NDI-Lebanon's overall program goal is to help strengthen the institutional capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) to influence the public policy debate in Lebanon.
Overall Program Objectives:
Assisting CSOs to develop the necessary skills to further build their internal capacities through conducting strategic planning sessions, focus groups, one-on-one consultations and workshops on a variety of skills-building topics such as leadership, communication skills, and training of trainers; and
Assisting CSOs to develop the necessary skills to design, implement and evaluate effective advocacy campaigns, and to encourage these organizations to open a dialogue with policy makers at the local and national levels.
Overall Program Activities:
Conducting institutional development and management workshops
Conducting advocacy skills workshops
Providing individual training and consultation sessions
Providing relevant training materials
In September 2001, NDI added a local governance component to its on-going advocacy program. The objective of the program is to assist municipal officials in developing the skills necessary to respond to the citizens which make up their constituencies through a partnership with the Development and Municipality Studies Center (DMSC).
A Summary of Activities with Partners in 2001 17 February: La Fassad "Strategic Planning" Workshop 26 members of La Fassad attended the workshop and the agenda covered the following topics:
An overview of La Fassad's mission statement and goals;
A discussion of various program strategies for La Fassad;
A review of La Fassad's track record;
The development of an action plan; and
The identification of La Fassad's supporters, as well as, possible opposition and obstacles.
The outcome of this session was to identify the need to create a new " culture of ethics" and transparency to fight corruption and misuse of power.
23-25 February: The first workshop in cooperation with the Secours Populaire Libanais (SPL) was on "Advocacy Skills" in Broumana, Lebanon. In March and June, additional workshops were held with SPL on how to identify community problems and how to conduct strategic planning.
31 May - 3 June: NDI & the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW) at the Lebanese American University (LAU) conducted a workshop on" Building Coalitions: Benefits, Methods and Challenges". The trainers included Lawrence Lachmansingh (Guyana), Andrej D.Bartosiewicz (Slovakia), Armen Balian (Lebanon) and Heba el Shazli (USA). Nineteen (19) participants from various NGOs attended the workshop.
25-27 July: A workshop was held in Tripoli with the Lebanese Council for Disabled Persons (LCDP) on how to identify problems in the community and how to develop an advocacy campaign.
4 & 5 August: NDI conducted a workshop with the Lebanese Physical Handicapped Union (LPHU) and the Union of Associations for the Blind People in Lebanon on how to develop training materials for use in an advocacy campaign. The workshop took place at the Royal Garden Hotel in Beirut.
25 & 26 August: A workshop with the LPHU on "Basic Advocacy Skills" and "Effective Methodology for an Advocacy Campaign". It was held in Beirut at the Royal Garden Hotel.
7 & 8 September: A workshop on "Communication skills "and on "Strategies in Conducting Advocacy Campaigns" was held with the Lebanese Physical Handicapped Union (LPHU) and the Union of Associations for the Blind People in Lebanon. Two leading journalists from the print media assisted with the training session and shared their experience and advice. It was held at the annual summer camp in Maassir al Chouf.
20 & 21 October: In conjunction with the Lebanese Physical Handicapped Union (LPHU), NDI conducted a workshop on "Training of Trainers" to teach trainers on how to teach others on advocacy skills.
26 - 28 October: NDI conducted a strategic planning workshop with the Lebanese Association for a Democratic Elections (LADE). Over a period of two intensive days, 20 active members of LADE went through all the aspects of a problem-solving exercise where they identified the major issues/problems with the electoral process in Lebanon. NDI's Aaron Azelton, Senior Advisor for the Citizen Participation Team, assisted with the program. Through small working groups, participants identified the "big picture" issues and the possible solutions. Participants then prioritized those problem issues and set about focusing on one of them: the behavior of the Lebanese voter. This workshop laid a good foundation for LADE to develop a detailed and comprehensive strategic plan for a national voter/civic education campaign over the next three years. It was held at an environmental NGO facility in Ramlieh, Aley.
