International donors met local NGOs in Baalbeck

The Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training organized a general meeting titled “The strategies of international donors in Lebanon” at the center of the Lebanese Youth Network (LYN) in Baalbeck. Representatives from more than 52 NGOs, 14 municipalities from Baalbeck-Hermel region and 5 international donors attended the meeting.
After the Lebanese Anthem, Mr. Salah Zayter from LOST welcomed the audience and insisted on the importance of such activity in empowering local NGOs to become active agents and institutions in order to encourage positive changes in the region. Mr. Zayter’s welcoming note was followed by a speech delivered by Dr. Ramy Lakkis, the founder of LOST who stressed on the role of civil society organizations in promoting local development. He added that such meeting acts as a framework for international donors and local NGOs to communicate and interact. It helps NGOs to cooperate with international donors to implement new developmental projects at grass-root levels.
Throughout the meeting, representatives from UNDP, OTI Lebanon, ActionAid, Mercycorps and FAO  explained their objectives, scope and schemes of funding and procedures and informed NGOs about different grants available in Lebanon that could be of a special interest to the region of Baalbeck-Hermel.There were two Q/A round table breaks in which representatives from international and local organizations communicated directly.

At the end, discussion focused on the possibility to establish an office for supporting NGOs in the region to achieve the following goals:

• Training NGOs on different managerial and technical skills.
• Communicating with international donors.
• Helping NGOs to write project proposals.

LOST organized such activity in order to help t civil society organizations to benefit from different programs managed by the various international donors acting in Lebanon.