The 2012 edition of UNWTO Special Practicum programme for Arab speaking countries will be held from 16 to 23 September 2012, at UNWTO Headquarters in Madrid and at the Euro-Arab Institute Foundation for Education and Training (INSTEA), in Granada, in English and Arabic. 

At its Millennium Summit in 2000, the United Nations identified poverty as one of the biggest global challenges and set forth as one of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has responded to this challenge and opportunity by launching the ST-EP Initiative, which was announced at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002.

Despite the special position of tourism in poverty alleviation, often poor segments of the population in developing countries and least developed countries do not benefit from the economic impact of tourism. The UNWTO Sustainable Tourism - Eliminating Poverty Initiative (ST-EP) promotes poverty alleviation through the provision of assistance to sustainable development projects. The initiative focuses on enhancing the Organization’s longstanding work to encourage sustainable tourism – social, economic and ecological – with activities that specifically alleviate poverty, deliver development and create jobs for people living on less than a dollar a day. UNWTO views the ST-EP Initiative as an effective tool to make a tangible contribution to the MDGs. Tourism can play a significant role particularly for goals 1, 3, 7 and 8, addressing extreme poverty and hunger, gender equality, environmental sustainability and global partnership respectively.

At the 2005 UN World Summit in New York, UNWTO convened meetings with governments, industry, UN agencies and civil society leaders on how to harness tourism most effectively for the MDGs. These discussions culminated in the adoption of the Declaration on “Harnessing Tourism for the Millennium Development Goals”, an important declaration that put on record the recognition of tourism as a major force for socio-economic development and an effective contributor to the MDGs. The declaration calls on governments, international and bilateral development agencies, corporations and civil society, to further their efforts in support of the tourism sector through mobilizing additional resources, afford tourism greater priority in development assistance programmes and poverty alleviation strategies, promote public-private partnerships and good governance.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Highly qualified officials holding a management-level post with decision-making responsibilities at the NTA, nominated by the highest authority of the National Tourism Administration.

Candidates should have an excellent command English or Arabic as the Practicum and Seminar will be conducted in these languages. Members are requested to forward their nomination of a candidate, with the completed application form (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Practicum2012_ArabCountries), letter of intention and supporting documents, as soon as possible. Due to the inter-active nature of the Practicum, it is limited to 10 participants in total.

Applications must be submitted with a formal letter from the highest authority of the National Tourism Administration (Minister, Director-General) from the respective Governments nominating their candidate. The proposed candidates will be selected on merit. The deadline for application is 20 August 2012, at the latest.

OBJECTIVE

This seminar is aimed at raising awareness and building capacities among public officials, NGOs, the private sector and communities in developing countries.

The seminar will be conducted by UNWTO experts in the area of Sustainable Tourism and Poverty Alleviation and will be highly interactive with workgroup sessions. This hands-on approach will enable participants to deepen their knowledge on ST EP programmes and give them the tools to apply for them.

METHODOLOGY AND STRUCTURE

The theoretical-practical methodology, which analyzes experiences applicable to the participants, is modular. Each of these modules comprises presentations, discussions, debates, group work with case studies and practical activities.

The presentations, though mainly theoretical, are brief, conceptual, tool sharing and as interactive as possible, combined with discussions and debates. While, the practical activities and group work, included in each module, are based on field work (technical visit) and sometimes written case studies.

The intention of this approach – the transmission and usage of various tools, the expertise of the experts and participants, the discussion forums and the practical group work – is for participants to fully understand the topics of the course.

SEMINAR CONTENTS

- Introduction

- Module I: Destination Management for Poverty Alleviation

- Module II: The Tourism Value Chain and Key Stakeholders

- Module II: Mechanisms for Reaching the Poor

- Module IV: Managing a ST-EP Project

Documents

• PROGRAMME
• INFORMATION NOTE