Bio-diversity

The objective of the proposed project is to enhance the capacity of SGP grantees and other relevant stakeholders to raise awareness of environmental issues through media and thereby actively impact and influence civil society as well as government policies. The action is seen as the next step to the networking and visibility effort conducted with NGOs working in the environmental sector during the Knowledge Fair in 2013. It is seen as increasingly important since the downgrading of the former Palestinian Ministry of Environmental Affairs to the Environment Quality Authority this year and the evident lack of an environmental lobby effectively influencing environmental policy in Palestine. The implementation of the action will take place over eight months and includes a variety of capacity- building and awareness-raising activities. In the first month a consultation workshop will be held with twelve Palestinian NGOs working in the environmental sector and a representative from the EQA in order to identify the most pressing issues. Following the workshop they will receive two- day training on how to make use of traditional as well as social media in order to campaign for environmental issues generating support from civil society and thereby putting pressure on the government. Building on the experiences made within the project Environmental Knowledge Fair the aim is to work with the most committed NGOs working in the field of environment, jointly selected by the IMM and GEF. On the basis of the issues selected in the consultation workshop AQTV will produce ten TV reports (about 5 min lengths) in cooperation with GEF and the respective NGO. Based on the TV reports ten town hall debates will be organized in different areas in the West Bank where decision- makers, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders will be discussing the presented issue in front of an audience consisting of local community also giving civil society to participate in the discussion. The town hall debates will be filmed and edited (about 50 min lengths) and broadcasted on a Palestinian Satellite Channel (Ma an) as well as AQTV. The TV reports as well as the filmed town hall debates will be available online on the websites of the respective NGO, the website of the GEF Small Grants Program and the Hona Al-Quds Community Network. The events themselves will also be covered through the Hona AlQuds Community Media Network through radio and written reports. A final report will document the project implementation, participants, results and lessons learned.

Palestine