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I would like to thank again our good friend Jan Egeland, for his thought-provoking statement. It is heartening to see yet again just how strong the commitment is to humanitarian ideals, to Palestine refugees and to the work of UNRWA. Distinguished guests of UNRWA: We meet at a time of great hardship for many of the refugees under our care in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. It is a time of daunting challenges for UNRWA as we strive to provide refugees with the assistance and protection to which they are entitled, and a time of strangely concomitant hope and anxiety about the future. My statement to you today will present an overview of developments in our fields of operations and outline some of our principal internal challenges. Lebanon I will begin with Lebanon where Palestine refugees find themselves grappling with an extraordinary crisis, having experienced an intense armed conflict already in the middle of 2006. This past summer, the fragile modus vivendi in northern Lebanon was shattered by the conflict between armed elements who had infiltrated Nahr el Bared camp and the Lebanese army. This tragedy displaced over 30,000 refugees, who fled to the neighboring Beddawi camp. Johan Eriksson’s short film titled: "Returning to Nahr el Bared", which will be screened tomorrow morning, will give us a brief but graphic glimpse of the privations these refugees endured – and continue to endure. The Nahr el Bared crisis confronted us – not for the first time – with a civilian population bearing the brunt of hardship from a conflict not of their making. We saw how the Beddawi refugee community embraced the new arrivals and how UNRWA moved quickly into emergency mode, providing food and health services and facilitating emergency housing. Schools were transformed into emergency shelters, and I emphasize, these were not only UNRWA facilities, but also Lebanese schools, put at our disposal by a concerned Government. We were pleased by the rapid response of the donor community, which enabled us to cope with the extraordinary pressure on our services. And we were gratified by the ready support and cooperation offered to us by the Lebanese Government. Our current appeal, when fully funded, will enable the displaced refugee population to survive with a measure of dignity through August 2008. By that time, we should be accelerating the task of rebuilding Nahr el Bared camp to enable more refugees to return to their homes. Today, the refugees continue to live in very precarious conditions. The camp they left behind is marked by destroyed homes, unexploded ordnance and ruined infrastructure. We have begun to assess the extent of the damage and to plan for the orderly return of the refugees, focusing initially on returns to the area, surrounding the official camp known as "new camp", where some of the damaged houses are still habitable. During my most recent visit to Lebanon at the end of last week, I had the opportunity to drive through the old camp for the first time since the end of the conflict. I was shaken by the desolation and the massive scale of destruction. In place of homes, schools, clinics and markets there is now a barren landscape with mounds of twisted wreckage amongst mountains of rubble and blackened shells of vehicles. It was clear to me that re-building the camp will be a colossal undertaking, easily dwarfing the reconstruction of Jenin camp in the West Bank in 2002. We will not allow the immensity of the task ahead to discourage us, and we are working with a consortium of partners – the government, the World Bank, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and other UN agencies - to develop a comprehensive reconstruction plan. As one might expect, restoring an entire city for more than 30,000 residents will involve staggering costs, probably in the order of a few hundred million dollars. We will soon be seeking the support of the international community to fund this immense project, and very much hope our appeal will generate a positive response. Before I leave the subject of Nahr el Bared, allow me to mention another task that requires immediate attention. I am referring to the improvement of living conditions in the eleven other refugee camps across Lebanon, for which UNRWA already has comprehensive plans. We must move quickly to implement them with an eye not only on the difference camp improvement will make to the quality of refugee lives, but also on the contribution it will make to stability in Lebanon. Jordan In Jordan, close to two million Palestine refugees benefit from a stable political and security environment combined with excellent cooperation from the government. In the field of education, the drive to improve infrastructure has gained pace with the construction of a school in Wihdat Camp. Another new school is planned for Zarka Camp and thirteen new classrooms are under construction. In spite of inadequate infrastructure and large class sizes, UNRWA schools managed to maintain their proud record of exemplary results in national standard exams. As regards the health sector, a new clinic opened at Aqaba, a fourth mobile dental team was introduced, a health center was extended in Talbieh, and UNRWA participated in the national campaign for the early detection of breast cancer. For its part, the Relief and Social Services