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In 2007 MASHAV was active in 112 countries, training thousands of participants in courses focusing on human capacity building. The courses, taught in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic, were offered in a wide range of disciplines, including Agriculture, Education, Economic and Social Development, Community Development, Rural and Urban Development, Medicine and Public Health, Science and Technology.
Some 2,468 professionals participated in 119 courses in Israel, while 4,765 took part in 92 on-the-spot courses offered in 29 host countries.
MASHAV experts were dispatched throughout the world on 110 short-term consultancies and humanitarian medical missions to 43 countries and eight long-term experts served on MASHAV demonstration projects in five countries around the world. Highlights of MASHAV activities 2007 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made an official visit to China in January 2007, visiting the Sino Israeli Demonstration Farm in Yongledian, near Beijing. The farm was designed using Israeli experience in the field to improve dairy yields, quality, and profitability, while conserving water, and farming in a more ecologically sound manner. Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni made an official visit to China in October 2007. During her visit, FM Livni received from the Chinese government, on behalf of MASHAV, a Certificate of Appreciation in honor of 15 years of international cooperation between the two countries. The Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center (MCTC) held its 25th Biennial International Conference for Women Leaders entitled Women’s Leadership for Sustainable Development in Haifa, in November 2007. Women leaders representing 39 countries and five international organizations discussed global programming relating to gender issues; natural resources and sustainable development; human resource development; strengthening institutional resources; and developing a global partnership for many of these issues. Combating Desertification The eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP. 8) was held in Madrid, Spain, in mid-September 2007, at the invitation of the Government of Spain. This is the first time that MASHAV has participated in a conference of the parties to the UN convention. The United Nations Division for Sustainable Development, Department of Economic and Social affairs (UN-DESA) in collaboration with MASHAV, organized an international capacity building workshop on Combating Drought and Desertification and Promoting Sustainable Development in Dryland Areas. New Projects A new agricultural training center was jointly inaugurated in the city of Pisco, Peru, by MASHAV and NaanDan, a global company based in Israel that specializes in the development, production, and marketing of advanced irrigation solutions and largescale turnkey projects. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on the establishment of a Dairy Demonstration and Experimental Project in Vietnam. Dairy farming in Vietnam is developing rapidly, as it is in many other Southeast Asian countries. The Dairy Demonstration Farm will be based on Israeli technologies and know-how and is planned to be located in the vicinity of Ho Chi Minh City. Agreements A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed on January 2007 in Nairobi between MASHAV and UNEP - the United Nations Environment Program. MASHAV and ICRISAT - the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics - signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in February 2007 to promote sustainable agricultural development and research in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia. Regional Cooperation The Regional Agricultural Program, in which Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority participate, with Denmark as the initiator and main supporter, is well into its second five-year phase. The program is comprised of six main subjects of agricultural development and is governed by a semi-annual steering committee with representatives of all partners. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in March 2006 on a Japan-Israel joint training program for Egypt designed to support the "Mubarak Program" by providing agricultural courses in arid and semi-arid areas for extension officers and graduate settlers in newly reclaimed lands of the program. Some 80 participants took part in two courses during 2007, with similar plans in 2008. Medical and Humanitarian Assistance In July 2007 a temporary eye clinic was set up for southern Sudanese refugees at the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya. For many years, MASHAV has been conducting blindness prevention and eye-care missions, designed to treat patients suffering from various degrees of blindness and ocular disease. Hundreds of surgical procedures are performed by the visiting Israeli teams, which work together with local staff, restoring sight to manyof the patients. Israeli ophthalmologists also train the local personnel, and ophthalmologic equipment and supplies are donated by the Government of Israel. In a special ceremony held on March 2007, six ambulances were donated to the Sri Lanka Ministry of Health by MASHAV and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Tthe Healthcare Minister thanked Israel and JDC for their collaboration and commitment to assisting the tsunami survivors in particular, and Sri Lanka in general, in its time of need. | 
