Capacity Building for the Staff of the Ministry of Social Development Working with Charities - Foundation Office Jordan
Event Reports
Event: Training Workshop
Date, Place: February, March 2014, Amman, Irbid, Aqaba– Jordan
Organization: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Jordan Office (KAS), Ministry of Social Development (MOSD)
Program
Saturday
Opening Session: Welcome Speech
Ms. Nidaa Al Shraideh
Project Manager
KAS Jordan Office%%
Amman - Jordan on behalf of Dr. Otmar Oehring; Resident Representative of KAS Jordan Office
Mr. Mesleh Al-Krasha
Director of NGOs
Ministry of Social Development
Amman - Jordan
Session 1: Training for MOSD Staff Working on Public Service to Build Human Relationships (Dealing with Asylum Service Approaches to Human Relations)
Dr. Fawaz Al Ratrout
Director of Institutional Development Ministry of Social Development
Amman - Jordan
Discussion
Session 2: Administrative Management Training for the Staff of the Ministry of Social Development Working with Charities
Mr. Ahmad Qhaiwi
Acting Director of Coordination and Communication Unit
Ministry of Social Development
Amman – Jordan
Discussion
Sunday
Session 3: Capacity Building for the Staff of Ministry of Social Development Working with Charities in the Financial Field
Mr. Reyad Arabyat
Acting Director of Public Service Unit Ministry of Social Development
Amman - Jordan
Discussion
Closing Session and Distribution of Certificates Final Remarks and Recommendations
Introduction
In the recent years the public service sector has witnessed profound changes. Government agencies are increasingly dealing with complex social, economic and political matters, especially with regard to their collaboration with charities. Guaranteeing a good quality of service, the expertise of ministry staff has to be optimized and needs to adapt to the new circumstances. Therefore KAS Jordan Office in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Development (MOSD) conducted training workshops on capacity building for the staff of the Ministry of Social Development who works with charities in the field of public service management and communication.
KAS Jordan Office and MOSD have conducted several training workshops for the staff of MOSD in the last year concerning issues such as good governance and administrative reforms in Jordan. To continue this successful cooperation between KAS Jordan Office and MOSD further training workshops for the staff of MOSD has been organized. These workshops aimed to provide a better quality of service to the public, as well as to optimize communication skills, particularly in the filed of cooperation with charities.
The three training workshops, each lasting for two days, were hold in mid, north and south Jordan with a number of sixty participants, working for departments of MOSD that are cooperating with charities. The training workshop focused on issues of communication, an improved quality of service, as well as developing the skills of the participants for dealing with different types of auditors.
Welcome Speeches
Mr. Mesleh Al-Krasha, Director of the department dealing with NGOs at MOSD, opened the training workshop by thanking KAS Jordan Office for organizing the event in cooperation with MOSD. He further highlighted the importance of the workshop and the topics of the training as there is the need to raise the efficiency of institutional staff, especially in the field of cooperation with charities. Public services have to be optimized in the light of changing circumstances and developments in Jordan in recent years. In particular, Mr. Al-Krasha stressed the importance of transferring the experience and training for the staff of MOSD by trainers who are themselves employed in the Ministry.
On behalf of Dr. Otmar Oehring, the Resident Representative of KAS Jordan Office, Ms. Nidaa Al Shraideh, project manager at KAS Jordan Office, emphasized the successful cooperation between KAS Jordan Office and MOSD and thanked for their efforts in organizing the three training workshops. In the context of severe developments in the past years in Jordan she described the objective of the training workshops to increase the efficiency of the employees of MOSD who work together with charities. A common language and mutual knowledge of each other between the staff of MOSD and the charities must be developed. The training workshops provide practical cases and exchange of experiences in order to facilitate the communication and find solutions for occurring problems.
Session 1: Training for MOSD Staff Working on Public Service to Build Human Relationships (Dealing With Asylum Service Approaches to Human Relations)
Dr. Fawaz Al Ratrout, Director of the Institutional Development in MOSD in Amman and trainer in this workshop emphasized the significant type of the workshop where the reactions of the trainees who work in the office of public service are immediately reflected through exercises. The training should motivate the participants regarding their cooperation with people from different backgrounds and nationalities. Part of the training was the interaction with modern administrative roles of the public service management and patterns of public services to recipients with different behavioral characteristics. According to Dr. Fawaz Al Ratrout, a main task is to build up human relationships between the public service office and the reviewers. Role playing with mutual interaction should lead to a better understanding of the roles of recipients and provider of public service. Thus, the training impacts knowledge, attitude and skills of the trainees. Dr. Fawaz Al Ratrout referred to questions of how to treat recipients’ high expectations seeking to know the procedures in the public service office, or how to deal with difficult recipients of public service. He stressed that the successful treatment of asylum services is based on the ability to build up interpersonal and human relationships.
Session 2: Administrative Management Training for the Staff of the Ministry of Social Development working with Charities
Mr. Ahmad Qhaiwi, Acting Director of Coordination and Communication Unit in MOSD, presented the general framework in the field of registered associations for public services in order to provide and facilitate the services. The trainees acquired knowledge about the registered associations and the mechanism of access to the services through brochures and manuals to simplify the arrival of reviewers and to meet their needs and demands in an appropriate way. The training involved for example, the main principles of the work at the front office, the treatment of different service recipients, the importance of time management, the appropriate use of modern technologies and single steps of the registration process for different types of associations. The trainees raised a number of issues related to their day to day work that lead to a close examination of what is necessary for an efficient workflow in the field of registered associations.
Session 3: Capacity Building for the Staff of Ministry of Social Development Working with Charities in the Financial Field
Mr. Reyad Arabyat, Acting Director of Public Service Unit at MOSD, outlined the main goal as to improve the quality of public services and the access to them. Greater satisfaction of the recipients should be achieved through an equal treatment without any forms of prejudices or discrimination; time management is a must, which can be ensured through broad explanations of the requirements. Generally, he emphasized the importance of a respectful atmosphere, as each of the employees is a representative of the Ministry. In order to achieve positive reviewers the staff of MOSD must acquire a good knowledge about the public services offered by the Ministry.
A special honour was the attendance of the Minister of Social Development, HE Mrs. Reem Abu Hassan, at the last day of the workshop in Aqaba. She thanked KAS Jordan Office and MOSD for organizing the workshops and emphasized the importance of the capacity building for the staff of MOSD who works with charities in the field of public service management and communication. In order to meet occurring difficulties and find approaches to solve them, HE Mrs. Reem Abu Hassan joined a round of talks with the participants and staff of MOSD.
Conclusion
KAS Jordan Office and MOSD will continue to enable direct dialogue between government and citizens. As the public service sector underwent deep changes in the past years, the quality of services must be optimized, especially in the field of collaborating with charities. The three workshops aimed at realizing this goal.
The three workshops played an essential role in MOSD which was also reflected by several attendances of other employees of the ministry as well as the minister herself who examined the procedures of the workshops.
After the training workshops the trained participants will coach their colleagues at MOSD and at the charities registered with the ministry in order to apply what they have learned at the workshops. A small manual was handed out by the trainers during the workshop. The manual of the training workshop will be distributed by the participants and by the Ministry of Social Development to MOSD staff working with charities.
All participants were awarded certification for participation in the training workshop. The recommendations made by the trainers and participants provided a basic framework for governance cooperation with charities. The participants will apply the gained skills in their work and will exchange their experiences with other participants to further optimize their skills.