Department established three new legal advice bureaus, while work continued in earnest on the pilot project for reform of the Special Hardship Case programme. In cooperation with UNICEF, needs assessments for women and children were conducted in the camps. Loans valued at over $210,000 were issued to 640 refugees – three-quarters of them women. A third branch of the Micro-Finance Department was opened in Amman, with a fourth planned for Zarka. We were honoured by the visit of His Majesty King Abdullah II to Marka Camp at the end of October. As a consequence of this visit, refugee children will benefit from the government’s Nutritional Support Programme and a new rehabilitation center for the disabled will be built in the camp. I should mention that six UNRWA schools are serving as polling centers in the elections taking place in Jordan tomorrow. I wish to take this opportunity to offer our best wishes for a smooth and successful election process. Syria In Syria, as in Jordan, UNRWA and the refugees it serves are fortunate to enjoy a secure environment. The Neirab rehabilitation project for the construction of 300 new refugee homes continues to serve as a model for the merits of a community participation approach. This approach has yielded improvements in programme design and created a new dynamic of trust, transparency and efficiency. A special briefing on the Neirab project will take place during the lunch break tomorrow. I strongly urge that you attend to learn more about this commendable endeavor. I am delighted several of you will be joining the field trip to Syria on Wednesday. During your visit, you will notice the widespread problem of ageing infrastructure, including dilapidated, overcrowded schools badly in need of replacement. The good exam results of the refugee children are achieved in spite of these substandard conditions. The microfinance program in Syria maintains its place as one of the best performing portfolios for the agency. Four new branches were opened in Damascus, four more are planned for next year in Aleppo and other cities and a solidarity group lending scheme has benefited over 450 women. I must congratulate Syria for being the first Arab country to adopt legislation regulating the functioning of microfinance institutions. The occupied Palestinian territory I will now turn to the occupied Palestinian territory where in recent years, the world has watched as Palestinian people have descended to new depths of poverty and vulnerability. West Bank It is a matter of grave concern that the situation in the West Bank continues to defy principles and binding instruments of international law. The closure regime, house demolitions, settlement expansion, the separation barrier and unending armed conflict are corroding the foundations of normal Palestinian life. The separation barrier effectively expropriates some 640 square kilometers of land - an area over 1.5 times the size of the Gaza Strip. It cuts right through the fabric of Palestinian life, making it difficult or impossible for hundreds of thousands of people to visit their families, markets, schools and hospitals. An insidious new regime to limit freedom of movement is threatening to further stifle economic activity and smother social interaction between villages and towns in the West Bank. UNRWA too will soon be affected by the implementation of these measures, which will be applied even to vehicles carrying humanitarian supplies. Containers loaded onto trucks in Ashdod harbour will be required to empty their contents at checkpoints and terminals and the contents palletized and re-loaded onto trucks on the other side. It is obvious that these new procedures will result in loss of time and an exponential increase in costs. The movement of UNRWA staff will also be affected, particularly those holding West Bank identification cards. There are indications that these staff will require permits to enter the area east of the Green Line but west of the separation barrier, in addition to having their access to East Jerusalem significantly curtailed. They will be required to enter the city through only a few terminals, and will be obliged to dismount from vehicles to cross the terminals on foot with no regard for their privileges and immunities as UN staff. These restrictions will have enormous – and clearly adverse - operational implications for UNRWA. We foresee delays in responding to refugee needs, inefficiency, declining productivity and exponential increases in operational costs. The panel discussion led by my spokesperson, Chris Gunness, will take a more detailed look at these and other very serious access issues in the West Bank. Gaza In Gaza, the spectacle of a million and a half people held captive in deteriorating conditions simply defies reason. A new dimension of sanctions was introduced in June this year when all borders were sealed with a few exceptions being made for humanitarian and some food and medical items. The result thus far is a 70 per cent reduction in the supplies reaching Gaza and a reduction in fuel imports. Gazans now live under the constant threat of further restrictions in essential supplies. If these threats are carried out, the availability of water, sanitation and health services will be seriously affected, bringing the population of Gaza to new levels of misery. Nowhere else in the world would it be conceivable to inflict this