NGO Platform of CSOs in Northeast Syria Accomplishes Training Sessions in Al-Hasaka, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor

2020-10-14
ASO-Amouda

The member civil organizations of CSOs Platform in NES accomplished, on last Thursday, 3 training sessions with a number of civil society organizations working in the Self-Administration areas, within the second phase of promoting the approach to democracy project in NES.

Female and male trainees of different age groups, have participated in the training workshops within the second phase of promoting the approach to democracy project. 20 trainees were from Al-Hasaka, 22 from Deir Ezzor and 17 from Raqqa.

Imad Ahmi, the project manager of promoting democracy approach, stated; "the training workshops were following the demands of the NGOs platform members in NES. After the workshops were effectively implemented, we received many positive responses from the rest of the members to hold the workshops on a regular basis for the platform members in particular. The workshops also included other areas within the training, as there are a number of organizations still emerging and need extensive training to establish their structure."

The training workshops were divided on 3 consecutive days, one of which was in the field of Procurement and Asset Management in Al-Hasaka. The other two, were in the field of Project Proposal Development Management, at a rate of 6 practical hours per day, interspersed with 3 breaks. Thus, the total number of training hours was approximately 14 hours, starting from 10:00 A.M. until 16:00 P.M.

The workshops were implemented according to the facilitation methodology between a group of ASO departments' employees and specialized trainers. As it was carried out within a participatory mechanism in which the trainer played the role of an interlocutor and expert away from the traditional training mechanisms restricted to lectures and long theoretical sessions.

The workshops content contained a theoretical section that did not exceed 40% of each workshop duration and 60% was distributed to a variety of exercises in which cooperative teaching tools were used. The Project Proposal Development Management, included a brainstorming exercise on the topic of the project and how to plan for it, formulating objectives, defining project indicators and building its logical framework and budget. In addition to 4 exercises for writing project proposal forms.

As for the Procurement and Asset Management workshop, it covered the following; procurement planning, procurement thresholds, assets, fleets, warehouses and finally technologies, according to the staff involved in the project.

The trainees discussed with each other and exchanged experiences and skills and their responses were accurate from the first day of the training. Meaning that they had an urgent desire to learn and gain information and experiences. As a result, their suggestions and recommendations about the workshops were received.

The proposals and recommendations indicated; “the continuation of providing such workshops constantly, as they were in general useful, targeting all the departments' staff of the participating organizations, addressing other topics such as monitoring and evaluation (MEAL) workshops, involving a larger percentage of females, targeting other cities in Al-Hasaka governorate in general, such as Qamishlo, Derik and other."

In the past two months, the member civil organizations of CSOs Platform in NES held dialogue sessions with a number of civil society organizations within the second phase of promoting the approach to democracy project in NES.

During September, the member civil organizations of CSOs Platform in NES, accomplished a dialogue session with a number of civil society organizations within the second phase of promoting the approach to democracy project in NES, on the Youth Situation in NES and the challenges they face.

It is worth to mention that the aim of these training workshops is to enhance civil society organizations role in decision-making and peacebuilding, build their capacities, assist them and meet the needs in coordinating efforts between the active social forces to achieve development and sustainability in the field of societal development to reach a better future for all individuals.