Turning your ideas, strategies and visions for the future into actionable policy options for a government is never an easy task, and this goes double for parties involved in the case of the Middle East Peace Process. This was the topic of a two-day training in Ramallah delivered by Clingendael Academy. 

Policies with focus

In this training Clingendael trainers illustrated some of the common mistakes that are typically made in making policy recommendations. One common pitfall is formulating an overambitious goal for your policy. This often makes your proposed options lack focus, making it challenging for your chosen policy to have real effect on the ground. This in turn makes it even more difficult to convince colleagues that your policy is well thought-out, effective and actionable.

Such mistakes can be overcome with  the input of an invaluable source of assistance: your own colleagues. In the clinic segment of this training, all diplomatic attachés presented their own policy recommendations for their chosen topics to their colleagues in small groups for discussion. With the input from these discussions, the resulting policy recommendations became better thought-out, more concrete and applicable for their own work at the Ministry of Foreign Affars (MOFA).

Familiar Faces

Clingendael has provided training for diplomats from the Palestinian Territories in the past: in 2014-2015 in The Hague. Clingendael Academy will also deliver two more capacity building missions to assist the Palestinian Auhority’s MOFA Diplomatic Training Programme. For more on Clingendael Capacity Building, you can visit this page.

Are you interested in similar trainings on policy recommendations, negotiations or a specific thematic training? Please visit the Clingendael Academy webpage on Open registration courses or contact Mr. Hans Wurzer for more information about developing tailor-made training for your organization: (+31)70-374 66 42.