Tulkarem (20/6/2009) - The first workshop on the draft Strategic Development Plan for Al Kafriyat’s seven Local Government Units concluded in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on Sunday June 20th 2009.

A specialized planning team from Al Kafriyat is preparing the Plan with funding and support from the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) within the Local Infrastructure and Capacity Building Project (LICP) in cooperation with the Ministry of Local Government.

The workshop titled ‘Developmental Issues and Directions’ was attended by a number of influential figures in the Kafriyat representing different social strata and sectors.

The workshop which lasted for two days was attended and opened by, Tawfeeq Al Budari the Deputy Minister for Planning Engineering Affairs at the MoLG, Ms. Majeda Nabhan LICP Programme Director and Mr. Farouq Ghanaiym Chairman of Al Kafriyat JSCDP.

Mr. Budari commended Al Kafriyat JSCDP for being the first pilot in Palestine in terms of developing a strategic planning for JSCDP, where the ministry is counting on the success of this pilot to generalize it for other JSCDPs.

Mr. Ghanaiym thanked the participants for working as a team, valuing the role of the BTC in supporting Al Kafriyat. He also pointed out the implementation of several infrastructure and services projects in Al Kafriyat over the past years, such as, the purchase of a power crane and an excavator, constructing a swimming pool and a public park which will be officially handed over and operational early next month.

Mr. Ghanaiym stressed the importance of the unity of the seven villages in Al Kafriyat for public interest for all council services members which was established since the arrival of the Palestinian National Authority and the municipality will be crowned with one municipality bearing the name of Al Kafriyat.

Ms. Nabhan spoke about the importance of the project, its objectives and emphasized the support of BTC of Al Kafriyat Strategic Plan and praised the achievements of the Joint Services Council, which is one of the most active councils in Palestine.

Mohammed Khader, the coordinator of Al Kafriyat JSCDP elaborated about the objective of holding the workshop and proposed a possible theme of Al Kafriyat’s vision based on unity and integration. The vision was discussed and adopted by the participants.
The participants introduced the positive and negative influences and issues in Al Kafriyat, which were formulated by the various specialized committees representing eight themes and sectors.

The workshop was moderated by Mohamed Abdel-Latif, a specialist in humanitarian affairs, who focused on the need to develop a strategic plan for Al Kafriyat for the coming years leading to Al Kafriyat’s Unified Municipality.

Please find the original article, as it was published in Al Ayam Newspaper, available for download over here.

Some photos giving an overall impression of the workshop can be seen below: