Three capacity building workshops were held during April 2016 in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia in the framework of the programme "Small Initiatives for Civil Society Organisations in North Africa" (PPI-OSCAN, its acronym in French). These events which gathered the selected civil society organization (CSO) participating to the programme (10 in Morocco, 10 in Algeria and 12 in Tunisia) were an opportunity to run a mid-term evaluation of the projects implemented by the CSOs.

During the workshops, participants highlighted the importance of such gathering to share challenges and learn from experiences of other associations. Although their lack of experience in managing projects, many civil society organisations showed organizational and monitoring capacities allowing them to reach a satisfactory rate of progress. CSOs were also successful in involving carefully the stakeholders either at local or national levels among the public administration and local population, which contributes in better anchoring the projects. Indeed, some of the associations signed a strategic agreement with governments to contribute in developing specific activities related to ecological and sustainable fishing such as the "Fédération Marocaine de la Pêche et de Loisir". On the other side, many gaps were noted mainly in financial and accounting issues among some CSOs where a closer support and follow-up should be further provided by the national coordinators of the programme.

The PPI-OSCAN is a regional CSO capacity building programme implemented by the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation and funded jointly by the French Global Environment Facility and the MAVA Foundation.

For further information, please contact: Maher Mahjoub

Photo: Family group picture of the PPI-OSCAN workshop in Hammamet (Tunisia), 15-16 April 2016 ©IUCN