Regional “Train the Trainers” Workshop on the Behavioural Insights and Strategic Planning Handbook

Within the framework of ESCWA’s Development Account (DA) project “Towards the Arab Horizon 2030: Enhancing Integrated National Development Planning in the Arab Region” and as part of its deliverables, ESCWA and Nudge Lebanon collaborated to develop a comprehensive handbook/manual for Arab development planners. The handbook includes good practices and tools identified from within and outside the region that may be used by national planners as a guide during their work and throughout the different stages of planning. The handbook provides Arab planners and stakeholders with practical means and tools to apply behavioural insights into their work. In addition, the manual helps them to identify the behavioural biases that occur during the planning process and highlights possible behavioural interventions.
 
The main aim of this one-day workshop is to train the national project focal points on the content and usage of the handbook. The workshop will provide them with guidelines on how they can apply behavioural insights in practice and how they themselves can train relevant stakeholders in their countries on the usage of behavioural insights in their respective area of work.
 
The workshop furthermore allows ESCWA, the national project focal points, and Nudge Lebanon (ESCWA’s implementing partner and developer of “The Behavioural Insights and Strategic Planning Handbook”) to discuss and exchange their ideas and to collate feedback and comments on the structure, content, and presentation of the handbook. This feedback will help ESCWA and Nudge Lebanon to create the final version of the manual, which will then be translated into Arabic and distributed to relevant stakeholders who can benefit from it.
 
In the course of the workshop, ESCWA and Nudge Lebanon will present the final draft of the handbook to the participants and facilitate the discussions between the project focal points. The result of these discussions will be a summary document that comprises areas for improvement and identifies the main stakeholders that may benefit from the manual, and thus will guide the production of the final version of the handbook.
 
The opening session of the meeting will present the progress made so far with the DA project and upcoming planned activities. The first session will then provide the participants with an interactive training on the handbook that will eventually enable the participants to train the relevant stakeholders in their countries. Nudge Lebanon will walk the participants through the handbook and encourage them to share their experiences and own ideas throughout the presentation. During the second session, participants will be asked to give their feedback and comments on the final draft of the handbook and encouraged to identify relevant stakeholders in their countries. During the closing session, ESCWA and the national focal points will take a look at the near future and agree upon upcoming milestones.