PASSIA Seminars

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PASSIA’s Civil Society Empowerment through Training and Skills Development program arose as a response to the need in Palestinian society for the establishment and running of effective organs of civil society. Aimed at imparting a solid theoretical background as well as fostering essential practical skills, the program was designed to play an important part in the development of a variety of skills vital in the achievement of both individual and organizational goals.

 

Believing that it is the human resources that make up the fundamental pillar of Palestinian society, PASSIA established a series of seminar and workshop based training courses, which incorporate theoretical and practical training in areas relevant to the present and future role of Palestinian civil society organizations.

 

Each of the seminars PASSIA runs as a part of this training program includes three interrelated activities:

 

 

1.      Preparation. Approximately three weeks before the actual training program begins, participants are provided with preparatory reading material gathered by the PASSIA Project Team in coordination with the trainers and lecturers. The participants are also required to write a short paper on an issue related to the course subject.

 

2.      Intensive Training Seminar. Trainees attend a five-day lecture program conducted by local and international experts. The lectures range from theoretical concepts to functional skills, exercises and case studies, whereby the participants are continuously encouraged to apply what they have learned to the institutions with which they are involved.

 

3.      Follow-up Program. The intensive seminar is followed by two workshop days, concentrating on skill enhancement. The major goal is to link and apply the skills learned to actual issues of concern in the participants’ working environment. Participants prepare for the workshops by completing practice-oriented writing assignments.

 

 

Civil Society Empowerment:

Monitoring and Evaluation

 

 

This publication presents the proceedings of the Monitoring and Evaluation course, which took place in March and July 2002 (the original implementation had to be postponed due to the Israeli reinvasion of Palestinian West Bank cities, including Ramallah, where the seminar was to take place). The book presented here is hoped to serve both as a brief and multifaceted introduction to the issues addressed during this course, as well as a record of the event. The intention is not to replicate the seminars per se, as by their very ‘workshop-style’ nature they do not immediately lend themselves to print. However, by giving the reader a brief window on some highly varied methodologies and analyses, it is hoped that a broad introduction into the field of monitoring and evaluation can be achieved.

 

The rationale for the PASSIA training program on Monitoring and Evaluation was the lack of use and knowledge of M&E tools and practices in Palestinian society. The course was thus designed to improve the overall capacity for efficient project management and implementation through the application of M&E techniques, including measurement of achievements, review processes, and appropriate information collection. Targeted were participants working in project planning and implementation whose responsibilities include monitoring, evaluation and project appraisal.

 

 

This Publication

 

The following report is meant to be used as a handbook and, as such, PASSIA hopes it will allow for the widest possible dissemination of the course material and instructions amongst the Palestinian civil society community. The aim is to provide a practical tool that will empower a large number of NGO and other practitioners with knowledge and skills from which they can clearly benefit.

 

 

 

The PASSIA Project Team

October 2002