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The Golds Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center (MCTC) was founded in Haifa in 1961 by MASHAV — Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and HAIGUD — Society for Transfer of Technology — with the aim, then as now, of initiating and conducting training activities for women in developing countries, to advance their participation in public life, thereby enlarging their contribution to the socio-economic development process of their communities.
MCTC is unique in being the first training center in the world to place the issue of gender equality on the international agenda, some 14 years before the 1975 UN Declaration of the "Development Decade for the Promotion of Women". Two visionary women stood behind the Center's establishment: Golda Meir, then Foreign Minister of Israel, and Mina Ben-Zvi, first Commander of the IDF Women's Corps and MCTC's founding director, both of whom identified the need to advance the status of women.
Throughout half a century, hundreds of training activities have been carried out at MCTC for the benefit of more than 16,000 women and men from over 147 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Oceania, the CIS, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Today many of them hold key positions at the local or national level, or within United Nations development agencies.
MCTC' s aims are in line with the Millennium Development Goals decreed by the United Nations in 2000 and focus on Community Development, Micro-enterprise Development as a tool for poverty alleviation and Early Childhood Education as a basis for development. Every year Israeli experts go to many countries around the world, training and consulting in the fields of socio/economic development, in response to requests from governments, UN agencies and civil organizations. This activity contributes to capacity-building among the many organizations engaged in development in the developing world.
Over the years, MCTC has developed ties with various UN agencies and many international organizations.
Week-long International Conferences for Women Leaders, on topics declared by the United Nations to be of current international concern, take place biennially at MCTC, hosting women who are active in public life in developing and industrialized countries - Ministers, MPs, judges, chairs of international organizations and directors of international projects.
The stamp issued by the Israel Philatelic Service to commemorate MCTC's 50th anniversary (1961 -2011) represents the power of women around the globe to advance socio-economic development in their countries.
Mazal Renford
Director
The Golds Mount Carmel International Training Center
