Under the Patronage of HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, WANA Institute holds End-of Project Ceremony: Training for Change: Empowering Civil Society to Advocate Policies

Amman - Sunday, 26 June 2022 -  To support Jordanian civil society organisations in using their platform to help solve environmental issues, the West Asia-North Africa (WANA) Institute and the European Delegation in Jordan, conducted a two-year training and grants project that aimed to Strengthen the Technical, Administrative, and Financial Skills of the community-based organisations (CBOs) for Sustainable Results, both in the south and north of the kingdom. “Training for Change: Empowering Civil Society to Advocate Policies” provided training for over a period of 8 months followed by 10 months of coaching and mentoring of the CBOs’ implementation of their environmental projects designed to solve pressing local issues.

Since February 2020, the WANA Institute has been leading the implementation of the training and grants project in various communities across Jordan, along alongside two project partners Intermediaries Change Center for Sustainable Development in Ajloun and Al-Khansa for Social Development in Tafileh. As a result of the training, that covered topics such as environmental agreements; local environmental challenges; research, analysis and policy advocacy; and grant proposal writing, the CBOs were able to identify, design, and apply for grants to solve environmental pressing issues in their local communities.

Moreover, an online map “Tashbeek” was designed, developed and launched, listing a network of Jordanian Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). The overall aim of building this platform was to bring together a network of Jordan’s CSOs, making sure all are visually represented on the national CSO landscape. The tool provides a Geographic Information Systems-based map, colour-coding CSOs, and provides a brief account of CSOs’ fields of activity, and provides a database for Call for Proposals translated to Arabic.

Professor Mashhoor Al-Refai President of PSUT-Princess Sumaya University for Technology, conveyed Her Royal Highness’s remarks today at the closing ceremony: “The replication of such a project to include other community-based organisations, will lead to culmination of the energies and harnessing these efforts to improve the people’s lives in Jordan, because our people are the first and most important wealth in this country.  Hence, it is necessary to provide a mechanism for cooperation among these organisations to unify efforts, exchange experiences and disseminate them.  We at the Royal Scientific Society aspire for active participation with scientific research institutions with the support of the European Union, to move our country to a knowledge-based economy.

H.E. Mrs Maria Hadjitheodosiou, Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Jordan, stressed on the crucial role the CSOs and CBOs shall play as development partners in improving governance and local development, fostering accountability and transparency, and reinforcing inclusive policy-making. “Training for Change: Empowering Civil Society to Advocate Policies Project is equally unique as it addresses not only the involvement of CBOs in advocating polices but also highlighting their role in the environmental challenges including water scarcity, climate change, solid waste management and agriculture, and paving the way for more innovative sustainable solutions in these thematic areas.”

Dr Majd Al Naber, the project Manager, emphasised the importance of including the CBOs in the sustainable development agenda to ensure enhancing their resilience towards environmental challenges, to be able to turn these challenges into opportunities.

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