08 March 2017 BEIRUT – The Philippine Embassy in Beirut, in partnership with the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), hosted a follow up training on consular contingency planning for members of the diplomatic and consular corps in Lebanon at the Chancery Showroom from February 29 to March 01.

Diplomats from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Pakistan, the Philippines, the United States and the European Union (EU), as well representatives from international organizations and the Lebanese government, participated in the training, which was a follow up to an earlier seminar on the same subject held from October 04 to 06, 2016.

Ambassador Fortunato Oblena (ret.), former Philippine envoy to UAE, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, served as expert in facilitating the two-day training, assisted by Ms. Ivy Miravalles, Emigrant Services Officer of the CFO. The training featured workshops and multi-stakeholder panel discussions which aimed to build the crisis preparedness and contingency planning capacities of embassy staff members, especially from migrant-sending countries.

The event, funded by the EU and implemented by the ICMPD in partnership with the CFO, is part of a series of six regional capacity building seminars under the framework of the Migrants in Countries in Crisis (MICIC) Initiative, which is co-chaired by the Philippines and the United States. END