ARIJ Good Governance Dept. Conduct An Evaluation Session with the beneficiary Local Palestinian Cooperatives.

Ramallah, January 22, 2013— The Applied Research Institute- Jerusalem (ARIJ) Held an evaluating session the project titled “Developing Agro-Rural Co-operatives in Palestine towards Good Governance and better Transparency and Accountability” that targeted the Good Palestinian cooperatives on the 21st of January in Ramallah, which aimed at developing the Good Governance in the Palestinian Cooperatives.

The session was held with the participation of the Palestinian cooperatives that were targeted in the project mentioned and from the deferent districts of the West-Bank. 30 representatives of the local Palestinian cooperatives who were accompanied in the session by presence of the Olive Oil Cooperatives Union (OOCU), the General Director of the Coop. at the Ministry of labor Eng. Yusef M. J. Al-Aissa, and the Country director of the Swedish Cooperative Center (SCC) Mr. Mohamad Khaled.

“I was not convinced with the impact of the project, I was considering it as a waste of effort !! “ Noted Fayad Fayad of the OOCU, “But The importance of the project came clear with its affect being measured on the growing and developing performance, I realized that what I considered as complementary was of great importance for the other comparatives” concluded Fayad

The attendees concluded several recommendation, highlighting the need to raise the awareness on what they referred to as “The Culture of Cooperatives” on both; the cooperatives and local community levels. The very fact of the comparatives presence isn’t enough as was concluded by the vast majority. The need for the continuation of a series of development sessions and other skills related implementing best practices, all which would lead towards achieving the stated goal of Good-Governance in the Modus operandi of the comparatives.

“When I heard the testimonies of the beneficiaries during the evaluation workshop, I was sure that our effort have not gone in vain, they adopt new procedures in their cooperatives and their dialogue reflected a deep understanding of the values of good governance as well as the values of cooperatives” Noted Mona Ishaq Head of the Good Governance Department at ARIJ.