"Under the EPIQ Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC) and for IRG, ECODIT provided support to the USAID/West Bank and Gaza in preparing and delivering two Environmental Assessment (EA) training courses in Ramallah (West Bank) and Gaza (Gaza Strip). About 40 participants participated in each training course, representing the U.S. and Palestinian NGOs working on the USAID Community Services Program (CSP) as well as Palestinian Authority (PA) agencies such as the Ministry of Environmental Affairs (MEnA) and the Palestinian Water Authority. The course objectives were to build Palestinian capacities in the area of environmental assessment and to ensure compliance with both USAID (CFR 216) and Palestinian EA requirements in the course of implementing various CSP activities. The training course presented and discussed the rationale for conducting environmental and social assessments in Palestine, the EA requirements and procedures of USAID and MENA, and the tools to identify potential environmental impacts and formulate possible mitigation measures.  Participants in both courses were extremely satisfied with the course program and contents.  They liked the participatory learning methods used during each course and encouraged USAID and the PA agencies to conduct more training sessions using the same format.ECODIT also provided technical assistance to a dozen U.S. PVOs and local NGOs in meeting the environmental requirements of USAID and MEnA. In particular, ECODIT helped these PVOs/NGOs prepare and complete the environmental documentation required by CFR 216 as well as the Palestinian EA requirements.  ECODIT also prepared the scoping statement of the “Wadi Gaza Project,” to be funded by USAID, as a prelude to an eventual EA of the project.  The intent was to support UNDP, the Wadi Gaza Project implementing agency, and to help that agency meet its responsibility for complying with USAID’s and MEnA’s requirements for environmental review and monitoring.  The scoping statement served to identify the pertinent environmental issues to be addressed and stakeholders to be consulted as part of the EA.  People and institutions having expertise relevant to the environmental aspects of the proposed project participated in the scoping activity, including a scoping session organized on March 25, 2002."