The Palestinian Businesswomen’s Association – Asala, the Palestinian partner in the MedBEESinessHubs Project, implemented Structured Democratic Dialogue (SDD) workshops regarding the main obstacles that hinder the development of the honeybee sector and the cooperation between beekeepers in the West Bank.
The workshop spanned two consecutive days under the framework of the project “Mediterranean Bee Hubs in support for sustainable economic prosperity in deprived rural areas”, which is implemented in five countries (Palestine, Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, and Lebanon).
The SDD workshop tackled the most prominent obstacles that stand in the way of the development of the honeybee sector in the West Bank and the cooperation between beekeepers. A discussion of... Read more
The Palestinian Businesswomen’s Association – Asala, the Palestinian partner in the MedBEESinessHubs Project, implemented Structured Democratic Dialogue (SDD) workshops regarding the main obstacles that hinder the development of the honeybee sector and the cooperation between beekeepers in the West Bank.
The workshop spanned two consecutive days under the framework of the project “Mediterranean Bee Hubs in support for sustainable economic prosperity in deprived rural areas”, which is implemented in five countries (Palestine, Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, and Lebanon).
The SDD workshop tackled the most prominent obstacles that stand in the way of the development of the honeybee sector in the West Bank and the cooperation between beekeepers. A discussion of the main issues was held during the workshop, and they were later mapped in order to discuss solutions through the democratic process that will be adopted throughout the implementation of the workshops.
Participants of the workshops include representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Environmental Quality Authority, agricultural cooperatives, and beekeepers located in the West Bank. They were invited to participate with the aim of presenting the most prominent issues and hindrances that face workers in the sector.
The participants spoke about the obstacles of the lack of adequate access to markets, the weakness of market control, and their inability to network and build business relationships. They affirmed that the absence of awareness among farmers and consumers is considered some of the larger obstacles they face since they must deal with issues regarding farmers’ practices and the inability of consumers to distinguish between honey types and evaluate the quality. The participants spoke about the weakness of biodiversity in the West Bank and how this affects their ability to produce large quantities of quality honey.
Abd Al Aziz Al Salhi, Asala’s senior researcher, said that these workshops are considered highly significant for monitoring the issues that the honeybee sector faces in the West Bank, and that the approach of Structured Democratic Dialogue is considered to be one of the best methodologies that help create a dynamic dialogue that enables arriving at clear results that are dependent on discussion in several issues .
Athar Hanaysheh, one of the participants, said that this workshop allows the opportunity for beekeepers and workers in the honeybee sector to talk about the issues they face, in the wake of the environmental, policy and practice issues coming from farmers, consumers, and decision makers alike.
It is worth mentioning that MedBEESinessHubs aims to support the economies of rural communities in Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, Lebanon, and Palestine through the empowerment of local residents, especially youth, and networking among them in order to develop handmade honeybee products, related businesses, and tourism service networks, which in turn contributes to building a sustainable economy based on the honeybee sector in the Mediterranean.
Learn more about the project from here: https://enicbcmed.eu/projects/medbeesinesshubs
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