Capacity-building workshops and productive equipment on good practices related to agriculture, food processing and marketing, small-scale renewable energy technologies, and water-energy-food (WEF) nexus applications in rural areas of Jordan and Tunisia.
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA)
(
United Nations / Multilateral body
)
#SDGAction33755
Description
The Regional Initiative for Promoting Small-Scale Renewable Energy Applications in Rural Areas of the Arab Region, also known as “REGEND”, is a project that aims to improve the livelihoods of rural Arab communities by promoting pro-poor investments in environmentally adequate and affordable renewable energy (RE) applications. Within the framework of REGEND, 13 capacity-building workshops, 6 in Jordan and 7 in Tunisia, were designed and successfully organized based on the findings of the assessment reports and the recommendations of the national meetings/workshops organized by REGEND. The workshops’ beneficiaries consisted of rural men and women from the communities where REGEND is active
The workshops were planned and designed based on the findings of the assessment reports and the recommendations of the meetings/workshops organized by REGEND in Jordan and Tunisia. Furthermore, a good portion of the training materials developed and prepared were based on and used various ESCWA knowledge products as references. REGEND’s partners and stakeholders, consisting of national institutions, organizations and local facilitating teams established by REGEND, were also involved in the consultation phase and the procurement of the PE. The planning and design phases were then culminated in the definition of the following topics to be covered: Al-Achaari and Batir, Jordan: Good agriculture practices for enhanced energy sustainability. Good food manufacturing and hygiene practices and requirements for food storage. Good food labeling, packaging, and marketing practices. Chorbane, Tunisia: Improving the performance and efficiency of rural women agricultural development groups. Good practices on the use of small-scale RE for rural development. Marketing techniques for rural women's products. Distillation and valorization of materials extracted from medicinal and aromatic plants. Improving the yield and quality of fruit tree plantings and adopting water-saving irrigation techniques and RE technologies for pumping, irrigation, and water desalination. Good practices on packaging, customized trademarks adoption, and labeling of local products. The workshops were organized and the PE were procured by collaborating with the aforementioned partners and stakeholders including various subject-matter experts who delivered the theoretical and practical trainings which were held on site at the organizations and in the field where the beneficiaries already work collectively.
The workshops and the wealth of learning experience they provided by integrating lectures, exercises, and practical training in the field enabled the 30 and 71 trainees in Jordan and Tunisia, respectively, to build their scientific and technical capacities, to start putting them to use in their daily activities thanks to the donated PE, and to share the knowledge and skills acquired with their constituencies. In fact, thanks to the very positive outcome and praise of the workshops organized in Jordan which propagated thanks to word of mouth and social media, 30 additional women from 10 new neighbouring organizations were trained afterwards by REGEND’s partners. Moreover, the workshops helped ease some of the social norms prevalent in rural areas where men experts were able to mentor women trainees and even show them that men can work on food in the kitchen. This harmony in gender collaboration advanced by REGEND was praised by all the women participants and their significant others.
The integrated and participative approach employed during the planning, design, and implementation phases of the workshops ensured that the selected topics and PE matched the needs of the beneficiaries on the ground while taking into account and addressing all the local constraints related to gender and social norms. In addition, the inclusion of lengthy and detailed hands-on training sessions, be it in the classroom or in the agricultural fields, enabled the trainees to efficiently absorb and retain all the new knowledge acquired given their limited educational backgrounds and to be able to comfortably practice it enough under supervision
Prior to the organization of the workshops, training manuals, presentations, and tutorials were developed to document all the topics that will be covered. These knowledge products are now available on ESCWA’s website and will also get disseminated throughout the rural communities so that they can be used in future trainings. The workshops were also complemented by the donation of PE by REGEND to its beneficiaries so that they can use them to further optimize their operations and apply their newly acquired knowledge. Testimony from beneficiaries indicated “how they developed innovative ideas to improve the quality of their life”. This is also a testament to the REGEND’s philosophy of promoting integrated business models based on the transfer of sustainable know-how rather than relying on the short-lived handout model. ESCWA remains committed to exploring modalities to replicate the model and upscale the project so that it can be mainstreamed into national and regional development plans.
The REGEND Project webpage: https://www.unescwa.org/sub-site/renewable-energy-rural-arab-region-reg… Tunisian national TV coverage of REGEND’s capacity-building activities in Tunisia: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mbi7uskbj2hqkfe/REGEND%20TV%20Coverage%20in%2… ESCWA YouTube Coverage: https://youtu.be/zp5tAqvxHdk?t=33 ESCWA Twitter Coverage: https://twitter.com/UNESCWA/status/1276500458711003136 https://twitter.com/UNESCWA/status/1278698694666342403 https://twitter.com/UNESCWA/status/1285162655326580736 https://twitter.com/UNESCWA/status/1308315134193000450
Due to the lack of or poor IT infrastructure and equipment in the targeted rural areas, it was not possible to organize the workshops remotely and hence they were held in person. Difficulties were therefore faced in moving to and from the areas as well in organizing the workshops. As a result, formal communication and coordination were established with the concerned government agencies to obtain the approvals needed to organize the workshops and to facilitate the movement of all those involved while abiding by the applicable health and safety measures. Moreover, COVID19 personal protective equipment were made available by REGEND and used during the workshops. Similar challenges were faced in the procurement and delivery of the PE and they were resolved through the local facilitating teams.
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The workshops’ trainees were REGEND’s beneficiaries who are members of rural organizations. The partners and stakeholders engaged included: Jordan: the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Res., the Ministry of Agriculture, the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, and the Arab Federation for Food Industries. Tunisia: The National Agency for Energy Conservation, the General Commission for Regional Development, and the Municipality of Chorbane.
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Radia , Chief of the Energy Section