In July 2011, CARD foundation organized series of trainings within the project “Poverty Reduction and Confidence-building in Border Areas of Georgia and Armenia by Strengthening Civil Societies in Sustainable Rural Development” (STAGE II), as a final capacity development component under the aforementioned project.

 Trainings and workshops were organized both for the target local government representatives and civil society organizations.

Three trainings on Planning, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation were conducted for the local government representatives, namely from Lori and Tavush regions covering urban and rural municipalities. The workshops aimed at enhancing the knowledge and skills of the local government representatives via introducing the concepts and methods on planning, specifically the key aspects that should be focused on while developing and implementing local socio-economic development plans.

The trainings on “Fundraising” and “Results based Management” were conducted for the target CSOs, namely “Shirak Competitiveness Centre”, “Spitak-Farmer” Association and “Yerevak” NGO. These trainings aimed at promoting strategic perspective on fundraising and project management and their incorporation in the organizational and project management processes. With this the CSOs would gain more skills and abilities to better implement their projects.

All sessions were designed and carried out based on experiential and adults learning model. Trainees were extensively involved in practicum followed by trainers’ feedback and theoretical presentations. Group works, role plays, brainstorming and discussions were also part of training to make main ideas more explicit and tailored to the needs of trainees. This helped them become part of the training and learning process in real life situations.  

As an outcome of those trainings the participants had increased their understanding about the topics taught and obtained more skills to apply the knowledge in their work and support their team members. The trainees and their trainers are sure that the impact of these activities will be visible during the project work of the participants’ respective organizations.