Ruba A. Al-Zu'bi - Board Member

Ruba Al Zu’bi, Board Member, Jordan Green Building Council

With over 14 years of experience in sustainable development, Ruba has been and is still enjoying the challenge of mainstreaming environment into development. At present, she leads the establishment of the Environmental Sustainability portfolio and setting the regulatory and the institutional structure to ensure sustainable development within the designated Development and Free Zones in Jordan. Positioning the sustainability aspects as key differentiators to attract quality investment is a bigger challenge and a substantial opportunity for Jordan that Ruba is seeking to introduce through the Development and Free Zones Commission (DFZC). In addition, Al-Zu'bi is facilitating the institutional development endeavors at the DFZC and leading strategic planning, project management and monitoring and evaluation systems through acting as the Institutional Development and Project Management Director. She is contributing to the revision and update of Jordan’s National Agenda Investment and Business Climate pillar and other public policies and strategies. She is advocating for sustainability mainstreaming within International and National platforms and facilitating strategic partnerships in this field. Ruba is hopeful about Green Economy and is seeking to pilot this in some of Jordan’s Development Zones. She is a member in Jordan’s emerging CleanTech Innovation Cluster.

Ruba supervised and supported the Ministry of Environment’s Institutional and Legal reform process implemented with donors (EU and US-AID) support between 2004 – 2008 that included functional review, restructuring, strategic planning, institutional strengthening and Human Resources development in addition to decentralization strategy and capacity building. Throughout her work at the Ministry of Environment, Ruba became the first Policy and Development Director and established the various functions within this new directorate that aimed mainly at mainstreaming environmental concerns into other sectors in Jordan. In the area of environmental policy mainstreaming, Ruba acted as the institutional counterpart for the World Bank Country Environmental Analysis that proposed policy reform options to enhance environmental integration into key development sectors including industry, transport and water. Ruba acted as the national counterpart for developing a roadmap to introduce Strategic Environmental Assessment as a planning tool in Jordan. Coordinating the establishment of the legal and governance framework for Jordan Environmental Fund was among Ruba’s tasks at the Ministry of Environment. Ruba contributed to several strategic documents such as the Legal upgrading Master Plan, the State of Environment Report and the Ministry of Environment strategic plan. Ruba took the Jordanian environmental reform story to various platforms of the European Commission, European Parliament, Euro-Med and ENP building the case for enhanced partnerships and cooperation. At the World Health Organization Regional Centre for Environmental Health Activities, Ruba contributed as a consultant to several regional initiatives on top of which the Children’s Environmental Health Indicators initiative and the water and sanitation initiative. She developed the survey tools for assessing environmental health risk factors affecting children and coordinated several pilot projects within the Eastern Mediterranean Regions.

Giving back to the community, Ruba volunteers with several Jordanian NGOs and assists a number of them in their strategy development efforts and trains/mentors within several programs and for various target audience on policy, planning, and soft skills as well as sustainability issues. She is also a co-founder/Board Member of Jordan Green Building Council and leading its Membership & Networking Committee. She is a member of the Standing Committee for Environment, Sustainable Development and Water at the International Federation for Business and Professional Women.

Al Zu’bi holds a Master degree in Environmental Engineering and was trained to become a Change Agent for Organizational Strengthening. Ruba is a recipient of Eisenhower Fellowship for International Leadership, 2012. She was also amongst the first group selected to take part in the Civil Service Development Program for senior public sector officials organized by King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD) in partnership with Inspirational Development Group (IDG) and Sand Hurst Military Academy on leadership, policy and management.