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 Supporting the civil society on the local community level in the Palestinian territoriesThe project "Supporting the civil society on the local community level in the Palestinian territories" came through as a result of an IPCC's concern about the political viability of Palestine and its democratization process at local levels. Indeed, the Palestinian society is based on informal ties and networks on which members of local councils rely to get elected, often in spite of their lack of competences at the administrative and political level. As a result, the democratization process often stops with the election results and political participation remains particularly rare, thus preventing the development of Palestinian communities. As a solution to this problem, IPCC developed, with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a 6 month pilot project that will consist of a series of workshops and training meetings gathering 40 members of local councils, civil society institutions, community organizations, volunteering bodies and informal structures from various Jerusalem Governorate Palestinian localities. The training will include equal gender representation to promote gender parity. Each group will be invited to participate in four workshops that will last two days each and will be organized on a 4-month time span. The workshops will be themed as follows: Role of local councils in mobilizing the community Role of local councils in shaping spatial and administrative public policies Role of local councils in conflict resolution and management Coordination between local councils and civil society activistsIn order to make the public aware of this project, each workshop will generate a series of articles, amounting to a total of 16 by the end of the project, which will be published in two local newspapers. Groups that are particularly targeted by this project will learn to work together in a synergetic fashion to promote cohesion and collective participation at local political levels and thus create the backbone of a political process that will eventually affect the Palestinian political system. The overarching goal of this project will ultimately be to contribute to the rehabilitation and development of the capabilities and skills of elected members of local councils by encouraging them to face political challenges. At the end of each workshop, all participants will get together and will be invited to contribute to the betterment of the project in feedback sessions by sharing their own experience, comments and suggestions for modifications or additions. This way, if the first pilot sessions prove successful, the whole project will be extended to the region of West Bank, and IPCC and its staff will contribute to "the training of" local politicians in the peaceful and constructive management of administration, problem solving, public participation . Ultimately, the trust and dialogue between competent authorities and the Palestinian communities will be restored and public participation will be increased, therefore creating the backbone of a reliable administration and civil society to ensure the future of a democratic Palestine and reduce the impact of difficulties shared by many communities. |
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