level of deliberate and indiscriminate deprivation on an entire territory. Poverty and unemployment are rife as over 80,000 more Gazans have lost their jobs this summer. They are now compelled to rely on humanitarian aid to support their families. UNRWA’s Microfinance Programme, a reliable gauge of the economic climate, has had to drastically scale down its activities due to unprecedented difficulties in securing repayment of loans. It has been forced to reduce its staff in Gaza by no less than 40%. Alex Pollock, the Director of our Microfinance Programme, will share more details on these questions in a panel discussion later today. I am pleased that Her Excellency Ms. Suhair al-Ali, the Jordanian Minister of Planning, will share her expertise as a member of that panel. While UNRWA is doing its utmost, together with other UN agencies, to ameliorate the humanitarian situation in Gaza, we are constrained by the fact that 46 % of our emergency appeal for 2007 is yet to be funded. It is clear to us that open borders and free movement are all Palestinians need to regain economic self-sufficiency. It is therefore imperative that Karni and Rafah crossings re-open and remain fully functional. Reflections on the oPt As a humanitarian agency, our uppermost thoughts are on the effects a draconian occupation regime has on the lives, livelihoods and human dignity of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Even so, we cannot help but notice that alongside increased deprivations and new forms of human suffering, a threat has emerged from among Palestinians themselves, which could potentially be as devastating to the Palestinian cause as the decades of occupation. I refer to the violent internecine conflict that we have seen this year, the self-inflicted rupture between the West Bank and Gaza, and the grave threat these pose to the prospects for an integrated, viable Palestinian State. With every act of violence or intimidation by one Palestinian against another, the gulf between the West Bank and Gaza widens. And with every partisan word or action that we as an international community offer in support of one side against the other, the more we contribute, implicitly at least, to the discord and violence which have brought nothing but more suffering for the masses of ordinary Palestinian people. It is to these people – the hundreds of thousands of men women and children who crave a normal, peaceful and economically stable life – that the international community must devote greater attention and more resources. It is they who collectively represent the best chance for peace, and yet are ironically compelled to bear the brunt of its perennial absence. Ordinary Palestinians – refugees and non-refugees alike - value highly the human rights and freedoms of an open society and harbour the strongest desire for a Palestinian State living in peace and mutual security with its neighbors. And yet it is they who endure the effects of a harsh regime of punitive de facto sanctions. With these considerations in mind, I wish to reiterate the calls I have made for greater sensitivity to the human dimensions of the conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory. In our efforts to address the multiple challenges of Gaza and the West Bank, we must give humanitarian and human needs an equal place with political and security questions. Our experience is that these elements are inseparable in practice. We must give due and equal attention to all these elements in their totality, as each one in isolation is but a hollow shell. An international community that professes allegiance to the United Nations Charter should be able to find the courage to place a greater premium on reconciliation among Palestinians and on the settlement of disputes by peaceful means. And, equally important, we must work together to make international law and human rights protections meaningful for Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory. The forthcoming conferences in Annapolis and Paris hold out possibilities. In order to seize them, the international community must be inclusive about participation and open-minded about the topics for discussion. For many years, the approach has been to take small steps where progress has been thought possible and to postpone to the distant future issues regarded as too difficult. As a result, Palestinians’ faith in the peace process has ebbed away as the years have passed with no discernible progress. The lesson, it seems to me, is that the complexity of the issue of Palestine refugees is not a valid reason to put it to one side. On the contrary, it is precisely because of that complexity that it should be given the priority it deserves. Distinguished guests: Allow me now to say a brief word about our funding challenges and look ahead to the meeting’s proceedings. Funding challenges On the issue of funding challenges, the large gap between UNRWA’s and refugees’ needs and its income is now well known. It is visible in the shortage and poor state of our infrastructure, the double-shifting of schools, overcrowded health centres and overburdened social workers. We have prepared our budgets on the basis of refugee needs and developed an interim programme strategy for the years ahead, as a prelude to a mature programme strategy for the years 2010 to 2015. These measures, together with the much-enhanced interaction