Bethlehem, November 29, 2012— Mrs. Roubina Ghattas, head of Biodiversity and Food security Department participated in a regional training titled “Nurturing NGOs Capacity to Engage in Biodiversity conservation in Eastern Mediterranean” representing the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ), a three days’ during workshop held in Amman, Jordan, organized by IUCN / MAVA development training and hosting 22 regional NGOs.

A captivated audience of 22NGOs working in the field of biodiversity from three regional countries including Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon participated in the training. The training has focused on describing in details the best NGO’s managerial, financial and technical practices to become a mature NGO. Discussions were open and round table sessions were always conducted.

Highlighting the input of ARIJ in this training, “We had valuable inputs during the discussion, our experience in organization self-assessment and our strong and mature organizational structure was taken as an example in several interventions; specifically in fund raising, in project and strategic planning, financial management and other aspects” Noted Mrs. Ghattas.

ARIJ the Palestinian partner in the AMVA project, attended the training that highlighted the main thematic areas for NGOs fundamentals during the three days training, including governance, mission/vision, financial management and sustainability, strategic planning, policy and advocacy, and people engagement

The first day was a welcoming and networking briefing day about the project and its objectives, NGOs fundamentals and capacity needs assessment results. Eng. Mufleh Abbadi, of IUCN- International Union for Conservation of Nature/ ROWA,coordinated the training with the support of two consultants: Mr. Luis Costa, Director General- SPEA /Portugal and Mr. Jose Tavares, country Programmes Officer – RSPB/ UK .

The second day was conduct in a round table sessions form where each NGO fundamental was discussed in details from each NGO perspective. Several recommendations came out of the second day including: 2 leaning project will be conducted in Palestine and 2 in Lebanon and three in Jordan. Four training workshops were specified in accordance to countries capacity field in needs including one in financial management and sustainability, second in policy and advocacy, third in fund raising, and fourth in climatic change and biodiversity methods.

During the third day an individual interviews were conducted with participated organizations to discuss their strength and weakness in private with consultants and accordingly twinning schemes were specified at individual level and among the different NGOs. ARIJ specified initially some twining schemes with Lebanese and Jordanian active NGOs.

Of the selected Learning Projects in Palestine is ARIJ’s project on Palestinian protected areas sustainability and rehabilitation, project is entitled: “Palestinian forests Sustainability and Rehabilitation”. The project methods, actions and results will be shared with IUCN /MAVA project partners to benefit key regional stakeholders.

“ARIJ presented its experience in the field as a strong and mature NGO”, concluded Mrs. Ghattas

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Public Relations Department | Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem | ARIJ|
Tel: +972 2 2741889 ext. 431| Fax: + 972 2 2776966| pmaster@arij.org