to be proposed, developed and implemented by the ministries in Amman, the development of plans and budgets for 2019, solely by the governorates, is unprecedented!