Cairo, 26 February 2018. The International Organization for Migration (IOM Egypt) organized a training workshop on Project Development and Implementation in the framework of ‘Promoting Community Cohesion for Syrian Female Refugees and Members of their Hosting Communities’ Project. The workshop was tailored to ten Community Based Organizations (CBOs) based in Cairo: Bashayer, El Nile-Hurat, El Rashad, El Watan, Fard Foundation, Refuge Egypt, Syria El Ghad, StARs, Tawasol, and Tomooh.

The training is part of an intervention to enhance dialogue and community cohesion between the host communities in Egypt and refugees, specifically Syrian female refugees, whilst promoting gender equality. CBOs play an indispensable role in fostering community cohesion and dialogue. The training strengthened the organizations’ capacity in assisting refugees and host communities by delivering insights on gender sensitive programming, results based project development and implementation, reporting, monitoring and evaluation, as well as migration and development.

“We have received an overwhelmingly positive response from the participants. The training helped them design projects that better serve their communities,” said Teuta Grazhdani, Head of Programmes for the Labor Mobility and Human Development Division. Yodet Berhane, Refugee Egypt’s Public Relations Officer, added: “I found the workshop’s activities and participants’ contributions very helpful to the learning process. I look forward to implementing the information provided to better tailor our programmes to beneficiaries”.

The intervention is in line with The UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially goal 10.7 “Facilitate orderly, safe, and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies”. Also goal 11:” Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable“. The interventions are also aligned with the recommendations for establishing a global compact on refugees and a global compact on migration.

Moreover, the project builds on the objectives of the Regional Refugees and Resilience Action Plan 2017-2018 , prepared and endorsed by the Government of Egypt and the United Nations Agencies, including IOM. The Plan highlights the need for more durable solutions for Syrian refugees, and for win-win solutions that boost national and local economies through jobs and sustainable livelihood opportunities, while preserving human capital for the future reconstruction of Syria. In order to do so, both the Government of Egypt and the United Nations agencies, are jointly working to enhance service delivery in health and education, while providing livelihood opportunities for the refugees and host communities to enhance resilience and community cohesion.