Source: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
Country: occupied Palestinian territory
- During the reporting week UNRWA commenced the distribution of Non-Food Items (NFIs) such as tarpaulin, blankets, mattresses, heaters and other items for displaced and other vulnerable Palestine refugees as part of the Agency’s annual winterization campaign, launched under the hashtag #shareyourwarmth. Whilst the needs assessment is ongoing, as of 26 January the UNRWA logistics team had arranged the distribution of one tarpaulin sheet and a 30 square metres nylon sheet to 500 refugee families in Rafah, southern Gaza, to help them cope with the harsh winter conditions. The UNRWA logistics team organizes the distribution of NFIs in partnership with the UNRWA Chief of Area Offices that assess and advise on each governorate’s needs. For the winterization campaign NFI distribution, UNRWA is hiring 35 support personnel for short-term employment opportunities primarily through its Job Creation Programme, including 25 labourers, five clerks and five storekeepers, to support UNRWA warehouse personnel across the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in cooperation with various governorates of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and Palestinian Civil Defense, and with the cooperation of humanitarian organizations and UN agencies (including UNRWA), built up an online winter storm portal that supports the documentation and tracking of needs emerging from emergencies by relevant agencies in a timely manner, alongside the response provided and outstanding gaps. In Gaza, a system built on the same platform is used as initial joint assessment tracking platform.
- UNRWA started the second semester of the 2015/2016 school year on 27 January, in line with government schools which remained closed on 25-26 January; the start of the semester was delayed for two days due to the storm weather conditions, including heavy rain and flooding Over 250,000 UNRWA students will return to 257 UNRWA elementary and preparatory schools across Gaza and more than 400 refugee youths will start the new semester in the UNRWA Vocational Training Centres in Khan Younis and Gaza. Additionally, the UNRWA school parliaments will start their activities again, ranging from launching health promotion and disease prevention days, organizing theatre sketches on human rights, and improving conditions in school cafeterias, as described in the UNRWA school parliament good practices booklet.
- The blockade on Gaza is responsible for a chronic energy crisis in the coastal enclave, impairing service delivery, students’ educational outcomes, the functioning of hospitals and medical equipment and the operation of more than 280 water and waste water facilities, as stated by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Over recent weeks, conditions have further worsened and brought increased hardship for the people of Gaza, with the electricity schedule currently on “between 4 and 8 hours on” and “12 hours off” schedule, as also reported by Al Jazeera. The electricity crisis often disproportionately affects women who traditionally spend the largest amount of time in their now mostly dark and cold homes trying to complete daily household work. In addition to creating hardship, the lack of regular electricity is life-threatening particularly in regards to the Gaza Strip’s health infrastructure, where for example the lack of light in emergency rooms can have dire consequences for patients, as reported in the media. Gaza’s hospitals not only lack electricity, but it is reported that the entire health care system lies in ruins due to Israeli restrictions on the import of medical equipment and travel restrictions for doctors to pursue further training and specialization outside of Gaza, according to information from the Israeli Human Rights organization B’Tselem in its press release on 12 January. According to B’Tselem, as a rule Israel allows patients to receive medical care abroad only in life-and-death cases, involving a lengthy bureaucratic process. This leaves many Palestinians in Gaza suffering from severe orthopedic problems, visual and hearing impairments or other grave illnesses without access to required medical care.
- Under the title “A smile of hope” the UNRWA Relief and Social Services Programmes (RSSP) launched a two-day initiative on 20 and 21 January, implemented by its Community Development Social Workers of the RSSP office in Jabalia camp, northern Gaza. The initiative took place at the Beit Lahia Development Association in northern Gaza and targeted 25 children and their mothers who lost their father/husband, aiming at raising awareness on early childhood and psychosocial support for children as well as to conduct recreational activities such as community games for the children as a social integration measure. During the reporting week RSSP, through its Community Development Social Workers in Rafah, southern Gaza, also launched an event titled “My story”, targeting 32 women and mothers who lost their husbands, encouraging them to exchange thoughts and share their experiences on how they cope with their difficult socio-economic situation. The event had the purpose of providing vulnerable women with a platform for networking and stress release.
- The slow pace of recovery in Gaza has been insufficient to make up for the 2014 recession and conflict. Timid signs of growth in the first quarter of 2015, driven by the reconstruction process, came to a halt in quarter three. According to the International Monetary Fund, the Gaza economy is not expected to reach its 2013 annual level until the end of 2017. Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita stood at only US$ 244 in quarter three of 2015, an average of US$ 2.6 per person per day, equal to less than half of the GDP in the West Bank. According to UNRWA analysis, the contraction was mainly caused by the construction sector, whose added value decreased by 20 per cent. Also the agricultural sector declined considerably (- 21 per cent), primarily caused by a drop in olive oil production as a consequence of the last conflict, where olive trees accounted for approximately 50 per cent of damaged trees, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture (PMoA). The PMoA also reports that it is worth noting that the agricultural sector declined despite the increase in export of Gaza produce, meaning that the easing of trade restrictions in November 2014 onwards by Israel had little impact on the crippled Gaza economy. The decline of the agricultural sector, impacted the number of jobs held by women, with the female unemployment rate increasing by 8 per cent between quarter one and quarter three of 2015, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). The overall unemployment rate in quarter three of 2015 went up to 42.7 per cent, according to PCBS, a slight increase from the previous quarter.
- UNRWA started its regular quarterly food distribution round this week, to run from January to March 2016, providing over 920,000 Palestine refugees with food assistance such as flour, rice, sunflower oil, milk powder, canned meat and sugar. Beneficiaries are assessed through the Agency’s reformed tablet-based Poverty Assessment System, launched in May 2015. A video explaining procedures and eligibility criteria of the PAS is broadcast on UNRWA TV. The number of beneficiaries who receive UNRWA food assistance has increased over time due to deteriorating socio-economic conditions in Gaza related to the Israeli blockade. While in the year 2000, roughly 80,000 people in Gaza were reliant on UNRWA humanitarian assistance, the figure has risen to over 920,000 today.
- Years of blockade and recurrent conflicts have eroded basic infrastructure, service delivery, livelihoods and coping mechanisms in Gaza, states the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in its 2016 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) which is part of the Global Humanitarian Overview launched in December in Geneva. The local launch of the HRP is scheduled for 10 February in Ramallah. The HRP requests US$ 571 million for a range of interventions from legal assistance and the safe disposal of unexploded ordnance to the provision of health care and water. The HRP includes three main strategic objectives: protecting the rights of Palestinians under occupation and in accordance with international humanitarian law; ensuring acutely-vulnerable Palestinians under occupation in Gaza and the West Bank have access to essential services; and the strengthening of the ability of acutely-vulnerable Palestinian households to cope with protracted threats and shocks. Overall, the context in 2016 for the occupied Palestinian territory remains the same, namely that of a protracted protection crisis driven by lack for international law, and a lack of accountability for violations. For Gaza, the report states that particularly the Israeli restrictions on what it considers “dual use” items (both civilian and military) continue to impede basic service delivery and hamper reconstruction activities for internally displaced persons. Further, the report states that the situation is exacerbated by the continuous closure by Egypt of the Rafah passenger crossing since October 2014, confining the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza. According to the report an estimated 95,000 internally displaced persons remain homeless as a result of the 2014 hostilities, the majority of them being UNRWA registered refugees of whom 78,000 continue to need temporary support.
- The restrictions imposed on the people in Gaza by Israel also continue to undermine livelihoods in Gaza, such as the traditional fishing livelihoods by restricting the fishing areas to 3- 6 miles and by import restrictions on items needed to maintain the fishing fleet, such as fiberglass and engine spare parts, which Israel classifies as “dual use items”, as the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. Israel also continues to restrict the import of wood planks thicker than one centimetre, which, according to the Wood Industry Union in Gaza, has caused shrinkage of over 30 per cent in furniture production and a rise in prices.
- To help meet reconstruction-related challenges, UNRWA is actively engaged in coordination efforts with other UN agencies and international Non-Government Organizations (INGOs) to ensure an efficient and effective response via a new body called the United Nations (UN) Gaza Recovery and Reconstruction Coordination Group (GRRG) which is chaired by UNRWA and co-chaired by the United Nations Development Programme. The GRRG was established on 4 September 2015 to strengthen government planning, coordination and monitoring of reconstruction and recovery activities in Gaza; the Group works in support of the efforts led by the National Consensus Government in the area of reconstruction and recovery. At the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) meeting on 22 January the UNCT endorsed the GRRG’s Terms of Reference.
- In quarter four of 2015, UNWRA expended US$ 16.8 million across contracted projects and self-help assistance, generating a total of 4,931 full-time job-equivalents (FTEs) over three months. Self-help intervention – for which US$ 6.1 million were disbursed in quarter four – contributed to 1,816 FTEs while the remaining US$ 10.6 million expended on construction projects generated 3,155 FTEs. Compared to the previous quarter, total expenditures and related FTEs decreased by 50 per cent as a result of lack of funding and slow progress of reconstruction due to lengthy and onerous requirements. UNRWA estimates that each additional US$ 1 million allocated to the self-help shelter repair programme can create up to 193 formal and informal jobs in the construction industry, and many more in transport, trade or manufacturing.