Djibouti, 17-06-2014: A two-day pre-award workshop for select Non-Governmental Organizations/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 orient the grantees on IGAD’s Financial and Procurement rules, procedures and guidelines, IGAD’s M & E reporting formats, Gender Mainstreaming. The grantees were also able to present their projects for further refinement by a
pool of IGAD Experts.
The projects whose main target beneficiaries were pastoral communities and area of intervention being drylands had topics that ranged fromconducting policy research and publication in natural resource management, value chain development of vegetables and fruits, increasing and enhancing water access as well as building capacity of pastoral communities in managing their resources.
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 organizations.
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.
