The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is working on a “Regional Initiative for Promoting Small-Scale Renewable Energy Applications in Rural Areas of the Arab Region (REGEND)”, which is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). REGEND aims to improve the livelihood, economic benefits, social inclusion and gender equality of Arab rural communities particularly marginalized groups, by addressing energy access, water scarcity and vulnerability, climate change and other natural resources challenges in three targeted countries, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia.
 
In this context, ESCWA is organizing a capacity-building workshop on "Distillation and valorization of materials extracted from medicinal and aromatic plants ", in partnership with the General Commission for Regional Development (CGDR) and the National Agency for Energy Conservation (ANME) in Tunisia, to build the knowledge, scientific and technical capacities of rural women in Chorbane, Governorate of Mahdia, Tunisian Republic – in particular those belonging to "Al-Amal" Agricultural Development Group. The workshop will provide capacity building on the exploitation and valorization of the region’s aromatic and medicinal plants for income-generating activities’ through the extraction of essential oils and manufacturing of cosmetics. The workshop will also encourage rural women to invest and develop entrepreneurship and practical skills, motivate them to organize themselves within a base-structured socio-economic and solidarity framework, and build their capacities on manufacturing and packaging the various products extracted from aromatic and medicinal plants to better promote them locally, regionally and nationally, through a simplified knowledge based and distinctive approach integrating lectures, exercises, and practical training.
The theoretical and practical knowledge and skills acquired will enable the trainees to develop their income-generating activities in the areas of distillation and valorization of materials extracted from medicinal and aromatic plants through modern methods and technologies, good practices and Renewable Energy use.