Djibouti, 17-06-2014: A two-day pre-award workshop for select Civil Society Organizations and Applied Research Institutions/Universities from IGAD member countries closed today at the Conference Hall of the IGAD Secretariat in Djibouti.
The objective of the workshop was to educate the grantees about IGAD’s Financial and Procurement rules, procedures and guidelines, IGAD’s M & E reporting formats, Gender Mainstreaming and engineering practises for the infrastructure projects for which these CSOs and ARIs have been selected within the Dryland Project.
This is the first time the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is directly partnering with CSOs and ARIs.
The Danish Government in collaboration with IGAD initiated a grant facility with two components namely Applied Research Facility and CSO Facility with an aim of supporting research institutes/universities and NGOs/CSOs to undertake projects that support drought resilience within the IGAD Members States.
In respect to this, a call for proposals was announced that attracted 33 proposals for the Applied Research in Drylands and 134 proposals for Civil Society Organizations Grant Facilities.
Finally, a total of ten projects (five from each grant facility) were selected for funding.
This pre-award workshop involved two participants (Project leader and Finance focal person) from the selected organization.
During the opening ceremony on June 16th, the Official in Charge of IGAD, Mr Ali Daher Had declared: “The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) initiated the ‘IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI) in September 2011 with and aim at ending drought emergencies in the region through among other things engaging NGOs/CSOs and Applied Research Institutes/Universities in the implementation of natural resource management, livelihood interventions and other resilience building initiatives in the region”.
He added that this “workshop provides an opportune time to build contacts and discuss your select pilot projects that aim at supporting applied research and civil society work that aim at achieving enhanced resilience of drought-prone communities in IGAD Member States” before declaring it officially open.
