Development Account Projects
Participatory human development in post-conflict countries
Background:
The concept of participatory development is not new in the region, neither is the practice of social dialogue and popular participation at the local level. Little however, has been done by governments undergoing or emerging from conflict to hold broad public consultations to identify development priorities.
In particular, Iraqis, Palestinians, Lebanese and Yemenis have, over the past years, passed through many destructive wars, internal uprisings, conflicts, terrorism and debilitating sanctions. Vital infrastructures of the countries have been considerably devastated, malnutrition and abject poverty have spread and social conditions have worsened. Further, the respective governments and authorities faced difficulties to meet the most pressing needs of their people, inter alia health care, education, and job opportunities.
The unique edge of ESCWA in undertaking this activity is three-fold: (a) the regional mutually inter-influencing scope of many of the ingredients of the conflict (e.g., shared social culture environment and history, cross boundary extremism, weak post independence governance records, lack of public participation etc); (b) the normative and standardization type of investigation involved; and (c) the promise of probing and validating comparable approaches and policy synthesis in empowering civil society institutions across the region. ESCWA is well positioned to identify regional patterns and dynamics, as they evolve and emerge. In addition, through its network with other regional commissions and international agencies, it has the ability to channel knowledge acquired in other parts of the world. Moreover, ESCWA has launched several field projects and capacity-building programmes in Syria, Jordan and Egypt within the field of community-based development. Through these projects, ESCWA has built expertise and has already developed powerful partnerships among stakeholders and successful models for replication. The project builds on and creates synergies with those successfully implemented initiatives.
Objective:
To strengthen government-civil society participation in war-torn ESCWA member countries in matters of initiating social policy dialogue, and supporting and contributing to the formulation, implementation and monitoring of social policy.
Expected Accomplishments:
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Increased capacity to develop and implement development projects, based on the participatory approach, aimed at alleviating poverty and generating employment;
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Improved technical and institutional capacities to develop and implement participatory methods towards a more effective and sustainable human development.
Implementation Status:
Project implementation commenced in 2008.
