المركز الفلسطيني ينفذ تدريبات حول تطوير مهارات المشاركة والمساءلة في المجتمعات المحلية المهمشة وسط وجنوب قطاع غزة

Within the Development Marginalised local communities In seven municipalities in the central and southern Gaza Strip, implemented through
the Municipal Development and Lending Fund with funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Palestinian Center
for Democracy and Conflict Resolution delivered training on
developing participation and accountability skills in the work of local government bodies in New Abasan, Khuza'a, Al-Bureij,
Al-Qarara and Al-Nasr (Rafah). This training falls under the project's second task.

Target group: The local communities in New Abasan, Khuza'a,
Al-Bureij, Al-Qarara, Al-Nasr, Al-Shoka and Rafah, including young people, women and persons with disabilities,
with two training groups for each large and medium municipality and one training group in
the smaller municipalities. The training runs for five days per group.

The number of
participants was around 55 trainees in Khuza'a, 50 in New Abasan,
25 in Al-Bureij, 18 in Al-Qarara and 25 in Al-Nasr.

It is worth noting
that the meetings to select training candidates were held in the seven municipalities between 29 May 2019
and 24 June 2019. The first phase of training began on 22 April 2019 and the second phase on
22 July, and it is expected to end in mid-September this year.

The training aims to:

Familiarise participants with the indicators and standards of effective community participation,
accountability and its tools and four pillars (transparency, participation, responsivenessand follow-up), and complaints and appeals.

Improve participants' skills
and motivate them towards effective community participation by developing a plan to improve community participation in
their areas, including identifying the parties involved and analysing the main responsibilities and roles of each party
and the key interventions.

Familiarise participants with social accountability tools in the Palestinian
context (accountability session, hearing session, mystery visitor, public expenditure analysis,
participatory budgets, citizen report cards, social audit report).

Improve
participants' skills in holding public hearing sessions (preparation, core skills,
formulating outputs).

Improve
Practical applied skills for participants in complaint submission mechanisms, including the channels for
submitting complaints.

Views of participants in the local community training in New Abasan:

Khaled Musbah,
36, holder of a master's degree in project management, says the training stood out for the variety of trainers and their presentation methods, and for linking theoretical knowledge and the concepts of community participation and accountability to practical applications and experiences that deepen understanding. "The training greatly encouraged me to research and go deeper into these
subjects and to try to apply them in practice, whether through specialised work or by educating people about them."
عملية لتعزيز الفهم. التدريب شجعني كثيراً للبحث والتعمق بشكل أكبر في هذه
المواضيع ومحاولة تطبيقها بشكل عملي إما من خلال عمل متخصص أو تثقيف الناس بها.

Jihan Abu Anza,
22, a graduate in basic education, says the training added a great deal of information and
concepts such as governance, citizenship, participation and its tools, and accountability and its tools: "At any meeting
the municipality organises from now on I will be among the first to take part and to call on others to take part."

As for Khaled Abu Mutlaq,
24, who holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering, he says: "I had no
prior knowledge of accountability or how to hold an official to account, and I did not know there were official channels
for submitting complaints through the municipality. I urge you at the Palestinian Center to continue spreading
knowledge and holding awareness sessions on community participation and social accountability in the gathering places of New Abasan,
because people do not have this knowledge and do not know how to submit complaints to the municipality, or that
it is their right to do so."

Views of participants in the local community training in Al-Bureij

Rida
Al-Nabaheen, a social researcher, says: "I benefited greatly from the training, as it is the first training I have taken part in
on community participation and accountability. It gave me new information about citizenship and the mechanisms of
community participation and of submitting complaints."

Zaher
Al-Mabhouh says: "The course was excellent and outstanding; I think my awareness of municipal
work after the course is higher than before."

Another participant
says: "The training content is close to reality, and the trainers are excellent and inspired us to seek
more information."

The training has been completed
in Khuza'a, New Abasan and Al-Bureij, while training in Al-Qarara and Al-Nasr is still under way.