ACCRS

Launch of trade union cooperation in Lebanon

From 29 September-1 October, the EI Arab Cross-Country Regional Structure (ACCRS) office helped to launch the 2017-2019 cooperation agreement between the Norwegian union, Utdanningsforbundet(UEN), and the four EI Lebanese affiliates: the Comité des enseignants techniques officiels(CETO), the Ligue des Professeurs de l'Enseignement Secondaire Public du Liban(LPESPL), the Public Primary Schools Teachers League in Lebanon (PPSTLL), and the Teachers Syndicate of Lebanon (TSL).

The launch was followed by a workshop on advocacy for quality education, with activities for 2018 to be agreed on by the cooperation’s steering committee and UEN.

Huda Khoury attended the launch for EI.

Promoting and advancing gender equality in Palestine

Meetings were held from 2-6 October with the three EI member organisations in Palestine to boost women’s participation at all levels of the unions. These arose out of an awareness that women’s participation in the EI ACCRS unions is low. There is also a lack of active and supported women’s structures within those unions to support unions’ efforts to increase women’s participation and gender equality in their structures and policies.

Elected female representatives and members of the Palestinian Federation of University Unions and Polytechnic Education (PFUUPE), the General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT), and the General Union of Workers in Kindergarten and Private Schools (GUWKPS), and union leaders met to assess the capacity development needs of each union with regards to gender equality and women’s participation at different levels of the unions.

EI was represented by madeleine kennedy-macfoy and UEN Senior Consultant Lajla Blom.

Workshop on lobbying for quality education for all in Lebanon

From 19-20 October, the EI ACCRS office and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) held a workshop in Beirut on lobbying for quality education for all for teacher unionists from Lebanon and Jordan. The event was the concluding activity for the EI/FES 2015-2017 cooperation project. It focused on the survey report developed during the project and how to use evidence and tools in lobbying for quality education.

The event was attended by the Director of the FES Lebanon Office, Achim Voght, and EI’s Huda Khoury.