Project to train civil society actors as ‘impactful development stakeholders’

AMMAN — Over the next seven months, 60 Jordanian Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), five policy NGOs and five think tanks will take part in the WANA Institute’s Civil Society project aimed at enhancing public involvement in the path towards national development.

Funded by the European Union (EU) and carried out in cooperation with the National Centre for Human Rights, the project started in Aqaba with the first capacity building workshops held on December 9 and 10, a WANA statement said.

“Strengthening of Think Tanks, Youth Initiatives and Civil Society Organisations” aims at building the capacity of non-governmental stakeholders to deliver results-based development assistance by equipping them with skills, tools and evidence, combined with an overall assessment of their daily environment. 

Sixty CBOs were selected by the WANA Institute, including 14 youth initiatives, to take part in a series of  seven workshops that will focus on community development and training of CBOs on how to apply a human rights-based approach in their programme design. They will also introduce them to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and demonstrate how to carry out surveys and map stakeholders, the statement said.

Following the first session that targeted CBOs from the southern governorates, training sessions will be repeated on December 16 and 17 in Amman for organisations from the northern and central governorates.

After each training, the CBOs will return to the field to implement the knowledge they gained, and return the next month for follow-up. This will result in a greater impact of assistance delivery, restored power balances with donors, and improved governance through a legitimate system of checks and balances, according to the statement.

As part of the same project, 20 representatives from think tanks and policy NGOs will participate in a series of five roundtable discussions. The first one will be held on December 13 to discuss Jordan’s development priorities. 

The session will aim at reaching a consensus on the challenges and opportunities for Jordanian CBOs as a first step forward, the statement concluded.