The Costa Rica Project Briefing is being Webcast!

DPI/NGO Executive Committee Outreach Project Briefing on

"The Costa Rica Project"

1 November 2007

The following web address is a link to The Costa Rica Project
Summary, Briefing Filer, and Webcast

http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/fall07/briefings/Brief_1nov07.asp

Provided by DPI/NGO

Invitation to join a briefing on "The Costa Rica Project"

By The DPI/NGO Section

Follow-up Meeting: Day 2

Mission Accomplished!

In the morning, Christina and Jose came to the center and drove us to their facility where the presentation of CIDH and RUMBA took place. El Centro Internacional para el Desarrollo Humano (CIDH) was a non-profit, multidisciplinary, educational and applied research organization based in San José, Costa Rica, whose mission is to promote the sustainability of the development process in Latin America and the Caribbean. CIDH works with international agencies, including the World Bank, UNDP, and IADB, to promote sustainable human development through programs of social dialogue, applied research, and academic exchange, giving individuals and organizations access to the knowledge and skills they need to play a major role in the development process.

For RUMBA, it was affiliated with the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), which was a global network of individuals and organisations concerned with the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding worldwide. WABA action is based on the Innocenti Declaration, the Ten Links for Nurturing the Future and the Global Strategy for Infant & Young Child Feeding. Its core partners are IBFAN, LLLI, ILCA, Wellstart International and ABM.

Then, we visited Omar Dengo Foundation (ODF). It was a private non-profit institution which had launched national and regional projects in the area of educational innovation and the social benefits of new technologies. The ODF's projects were varied and benefited a large number of Costa Ricans, especially young and adolescent students, educators, members of the communities, and senior citizens. The ODF had extensive experience in the fields of education, evaluation, research, and the design, management, and execution of projects of an educational and social nature. The Foundation currently developed programs in the following areas, for example, Educational Informatics, Professional Development and Training for Educators, Educational Innovation, Digital Technologies for all, and etc.

After that, we went back to the center due to some NGOs' representatives would like to come see us at the Global College to have a further discussion about their fields of work and also the the application form. Unfortunately, most of the NGOs that visited us at the center were more comfortable with speaking Spanish than English so the Spanish speakers had to be involved in the discussion. And the rest who could not understand Spanish got to write the reports about the NGOs that we had been met in the past 2 days. Nevertheless, we got a good number of NGOs that interested in affiliation with the NGO/DPI as expected. In conclusion, a Breakfast Meeting and the Follow-up Meetings were considered successful and we were glad to see our mission accomplished.

By Sudarat Adirek

Follow-up Meeting: Day 1

Visiting NGOs' Headquarters!

Today, we had an appointment with 4 NGOs to visit and have further discussion at their facilities. In the morning, we went to Radisson Hotel in San Jose to attend the meeting as invited by an NGO. It was also an anniversary celebration of this NGO, where the presentation was mainly about the work of this NGO in the past years. Unfortunately, we could not stay until the meeting was over because we also had an appointment to meet with another NGO in the morning. Therefore, in order to save time we decided to have a quick breakfast at the hotel and took a van to meet with another NGO at their headquarter.

We soon arrived at the National Children's Hospital, which was also the headquarter of Central del Movimiento de Trabajadores Costarricenses (CMTC). They focused their work on improving children's education, health, and well-beings by providing children's hospital and fundamental education. Even though CMTC based in Costa Rica, it also provided help in other Central American Countries. CMTC found the affiliation with the NGO/DPI interesting so they let us help them filled-in the application form. After we finished our discussion with CMTC, their staff offered us a ride to another NGO's facility near by and we accepted that offer.

In the afternoon, we arrived at Credimujer's headquarter safely. This NGO offered opportunities of easy access to the credit and the training to the women and men micro-entrepreneurs in order to strengthen their commercial and productive activities, improve their quality of life, and be able to join the economic and social development of the country. Credimujer found the association with the United Nations useful for them in terms of reliability so they decided to affiliate with the NGO/DPI.

After that, we visited ACICAFOC, the last NGO of the day at their headquarter in San Jose, which was a little bit far from the location of the previous NGO. ACICAFOC stands for "Asociación Coordinadora Indígena y Campesina de Agroforestería Comunitaria Centroamericana" meant that Central American Indigenous and Peasant Coordination Association for Community Agroforestry. It was a community-based, non political and dynamic organization characterized by flexibility to the fast changes experienced by Central American rural communities. Their mission was to work with the communities in order to increase their competition, and the correct use and management of natural and cultural resources.

