LocationsEmpowering Jordanian Women Through Creativity & Sustainability
May 14, 2025
Creative Confidence Training in Petra
Creativity is more than just making something beautiful; it is about solving problems, sparking innovation, and building confidence. Nevertheless, for many women artisans in Jordan who produce tourist products, expressing their creativity remains a challenge. At the UNDP Accelerator Lab Jordan, we set out to change that by nurturing creative confidence and introducing a fundamental concept: the circular economy.
Our research into Jordan’s tourism sector revealed a pressing issue. Local touristic products often lacked the distinctive touch of their makers. Instead, many had become generic, Westernised, and mass-produced, stripped of the cultural richness that once defined them. This shift, driven by consumerism and the demands of mass markets, diluted the authenticity of Jordan’s artisanal identity.
To address this, we placed creative confidence at the heart of our approach. As IDEO defines it, creative confidence is “the notion that you have big ideas and that you have the ability to act on them.” Our goal was to help women artisans tap into their creativity to design unique, high-quality products that tell their own stories and reflect the essence of Jordanian culture.
Creative confidence is rooted in the belief that everyone has the natural ability to generate innovative ideas and the courage to bring them to life. This concept, developed by Tom and David Kelley, asserts that creativity is not a rare gift but a skill that can be nurtured with the right mindset and support.
Closely related is creative self-efficacy, a person’s belief in their ability to produce creative outcomes. Based on Albert Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, creative self-efficacy focuses on whether individuals see themselves as capable of generating original ideas and effective solutions (Tierney & Farmer, 2002). Education plays a key role here: enhancing cognitive skills lays the groundwork for a stronger sense of creative potential.
The Experiment: Boosting Creative Confidence Through Art and Circular Innovation
To put our ideas into action, the UNDP Accelerator Lab Jordan designed an experiment to explore whether creativity can be nurtured and how it can empower women to innovate sustainably. Our hypotheses were:
H1:Women and youth will report higher levels of creative confidence after attending an artistic capacity-building training
H2:Increased creative self-efficacy is positively associated with the perceived marketability of women and youth's products.
These hypotheses came to life through a short, immersive programme titled the Artistic Capacity Building for Product Innovation workshop. Developed in collaboration with Jordanian artist and lecturer Raed Ibrahim, the workshop combined theory, practice, and independent creation in a hands-on learning environment.
Fifteen Women artisans from five community-based organisations (CBOs) in Petra and Shobak attended the first workshop. The format encouraged active learning and immediate application. Participants prototyped new products using reclaimed materials, experimented with sustainable packaging ideas, and reimagined traditional designs through a modern, eco-conscious lens.
A key focus was the colour theory, how colour choices impact emotion, aesthetics, and marketability. Equally important was the introduction of circular economy principles, which challenge the traditional take-make-dispose model.
This experiment was about more than technical training. It was about unlocking potential, helping women artisans overcome creative barriers, gain confidence, and see themselves as producers, designers, innovators, and storytellers.
Women Training During the first Creative Confidence Workshop
The Results: A Measurable Boost in Creative Confidence and Sustainable Innovation
To evaluate the impact of the Artistic Capacity Building for Product Innovation workshop, we measured participants’ creative self-efficacy before and after the training using the Creative Self-Efficacy Scale (Shaw et al., 2021). The scale consists of six items rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = definitely not; 5 = definitely yes). Scores were summed to produce a total creative self-efficacy score, with higher values indicating greater perceived creative ability. Before the workshop, participants reported an average total score of 26.27 (SD = 2.25). Immediately after the workshop, this score rose to 27.6 (SD = 2.97), reflecting a measurable boost in their belief in their creative abilities, a notable increase in such a short time frame, especially for a pilot initiative.
This 1-point average improvement in creative confidence indicates that even a brief, focused intervention could have a meaningful effect. As this was our first experiment, the results were incredibly encouraging for us at the UNDP Accelerator Lab Jordan.
But the numbers only tell part of the story.
One month after the workshop, we followed up with three participating community-based organisations (CBOs): Al Anbat, Al Janoob, and Shobak Women’s Cooperative. Their stories were inspiring and underscored the workshop’s lasting impact.
Al Anbat integrated new, bolder colour palettes into their jewellery designs, inspired by the workshop’s colour theory module.
At Al Janoob, older women artisans began confidently using artistic terminology they had previously felt was out of reach.
Across the CBOs, women introduced new products made from recycled materials, directly applying the circular economy principles they had learned.
Participants also spoke about their personal transformation. Beyond improving their craft, the workshop helped them shift their mindset—from simply producing goods to embracing their identities as creative thinkers and changemakers.
"The workshop was extremely valuable in my personal life, helped me coordinate the colors in my outfit. I loved the colour-matching session!"Bashayer Shayesh - Al Janoob Women’s Association
"The workshop helped us become more productive, leading to a slight increase in our revenue. The skills we gained made a real difference in our work."Halima Al Hamadeen - Nabatean Ladies Cooperation.
These outcomes reinforce our belief that investing in creativity and sustainability is a powerful tool for empowerment. With their enhanced skills and newfound confidence, these women are now better equipped to create products that are not only beautiful but sustainable, marketable, and deeply rooted in Jordanian culture.
This experiment results provides preliminary support to our hypotheses. Thus, we plan to expand the workshop to reach more participants, testing its content with diverse groups to better understand its broader impact. Our next phase will thoroughly assess the intervention’s effectiveness and hypotheses, including whether the observed increase in creative self-efficacy holds statistical significance across larger sample sizes. This will allow us to refine the curriculum, adapt it to different contexts, and strengthen the evidence base for creative capacity building as a tool for empowerment and sustainable innovation.
Through these continued efforts, we aim to scale the initiative in collaboration with local partners, ensuring that creativity and sustainability become the driving forces behind the evolution of Jordan’s tourist product market.
References
Shaw A, Kapnek M, & Morelli N. A. (2021). Measuring Creative Self-Efficacy: An Item Response Theory Analysis of the Creative Self-Efficacy Scale. Front. Psychol. 12:678033. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.678033
Tierney, P., & Farmer, S. M. (2002). Creative self-efficacy: Its potential antecedents and relationship to creative performance. Academy of Management Journal, 45(6), 1137–1148. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069429