Development Support Center for Consultancy and Training (DSC)

Ongoing Projects

Capacity Building for NGO’s in the Arab Region
The Support of New initiatives based on Community Participation and Mobilization
Promoting Good Practices and Avoiding Bad Practices, a documentation and joint collaborative learning project
Advocacy and Lobbying Training in the Arab Region

Capacity Building for NGO’s in the Arab Region

Building on the three years success of the project supported by NOVIB for capacity Building for ngo’s in Egypt and the expand of DSC activities and reputation in the Arab Region. The previous project was renewed for three years on the Arab ngo’s level 2004-2006.

Training Workshops, manuals, platform of cooperation, and documentation for experiences and new initiatives are the component of this project. That is based on the needs of Ngo’s in the Arab region and targeting beneficiaries more than institutions.

The project aim to train civil society in Egypt and the Arab region , to strengthened and expand training capacity, to tailor made support for capacity building, the facilitation of exchange and cooperation between Ngo’s, to play a proactive role in shaping and strengthening civil society and to build an alliance among consultancy organizations.

The Support of New initiatives based on Community Participation and Mobilization

This project can be considered as a response to the growth of civil society sector in Egypt, and its increasing need to address community development and institutional capacity building of organizations. This project will target community based NGOs as well as local government aiming at in developing democratic mechanisms from below, as well as increasing viable community access to services and benefits.

This project aims to support and strengthen community based /target group initiatives, which are based on mobilizing and organizing communities and developing their own independent agendas.

This project will concentrate on 3 community based organizations (1 in each community) as a key partner with the community. Thus, support will be given to both the organization and its target community for the period of two years - July 2006 until July 2008.

Promoting Good Practices and Avoiding Bad Practices, a documentation and joint collaborative learning project

As part of the process of institutional capacity building of NGOs, DSC has been able to monitor the institutional progress and growing impact of different NGOs in their diverse fields of influence. One of the main weaknesses which still remain is the differential capacity of organizations to document and make visible their different experiences and share them with other civil society organizations. DSC has discussed its interest in developing its own capacity and focus in this area, in order to benefit NGOs to build this experience. Through discussions with Oxfam Novib, it was agreed to make the development of the experience of documentation one of the priority areas which DSC would work on within its institutional capacity building support during 2007.

In collaboration with 6 SCO's this project aims to Improve learning among participant NGOs through capturing their experience, Building experiences internally to ensure sustainability and Enhancing exchange of knowledge and experience among participant NGOs and sharing it with other initiatives.

Advocacy and Lobbying Training in the Arab Region

The practice of Advocacy & lobbying has taken on more importance in recent years for all non-profit sector organizations. Rapid changes in government policies and their impact on different sectors of the population have made of advocacy and lobbying increasingly important tools that need to be properly analyzed and utilized in the process of creating change. This applies particularly in countries which do not have a long history of democratic practices. Organizations from 3 countries Morocco, Egypt and Palestine in addition to a foreign partner "Oxfam Novib" agree on the need to work together to develop campaign strategies and the competencies of civil society concerning the privatization of essential services in the region.

During the year 2007 this project will aim to To develop the knowledge and skills of NGO activists in the area of advocacy and lobbying and collect practices. Also to promote the involvement of participants in campaigning in the field of privatization -of essential services in the Arab region, in the context of the broader aim of promoting NGOs as actors of change, with the underlying principle of community and target group participation & empowerment.