with our stakeholders through the Advisory Commission, are beginning to bear fruit in some increased contributions. Much more needs to be done, however, if we are to bridge a funding deficit that we estimate is well over $100 for 2008. We are issuing today, for the first time, a General Fund Appeal which describes the Agency’s programmes and activities for the coming year and indicates how we wish to address their shortcomings. The brochure seeks to convince our donors and stakeholders that it is worthwhile to invest in UNRWA and that a higher level of donor generosity will make a real difference in the quality of refugee lives. I hope you will find the brochure persuasive and useful as a guide to the magnitude of UNRWA’s and refugee needs. Its contents are immediately relevant to the panel discussion on funding challenges which will take place tomorrow afternoon with Rene Aquarone, our Director of External Relations, in the chair. We are delighted to have on that panel Eng. Wajeeh Azayzeh, Director-General of the Department of Palestinian Affairs in Jordan, John Kjaer, Representative for the European Commission in Jerusalem, and Fawzi Madfaa, the Chairman of UNRWA’s Inter-Staff Union Committee. Introduction to other panels Indeed, the brochure’s contents are germane not only to discussions on funding but also to the entire programme we have prepared for this meeting of our hosts and donors. The theme of "innovation in a challenging environment" captures the energy, drive and enthusiasm for excellence that are propelling UNRWA forward and which make our agency a reliable partner for donors and a trustworthy ally for Palestine refugees. These qualities, which we are harnessing and promoting through our organizational development process, speak to an approach that recognizes constraints but refuses to be intimidated by them. It is that special blend of creativity and dedication to our mandate that we seek to showcase in the proceedings during this meeting. The panel chaired by John Ging, Director of Gaza Field Office, will highlight a number of bold and imaginative initiatives undertaken in that field. You will hear about the Schools of Excellence Programme, which, together with an initiative for "Safe and Stimulating Schools" is seeking to address years of neglect in educational achievement in Gaza. You will also be treated to presentations about Gaza’s "Summer Games" during which almost 200,000 children benefited from a range of activities: remedial learning, cultural performances, graphic arts workshops, swimming lessons, theatre, music and more. The enthusiasm of the children and of their parents was such that even the violent events of June this year were not able to disrupt Summer Games for long. The panel on UNRWA’s new social safety net programme will look at how the Agency is sharpening its tools and strategies for identifying and addressing the needs of families living in particular hardship. The Agency’s Relief and Social Services programme has generally been the hardest hit by budget shortfalls. Funding deficits aside, however, we have come to the realization that our approach to Special Hardship Cases requires a thorough overhaul. The process of reform is in an advanced stage and its implementation in the field should commence in 2008. Beth Kuttab, our Director for Relief and Social Services, will lead the panel to explain the changes in our methodology and elaborate on how it will benefit those most in need. The Agency’s new programme to improve living conditions in camps will also be the subject of a panel discussion. We are pleased that Santi Vege, a good friend of UNRWA and Director of the Swiss Development Cooperation Office in Amman, will guide this important exchange of views. As the department of camp improvement and infrastructure is funded almost exclusively by extra-budgetary contributions, its success will ultimately depend on the support it receives from stakeholders. A panel moderated by Shelly Pitterman, the Director of UNRWA’s Jordan Field Office will examine our efforts towards management reform, well-known by most of you as the "Organizational Development" process. The process was launched in 2006 as a vehicle for transforming our approach to management in way that will result in concrete outcomes for the refugees we serve. The panel will be an opportunity to hear how reforms are taking root. Conclusion Distinguished guests: Amidst the complexity and flux of the context in which we work, my rallying call to our staff and to you, our stakeholders, is to remain steadfast in our collective determination, that is, our determination to promote the well-being of Palestine refugees – regardless of the turbulence around us - and to assist them to achieve the dignity and self-sufficiency they crave. As we go about our tasks, the consistent and generous support of donors and host countries remains a great source of encouragement to me, personally, and to my staff. We are also heartened by the exciting results that are beginning to emerge from our efforts to modernize our corporate culture, our improved interaction with our stakeholders and the stimulation of creativity within our 58 year old Agency. Most importantly, in the years ahead, we will continue to find inspiration for our work in the strength and fortitude of the Palestine refugees we serve. |
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