During the meeting, they seemed interested in affiliation with the NGO/DPI as they had already affiliated with ECOSOC. However, they alone could not decide whether to affiliate with the NGO/DPI or not because ACICAFOC was well-structured and decision-making could only do during their annual General Assembly where 7 Broad of Directors who represented 7 member countries gathered together. Therefore, they would deliver their decision to us after they had discussed during their General Assembly on June 22nd and 23rd, 2007.

However, we realized that we had not eaten anything since morning and now our stomachs were craving for food. Finally, we stopped by a seafood restaurant for dinner and went to a huge souvenir store to buy some local handicrafts for the people back home.

By Sudarat Adirek

A Breakfast Meeting at the Barcelo San Jose Palacio Hotel

June 8th, 2007

Early morning, all of us met at the Barcelo San Jose Palacio Hotel to make sure everything was in place before the first participant arrived. Prof. Lee practiced her speech in Spanish and did the final check-up of everything in general. Fabiola reviewed her presentation and tried to match them with the Power point presentation created by Sudarat. Sudarat linked her laptop with the visual aid equipments provided by Global College and made sure both visual and sound were alright and ready to present. Cindy and Abdul helped Clarice and Brenda set up the front desk and arranged the documents and leaflets around the meeting room for the participants to take what they saw useful. Clarice and Brenda stationed at the front desk so they prepared the sign-up sheet and the list of prospective participants.

We encountered some problems such as the hotel did not put up the sign showing where a breakfast meeting took place, the deficient amount of light in the meeting room, and how we could figured out who was who so that we could take them to the appropriate tables. By all means, we had all the problems taking care of. First, we had the hotel put up the sign just in time of the arrival of the NGOs. Then we tried to turn the maximum light on but still not sufficient so we decided to open the curtains around the meeting room to get the sunlight from the outside. And to make sure who was who, we let each of them signed-up at the front desk and had the members took them to the tables where they belonged.

At 8 o'clock, the participants arrived one after another. We had them signed-up at the front desk with Clarice and Brenda and gave them a package of information necessary to complete the application process. Cindy and Abdul were the receptionists stationed at the entrance greeting the participants. Sudarat was a receptionist responsible for taking the participants to their tables. We let the participants socialized and enjoyed their breakfast while waiting for the rest to arrive.

Soon, the UN Resident Coordinator, Sr. Jose Manuel Hermida, opened the meeting. Followed by the speech from Prof. Lee explaining who we are and why we are here. Then Sarah gave a speech on behalf of Global College's staff explaining what they are doing and serving Costa Rica. After that, Fabiola represented all of us to give the formal Power point presentation to the NGOs about the benefits that an association with DPI at UN headquarters would bring and the complete guidance to fill-up the application form, followed by a question and answer period. During the meeting, many NGOs expressed an interest and raised questions about the application process. Some NGOs invited us to meet the following week either at their facilities or at the Global College for further discussion.

When the meeting was over, we had breakfast together to discuss about the meeting and estimate our success, in which we believed that it would bring a good number of NGOs to be affiliated with the NGO/DPI. Finally, we all felt relieved and satisfied with the outcome of the meeting that we put so much effort in.

By Sudarat Adirek

Last Day of Hard Work

Mission on the Go!

1. Finalize and translate the power point, agenda and registration and application forms into Spanish.

2. Practice presentation

3. Decide on the best content from the UN Website to use with the participants, in response to their queries.

Since the morning, we continued what we have been tasked to do, rotating shift sometimes, and we put together copies of all the necessary documents in a package; ready to distribute to the participants who attend the conference. As a result, we had lunch late and we went home late ~__~!

"All we can hope for is to impress the participants as much as we can…"

By The Members and edited by Sudarat and Cindy

Third Day of Work

We are in good shape!

On 6 June, the phone calling continued, there were several more acceptances to the invitation to the breakfast. Professor Lee and Abdulmohsin went to the Barcelo San Jose Palacio Hotel to discuss and settle all requirements for the meeting. They rejected two rooms before settling on the third. A contract was issued to provide breakfast and meeting facilities for 41 persons. Government officials were contacted by UNDP and our team.

By the afternoon, the presentation was taking shape and the sign-up sheet was finished (in English). It was agreed that the meeting was going to be taped and discussed with officers of the center to materialize this task. Cindy would be asked to assist on this.

After discussion the following tasks for the meeting were distributed:

1. Registration desk and welcoming of participants by Brenda and Clarice
2. Computer access for participants for questions at the resource desk by Brenda and Clarice
3. Prepare an Informal Translation (into Spanish) of NGO/DPI application form to provide to participants by Brenda and Abdulmohsin
4. Resource Desk and Power Point by Sudarat
5. Filming presentation/interaction by Cindy
6. Informal Question and answers about availability of documents/leaflets/etc.; follow up to our presentation by Cindy
7. Presentation of power point by Fabiola and Abdulmohsin, following an introduction by Phyllis Lee

By The Members