المحتوى متاح باللغة الإنجليزية

We often talk about what they do in the project, but rarely about who they are, these women and men who are behind the implementation of InnovAgroWoMed. 
Today, we are going to discover The Palestinian Businesswomen Association – ASALA, member of the InnovAgroWoMed consortium responsible for the "training and Job creation”, with our guest Merna Ziadeh, the Program Manager at ASALA and the Project Manager in the InnovAgroWoMed project.
 

1-    Can you give us a brief description of your institution ASALA?

"The Palestinian Businesswomen Association – ASALA was established in 1997, and its mission is and has always been to provide services that help women in poverty to change their lives, their social position, and their future by enabling and encouraging their successful participation in sustainable economic activities. 

Since its foundation, ASALA has developed a variety of services to better enable women entrepreneurs to make use of economic opportunities and it is working on empowering women who have limited resources to realize their economic and social rights by using a holistic approach to development in accordance with their needs. 

These goals are carried out through cooperative and cross-cutting work of specialists in four programmatic tracks: capacity building, advocacy and lobbying, research department, and access to market."

2- What is the role of ASALA in InnovAgroWoMed project’s consortium?

"In Palestine, The Palestinian business Women Association – ASALA , will carry out all the activities of InnovAgroWoMed project in all the phases with cooperation with the partners.

ASALA is mainly responsible for training and Job creation, that aims at delivering an innovative and effective training and coaching programs to increase the employability including self-employability, level of the young women from the participating countries. As the training model will be designed at local level according to the results of the research activities that we are currently conducting to lead us to design the training models, in addition to the potential of the agri-food sector and its various supply chains for job creation and women’s employments.

In the next months, 35 women in Palestine will receive a full training package to become entrepreneurs or employee in the agri-food, as in 2022 the job creation phase will be opened and ASALA with partnership with stakeholders will manage this phase to help training participants with a sustainable job by the end of the project."

3- Who are the members of your organization involved in the InnovAgroWoMed project? What kind of profiles and functions do they have?

"I am in charge of overall planning and management of the project’s activities managed by the Palestinian business women association – ASALA with experience in regional project management. We have also Miss. Noor Al Zaben, as financial officer. Noor has experience in the administrative and financial management of projects; Miss Maisa Abuzaheeda is our communication officer, Maisa background is journalist and Media. The research group is composed by two qualified professionals with Mr. Abd Alaziz Alsalhi and Mr. Hikmat Abughosh."

4- What are your expectations of the project outputs? 

"We at ASALA fully trust that the InnovAgroWoMed will help empowering marginalized Palestinian rural women to realize their economic and social rights, by opening new horizon that will enable women to find an adequate and sustainable career path."