Since the early days of Israel's development, high priority has been
placed on policies, support structures and incentives aimed at
fostering economic growth at the grassroots level through community
development.
This approach has proven instrumental in meeting the domestic
challenges that Israel has faced over the past 50 years. The
imperative of rapid economic development in Israel's early years, the
subsequent dismantling of early socialist structures and the
absorption of continuous waves of mass immigration have all
necessitated extensive grassroots action. Thus, Israel has acquired
hands-on expertise in community-building, development of local
economic support frameworks, cooperative organization and
facilitation of entrepreneurship in emerging economies and immigrant
populations.
Since the 1960s, Israel's experience in bottom-up development has
attracted widespread attention from countries of the developing
world. MASHAV has responded to this demand with a wide range of
bilateral programs. In addition, as the development community has
become increasingly aware of the importance of "micro-action," MASHAV
has collaborated with numerous international organizations, including
the World Bank and UNESCO, in developing grassroots-oriented
programming.
MASHAV's
action in the field of community development focuses on:
- teaching communities to solve future problems by using their own
resources
- developing women leaders and providing support for their
entrepreneurship
- strengthening local NGOs by helping them develop, implement and
sustain programming
- encouraging collaborative action, cooperative building and
networking
- developing curricula for community leadership training
- establishing basic social service centers to service local
communities.
In addition, MASHAV cooperates with partner countries to develop
support structures for small and medium scale entrepreneurial
activities. This includes new business incubators, industrial parks,
and small business development centers (modeled after Israel's own
"MATI" centers which provide counseling and services to small
businesses.)
In 2000, MASHAV sponsored 66 courses in Israel, 25 on-the-spot
courses and 10 short-term consultancies on economic, social and
community development in both rural and urban environments.
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Integrated Rural Regional Development
For over 30 years, MASHAV has sponsored the Weitz Center for
Development Studies Integrated Rural Regional Development Course
(IRRD). This is an intensive 7-month course which brings together
government officials and planning professionals from around the world
in order to exchange experiences and to enhance their capacity to
implement change in their own countries. The course involves 5 months
of intensive study in Israel and another 2 months conducted in a
selected region of a participating country. During this stage,
participants work in inter-disciplinary teams in order to prepare a
complete integrated development plan, including identification of
specific projects for implementation. The final regional report is
then presented to the national and regional authorities. Many of the
host countries who have benefitted from the program in the past have
implemented most, if not all, of the planning projects.
The course is unique in its approach and organizational structure.
The multi-disciplinary approach promotes integrated regional
development, combining both vertical integration of the macro and
micro level planning, as well as horizontal integration, among the
Agricultural, Industrial and Social Services sectors. Participants
benefit from each other's input and experience and from critical
analysis of the Israeli model of rural development.
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