10 November: NDI-Lebanon facilitated a session for 50 participants during the first Campaign for Integrity in the Judiciary (CIJ) Members' Retreat, held at the Holiday Inn-Martinez " in Beirut. Neffertiti Tosson, an activist in the Egyptian judicial reform movement, focused on the importance of the independence of the judiciary as a pre-requisite for good governance and democracy. NDI-Lebanon staff presented a session on how to become empowered and active in the community.
7-9 December: NDI held a workshop with LADE on developing an action plan for its Voter Education Program. Over a period of three days, a group of 35 active LADE members worked on a strategic action plan for an advocacy campaign, to be included in its voter education program. The campaign will reach out to voters, especially youth, over the next three-year period, using a variety of educational and media tools. Two international trainers from the USA and South Africa participated in the workshop.
Round Table Discussions and Other Activities 1 May: Strategic planning sessions of the Imam el Sadr Foundation in Tyre. NDI facilitated a session on the importance of recruiting and retaining an organizational system for volunteers.
3 May: NDI-Lebanon's resident representative met with the Center for Municipality and Development Studies for the North and the Disabled Association in Tripoli. NDI also gave a lecture at Balamand University on elections and how to monitor election fraud.
16 May: A workshop for an association of NGOs in the North (Tripoli). NDI participated by training on how to write a proposal for advocacy work.
22 May: Evaluation session for the Campaign for Integrity in the Judiciary (CIJ). NDI provided advice and training on how to organize, follow-up, publicize and evaluate activities; how to develop materials; and how to understand the audience.
30 May: Round table discussion with La Fassad on " Right to Information Advocacy Campaign" at the AUB Alumni Club. Andrej Bartosiewicz, Director of the Association for support of Local Democracy in Slovakia, together with two Lebanese activists: Salim Azar, head of a local anti-corruption group, and Ziyad Baroud , a lawyer and member of La Fassad Executive Board participated in the round table discussion.
1 August: NDI provided assistance to MIRSAD for the development of an advocacy database program that will be made available to all advocacy NGOs in Lebanon and in the region. The database will enable NGOs to reach out to over 50,000 persons in a variety of ways: e-mail, fax, telephone and regular mail.
5 December: Round table discussion on "The role of women in municipal work." The round table was held at the Quality Inn Hotel in Tripoli. It aimed to initiate and lay out the plan for a study on women's role in municipalities in Lebanon.
Weekly training in cooperation with the Development and Municipalities Center (DMSC) in "Democracy and Citizenship." These sessions were held in the following areas: Halba, Batroun, Tripoli, and el Dunniya for municipal leaders and staff members.
Development and Translation of Training Materials in Arabic
NDI-Lebanon Training Program Coordinator, Lina Alameddine, has been working to develop a series of training materials in Arabic and the latest addition is a translation of materials on how to recruit and retain volunteers.
Other Activities
CAIRO: NDI-Lebanon attend a conference sponsored by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (ECWR) on "Women and Parliamentary Elections: The Present Situation and Perspectives for the Future (28-29 March 2001)."
BEIRUT: NDI-Lebanon participated on April 27th in the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS) workshop on the feasibility study on municipalities in Lebanon held at the AUB Alumni Club.
JAKARTA: NDI-Lebanon provided training in the NGO Management Certificate program from 2 to 8 August, a joint project between NDI-Indonesia and the University of Indonesia.
PRAGUE: NDI-Lebanon participated in the 10th Annual Anti-Corruption Conference in Prague, from 6-12 October. NDI-Lebanon also sponsored two Lebanese activists to participate: one from CIJ and another from La Fassad.
BEIRUT: A celebration of volunteerism and a graduation of participants from
Lebanese Physical Handicapped Union (LPHU) and the Union of Associations for the Blind People in Lebanon took place on 23 December at AUB Alumni Club (American University of Beirut). The total number of graduates was 50 and the total number of volunteers who were honored at this ceremony was 200.
Contact Information
For further information on our programs in Lebanon, please contact:
