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Reduce Poverty With Microfinance: UNRWA Helps Palestinian Refugees

Reduce poverty with microfinance
In order to implement its programs to help Palestine refugees in the Middle East, the United Nations created the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in 1949. UNRWA is working to help and protect all registered Palestine refugees in the area. The major part of the budget of UNRWA is coming from the U.N. Member States through voluntary contributions. UNRWA is a very unique agency as it is the first time that an organization has dedicated itself to helping a specific group of refugees for such a long time.

UNRWA is especially in charge to fight against poverty among the Palestine refugees. According to the numbers of the World Bank, more than 20% of the population of Palestinian territories are living below the poverty line of $5.50 a day.

For instance, in Lebanon, 70% of the active population of Palestine refugees living in the country did not have employment in 2019. Furthermore, the Palestine workers in Lebanon were the first victims of the crisis in Lebanon that occurred in 2019, as the Palestine workers were the first ones who experienced expulsion or a reduction of 50% of their wages.

Among the various tools that UNRWA uses to counter poverty among Palestine refugees and within the Palestinian territories, it utilizes its own Department focused on microfinance.

Microfinance, a Tool to Counter Poverty

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Microfinance can be defined as “the activity or business of providing financial service to poor people or new businesses in poor countries.” As a matter of fact, microfinance services help organizations to support on a financial level poor people. Microfinance includes several financial tools such as loans and subsidies. With such financial resources, those poor people can improve their income as well as their livelihood. Indeed, they are using them for instance to create their own companies and cover their debts and so to have a new start in their life. This would only but allowing them to emerge from poverty to a more stable economic situation and ensure their financial sustainability.

When it comes to UNRWA, it established its own Microfinance Programme in 1991 in the city of Gaza to provide financial assistance to Palestine refugees but also to the poor and marginalized people among the locals. Then, the UNRWA Microfinance Programme was extended to the West Bank in 1994 and to Syria and Jordan in 2003 to help even more Palestine refugees and to reduce poverty with microfinance.

Microfinance is another tool that UNRWA uses to reach its goal entitled “A Decent Standard of Living.” This goal’s objective is to eliminate extreme poverty among Palestine refugees and marginalized groups in the Middle East and also to grant them new opportunities to develop their economic resources.

Microfinance, a Modern Financing Tool to Help Palestinian Refugees

The UNRWA Microfinance Programme developed many loans for Palestinian refugees and marginalized groups in the Middle East throughout the years. The goal was to reduce poverty with microfinance. Currently, the Programme has gathered nine different loans to help those in poverty implement small businesses and micro-enterprises or help families cover the education fees of their children.

About four of the nine loans focus on helping companies to grow and to create jobs. One of them is the microenterprise credit in order to help small businesses, less than five workers, which do not have access to credit. Another loan is the microenterprise credit plus, which aims to help small business to grow and develop. For small-scale companies with more than five workers, it is possible to ask for small-scale enterprise lending. The last loan within this category is targeting the owners of small-business by offering them some tips on how to develop their companies through small and medium enterprise business training, with donor grants paying for all costs.

Then, two of the nine loans are supporting the entrepreneurs by helping them with the creation and development of their startups. The Mubdarati – Youth Startup Loan is helping men and women between 18 and 30 to create their own businesses. The Start-Your-Business Loan Product provides funds to start-ups that people aged more than 30 years established.

The three remaining loans aim to help low-income families in covering costs for items like health care and education. The women’s household credit is supporting women in their daily life, helping them to establish activities that would generate income for them, which would help them increase household assets. As housing is an important right, UNRWA created the housing loan product to help poor families access property in 2006.

The last of the nine loans is the consumer loan product, which aims to help families pay for their children’s education or for health expenses.

The UNRWA’s Microfinance Programme’s Accomplishments

Since its creation in 1991, the UNRWA’s Microfinance Programme has granted more than 475,000 loans with a combined value of $531.41 million. Women have received 41% of this money and 28% has gone to youth since 1991.

Through those loans, the UNRWA is deeply involved in building a better economic situation for Palestine refugees in the Middle East and helping reduce poverty and unemployment with microfinance.

– Evan Da Costa Marques
Photo: Flickr

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Improving Access to Education in Palestine

Access to Education in PalestineAmid the escalating Israel-Palestine conflict, there remains a generation of Palestinian children denied access to traditional education. Despite immense adversity, education remains an important priority in Palestinian society. Education is, in part, a mode of sustaining Palestine’s unique culture amid exile and foreign occupation. More than 95% of children are enrolled in basic education across Palestine. While impressive, this statistic obscures the tribulations and barriers that Palestinian youth experience in their educational journeys. Both males and those with disabilities are at a disproportionately higher rate of not completing their education with 25% of boys dropping out of school by age 15. Equally concerning, is that “22.5% of boys and 30% of girls aged 6-15 years with a disability have never enrolled in school.” International aid organizations are committed to improving access to education in Palestine.

Low School Completion Rates

Low rates of school completion are inherently tied to Palestine’s failing job market. The economy is crippled by decades of sanctions and isolationism. Currently, youth unemployment rates are 40% in the West Bank and 62% in Gaza. Simply, many young Palestinians do not see the incentive in completing their education if it will not guarantee them job opportunities.

For the Palestinian education system to thrive, the state’s circulation of job opportunities needs to be drastically improved. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) offers a technical and vocational training program to Palestinian refugee youth to help them gain skills for the Middle Eastern job sector. The UNRWA runs eight centers with a capacity for about 7,500 students. Furthermore, UNICEF works on “life-skills and entrepreneurship skills programs for adolescents to support their future employment.”

Influence of West Bank Violence on Education

Violent episodes of conflict along the West Bank and Gaza Strip hinder education in Palestine. Due to the crisis in the region, almost half a million children in Palestine require humanitarian assistance. The closure of the Gaza Strip and its accompanying physical access restrictions vehemently infringe upon the liberties and learning potential of young Palestinians. Having to regularly pass by military checkpoints and settlements on the way to school has untold psychological effects on Palestinian youth. Even at home, almost 90% “of children are subjected to psychological aggression” and 74% are physically punished.

Organizations such as UNICEF fight to create violence-free environments across Palestine. “It is our collective duty to protect every child on the journey to school and at school and to ensure that they can access the quality education which is the right of every child, everywhere,” says Genevieve Boutin, UNICEF special representative in the State of Palestine. She further explains that education is integral to achieving peace.

The Future of Palestinian Education

Still, much remains to be done to improve access to education in Palestine. Across Palestine, classrooms remain immensely overcrowded and underfunded. From a lack of classrooms to textbook shortages, Palestinian students are forced to beat the odds. Sometimes, students must study with no light due to frequent power outages. In fact, the Gaza Strip is only able to garner a meager four to six hours of electricity daily.

It is crucial that the United States and other powerful countries increase their humanitarian assistance and aid to the Palestinian territories. As violence continues to erupt, the U.N. is actively involved in mediation efforts. International organizations must continue targeted development projects in marginalized Palestinian communities. The future of education in Palestine depends on the unity and support of the international community.

– Conor Green
Photo: Flickr

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Haya Joint Programme Reduces Violence Against Women in Palestine

Haya Joint ProgrammeThe Haya Joint Programme, in partnership with United Nations efforts, is working to reduce violence against women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A vital resource protecting women and girls, the program works toward achieving gender equality for generations to come.

Program Background

The Haya Joint Programme is a Palestinian human rights program aimed at ending violence against women through education and intervention. The government of Canada funds the initiative, which works with a variety of United Nations organizations, such as U.N. Women, U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime and the U.N. Population Fund. The Haya Joint Programme also works with Palestinian law enforcement and government agencies to implement efforts at local levels.

The program seeks to change existing attitudes about gender violence through community education. It accomplishes this by teaching educators intervention techniques for those facing domestic violence. Furthermore, the program pushes for essential legislative change to provide further legal protection for women.

Forensic Training for Gender Violence Justice

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reports that an overwhelming number of women have experienced violence by a partner. This emotional and physical hardship has directly affected more than half of all women in the Gaza Strip and 30% of women who have ever married in the West Bank. Only 1% ever reported these events to law enforcement.

In a press release on January 5, 2021, U.N. Women announced its collaboration with the Haya Joint Programme. The announcement indicated a plan to increase forensic science training at the West Bank’s only forensic lab for cases of domestic violence. Training includes instruction of lab equipment, preserving crime scene evidence and forming opinion evidence on behalf of gender violence survivors. In the last year alone, the lab assisted with presenting forensic evidence to the court for 1,690 cases.

Moreover, this training aids in the identification and prosecution of perpetrators in cases of sexual assault and homicide. Police, crime scene and family protection officers also received training for handling and preserving crime scenes through this program.

Training for Teacher Intervention

Another crucial aspect of the Haya Joint Programme is to increase education and awareness surrounding gender and domestic violence. The program conducts training courses for teachers on topics related to intervention and legal rights for women and girls in Palestine.

In the last year, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights held multiple training sessions with the Haya Joint Programme for educators teaching in United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools in the Gaza Strip. The training sessions include lessons on how teachers can recognize gender violence among students and provide counseling and other resource referrals to those who need it. Teachers also learn about women’s legal rights in instances of violence and the courses of legal action to take.

The program has had to adapt to COVID-19 precautions in the last year but conducted its training sessions via Zoom during November and December. These sessions were still widely attended by 129 teachers and females accounted for 103 attendees.

A Global Issue

The Haya Joint Programme notes that these efforts to diminish violence against women are in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Goal 5 is to reach gender equality by working to increase women’s education, increasing the number of women in government positions and reducing domestic violence.

With one in five women experiencing intimate partner violence every year, initiatives like the Haya Joint Programme are essential. Fortunately, the program is attempting to reduce the prevalence of these offenses by supporting women and girls in obtaining justice. The Haya Joint Programme focuses on core problems by working directly on factors like securing legal rights and changing attitudes. As its efforts are paramount to Palestine’s prosperity, the program looks toward a successful future.

– June Noyes
Photo: Flickr

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UNRWA Struggles after the US Pulls Funding

UNRWA
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was specifically created to help Palestinian refugees after the 1948 Israeli-Arab war. The Palestinian refugee problem has only grown since its formation, so the U.N. has allowed the agency to continue operating.

Palestinian refugees are unique. Every person who was a resident or a resident’s descendant of what is now Israel all have a legal designation as ‘refugees.’ UNRWA now serves four generations of Palestinian refugees, having grown from serving 750,000 to 5.6 million.

The United States Pulls Funding

The United States pulled its funding from UNRWA in 2018. President Trump cited the reason behind the defunding as the agency’s incompetency. The United States had previously been contributing about $355,000 million of UNWRA’s budget.

The United States’ decision affected refugees who rely on UNRWA’s aid for education, health care, protection and basic human needs like food security. In 2017, reports determined that 39% of Palestinian refugees lived in poverty, and very little effort has occurred to assimilate Palestinians into host communities.

Palestine, Israel and the international community, in general, see the United States’ choice as an effort to delegitimize UNRWA and the 5.6 billion Palestinian refugees it serves. Revoking these generations of Palestinians’ refugee status would take away their right to return to their homeland.

Aftermath of Funding Removal

In 2020, the U.N. extended UNRWA’s mandate to the year 2023. However, UNRWA is still struggling financially. Not only did it appeal to the international community to donate a minimum of $1.4 billion for the yearly budget, but it requested another $14 million for COVID-19 emergency aid.

The UNRWA reported that it can only sustain operations until May 2020 with the added health crisis that COVID-19 brought on. It has only raised one-third of its budget. UNRWA’s director stated that the UNRWA must run on a “month to month basis” enduring the biggest financial instability since its creation.

Pleas for Help

The United States made the suggestion to transition the UNRWA’s responsibilities into the hands of the Arab countries that host Palestinian refugees. However, these nations are struggling to fill their own funding gap. Arab countries are suffering from high poverty rates and an influx of refugees from the ongoing conflict in Syria.

UNRWA has also sought the help of NGOs, such as Islamic Relief USA, to fill the funding gap. This is a faith-based organization that works to raise funds and mobilize volunteers for a range of initiatives including UNRWA. It has been helping Palestinian refugees since 1994. Islamic Relief USA has served 1,077,000 people from 2017 to 2019.

The United States government might have cut off funding to UNRWA as a result of flaws within the agency. It might have hoped to delegitimize the Palestinian right of return. Either way, Palestine’s impoverished people need UNRWA’s support. If UNRWA is not successful in gaining new donors, they will lose their access to education, health care and other necessary securities that are human rights.

– Olivia Welsh
Photo: Flickr