Study Tour – Spain; 18 – 23 November 2012 

IDM team participated in the Study Tour organized by the Centro de Estudios Rurales y de Agricultura Internacional (CERAI), which was held in Spain involving representatives from CSOs, agencies and public institutions from Albania, Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, participants together with guest speakers, CERAI Project Management Team and of the foundation Instituto de Agricultura ecológica y sostenible.

The Study Tour aimed to promote the sharing of experience between organizations, agencies and public institutions that work in developing and promoting mechanisms for increasing women participation and empowerment in rural development activities. The Study Tours involved project site visits and discussion sessions enabling participants to learn in-depth about the development and implementation of the projects visited and share their experiences.

The Study Tour was held from the 18th – 23th November 2012 and brought together 16 representatives from CBOs, NGOs and public institutions from Albania (5 representatives), Croatia (5 representatives) and Bosnia & Herzegovina (6 representatives).

The overall objective of the Study Tour was to contribute to capacity building of gender equality CSOs and promotion of mechanisms for increasing women participation and empowerment in rural areas in Spain. The aim of the tour was to promote:

•    learning from the experience of existing civil society networks working in rural development and rural women rights,
  •    understanding issues and priorities in working with networks in the context of gender issues,
  •    identification of successes and challenges of different approaches to behavior change and life-skills development, through discussions between study tour participants and with project beneficiaries,
  •    identification of key lessons for community-based organizations working on empowerment of women in rural areas, which can be shared with other organizations and institutions in the Western Balkans.

CERAI and FIAES facilitated the Study Tour presentations and discussions. IDM, ACED and OGI played a supporting role to CERAI, as well as facilitating group discussions on behalf of the partnership.