The course is taught by IPADE, a foundation of recognized prestige in international cooperation that has experience in the identification, formulation, monitoring and evaluation of projects.

On Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 April, at the headquarters of the Biodiversity Foundation (FB), the first free course/workshop on the integration of the environment in development cooperation projects will be held, aimed at technicians from Non-Governmental Development Organisations (NGOs).

Through this Programme of Actions for the Integration of the Environment in Development NGOs, launched in 2009, the FB wants to intensify the training of cooperation professionals and volunteers for the integration of environmental sustainability in the programmes and projects of Spanish Cooperation.

The objective of the Biodiversity Foundation is, therefore, to move towards the sustainable development of developing countries, through a programme of actions that improves the integration of the environmental variable in cooperation interventions, especially taking into account that the environment has been treated until now as an externality.

These training days, which begin on Monday 4 April – and will be repeated on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 April in Madrid and, subsequently, in Valencia, Seville, the Basque Country and Castilla La Mancha – aim to provide participants with the necessary tools to make the specific mission of each project compatible with the component of protection of the environment and natural resources. in all phases of their execution. Topics such as the evaluation of environmental conditions in the countries of action and the identification of local needs in this area will also be discussed, precisely in cases of projects that do not have a purely environmental character.

The course, eminently practical, lasting eight hours (distributed over one or two days), is designed for technicians to apply the information contained in the Manual for the integration of the environment in development projects. Thus, it provides a battery of tools to respond to the question of the integration of the environment as a cross-cutting variable. To this end, the SABA model (acronym that refers to the basic elements “soil, biodiversity, atmosphere and water”, according to the concept proposed by the United Nations Environment Programme) is presented, tools are offered for the analysis of social agents and environmental problems as well as spatial and temporal analysis.

The workshop is taught by graduates from the Complutense University of Madrid, with more than ten years of experience in international cooperation for development and with experience as consultants and teachers at the University Institute for Development and Cooperation (IUDC).

Those interested can contact the FB International Department through the email address internacional@fundacion-biodiversidad.es or by phone 91 121 09 20.