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Back-to-Back Workshops on Building Capacities in Local and Participatory Social Development

15
-
20
February
2010
Location: 
Beirut

Two back-to-back workshops on "Building Capacities in Local and Participatory Development" were held in Beirut from 15 to 20 February 2010, under the auspices of the Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs, Mr. Salim Sayegh, and in close collaboration with the League of Arab States, UNESCO, UNDP-Lebanon, Oxfam-GB, UNESCO, and the Arab Center for the Development of the Rule of Law and Integrity (ACRLI).

The workshops aimed at enriching participants' knowledge about community development methodologies, transforming new knowledge into solid values that strengthen the development process, consolidating the ways to deal with actual needs of the local communities and laying down mechanisms that help in finding solutions to problems at hand. Participants in both workshops were given the chance to focus on how to develop institutional and group capacities in harnessing conditions created by the LCD methodology, and having an insight into local management processes as well as ways to mobilize resources and coordinate public-civic efforts. Furthermore, the training program offered to participants the possibility of sharing experience through initiating dialogue on public policy processes and deliberating on ways to activate participation of civil society organizations and government entities in designing and implementing public policies. The workshops were attended by civil servants from public and local institutions alongside top representatives of civil society, academia, media institutions, private sector bodies, as well as UN and other interregional organizations. Local society officials and field professionals in development projects in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen also took part in the workshops (for further details, refer to the final reports of both workshops attached below).