UNRWA Commissioner General’s Keynote Speech SDC Regional Strategy Workshop Amman, Dead Sea, 22 June 2009

Ambassador Frisch, SDC colleagues:

Thank you for inviting me to share a few thoughts at this Regional Strategy Workshop. UNRWA places very high value on its relationship with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. For us, it is both desirable and essential to seek in the coming years, avenues to strengthen and further diversify our cooperation with the SDC, and to do so in ways that enhance long-term development outcomes for the people of this region, including Palestinians and Palestine refugees.

A Strategy Workshop of this kind provides a forum to reflect on the contextual influences that shape our work. It affords a chance to consider how best to negotiate and manage the environment in which we function, and to respond to it in a manner that helps us carve out an optimum path towards achieving our strategic goals.

A necessary starting point is a sound understanding of our region and an appreciation of its blend of challenges and opportunities. The Middle East is well-known for its volatility and multi-layered tensions, a condition of lingering instability within which the Israeli-Arab-Palestinian conflict is a prominent, but not the only, feature. This thread of discord is made especially complex by existential issues of land and religion. Although these issues have ancient roots, their implications are intimately felt by the men, women and children throughout the region today. Cycles of violence and armed conflict revive old antagonisms, giving them contemporary purpose, while the presence of 4.6 million Palestine refugees serves as a potent symbol of injustice, dispossession and unresolved exile.

Conflict with Israel, and the Palestinian question, sits alongside a variety of other sources of insecurity, both actual and potential. The Hamas-Fatah divide promises, worryingly, to be an internecine fault line for some time to come. Across the region, the unfulfilled aspirations for democratic governance, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and for the protection of the rights of women and minorities, pose risks of their own. In countries where relatively few enjoy great wealth, and at a time when the global economy is in recession, threats of extremism and terrorism find ready allies in poverty, unemployment and socio-economic marginalization.

And yet within and around these factors of dissonance and risk, there are possibilities for building human development and human security. One aspect of this potential hinges on the inter-locking relationships between the region and the international community. The Middle East is anything but isolated. Its significance in terms of geo-politics and hydro-carbon energy ensure that the region is closely integrated with the global system of economics, finance and international relations. As a consequence of this intersection of interests, the Middle East is sensitive – if not always receptive – to the mandates of international organizations and to the international community’s concerns regarding social, development, humanitarian, human rights and governance issues.

Another aspect of the Middle East’s potential derives from its abundant human capital and the availability of other resources for human development. This is, after all, a region whose contributions to science, literature, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, engineering and other pillars of our modern civilization are well established, and in which a culture of knowledge and intellectual attainment remains in evidence. The socio-economic attributes of the region place many of its countries and territories, including the occupied Palestinian territory, in the middle bracket of the global human development index.

Colleagues:

Thus far, I have sketched with broad strokes the mélange of challenges and prospects which define our field of operations. For agencies such as SDC and UNRWA, this regional scenario poses a rich variety of strategic questions regarding the optimal path towards our shared goals. There are programme choices to be made and, given that resources so often fall short of needs, prioritization between choices is often unavoidable.

For UNRWA, now in its sixtieth year of operations, the principal programme choices with respect to Palestine refugees are well known and firmly set: primary education in all fields and in Lebanon, secondary education; comprehensive primary health care; social safety-net and social welfare activities focusing on those most affected by poverty and other vulnerabilities; infrastructure and camp improvement services; and microfinance.

These regular programmes, which constitute the core of the human development aspect of UNRWA’s mandate, are funded from voluntary contributions to our General Fund. The humanitarian aspect is made up of UNRWA’s emergency response role which is funded from emergency appeals separately from the core programmes. UNRWA’s humanitarian response capabilities have grown in prominence and significance since the first intifada in the late 1980’s, and were most recently demonstrated during the conflict in Gaza at the beginning of this year.

On the human development side, UNRWA has just finalized a Medium Term Strategy (MTS) building on the management, structural and process reforms that began with the 2004 Geneva Conference and have been carried through the organizational development process. During its recent session on 9 June, UNRWA’s Advisory Commission gave its endorsement to the MTS, marking an important milestone in UNRWA’s evolution as an effective contributor to the human development of Palestine refugees.

The MTS will guide UNRWA’s approach to achieving its strategic goals in the period 2010 to 2015. These goals are to ensure for Palestine refugees a long and healthy life, access to skills and knowledge, a decent standard of living and the enjoyment of human rights. Allow me briefly to mention a few elements of the MTS to give you a flavour of the direction in which UNRWA is taking its human development role.

The centerpiece of the MTS is the rigorous institution of programme cycle management principles throughout all stages of assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation and learning. The underlying assumption is that UNRWA will serve Palestine refugees more effectively if we follow best practice in programme management and service delivery.

While the MTS affirms the continuing importance of UNRWA’s five programme areas, it places a premium on complementarity and coherence, requiring the programmes, individually and collectively to prioritize quality; to focus on addressing the needs of the most vulnerable; to mainstream best practice in gender and protection policies; to maximize partnerships with third parties; and to ensure, to the extent possible, refugee participation in programme planning and delivery. Through the MTS, UNRWA has attempted to put in place the necessary vision, backed by policy, strategy and operational frameworks, to deliver effectively on its human development obligations.

The principal obstacle in our quest for excellence in programme delivery is not an absence of frameworks. It is the absence of adequate and predictable funding for UNRWA’s General Fund, without which our plans and strategies, so painstakingly developed, have been thwarted in the recent past and risk being further frustrated to the detriment of the refugees we serve. It is a matter of grave concern that UNRWA’s poor financial situation is a chronic malaise which has bedeviled the Agency for years, causing deep damage in terms of indefinitely deferred improvements to our programmes, facilities and human resource base.

If UNRWA is fully to deliver on the objectives of the MTS in the biennium 2010 to 2011, it will require an investment of around $572 million for its General Fund in addition to some $261 million in projects, making a grand total of approximately $833 million. These figures are daunting, particularly when set against the total donor contributions to the General Fund in 2008 – some $475 million – and the levels of funding needed for our emergency appeals and other projects like the reconstruction of Nahr El Bared.

This is an opportune juncture at which to turn to the relationship UNRWA shares with SDC. There is something of a natural feel to our partnership over the years and I find it instructive that the priority themes for SDC neatly converge with the areas on which UNRWA’s strategic goals are centered – health, education, employment and income-generation, conflict prevention, economic integration and assistance to refugees and the displaced.

Time does not permit me to enumerate the projects, initiatives and activities which the SDC’s support has made possible for UNRWA and Palestine refugees. A few, however, come immediately to mind and deserve mention here. There was the groundbreaking 2004 Geneva Conference which was the catalyst for the comprehensive management reforms whose progress is widely acknowledged today. It was little surprise that the SDC was one of the first donors to support the Organizational Development Plan even prior to its formal launch. Among the most constructive and enduring outcomes of the Geneva Conference was the transformation, over a relatively short period, of UNRWA’s Advisory Commission into what it is today – a vigorous and engaged group of stakeholders able and willing to provide the dependable support and wise guidance UNRWA needs. This could not have been accomplished without the resources and inspiration made available by our SDC colleagues (and hear I must make special mention of Santi Vege for her constant engagement and prompting of UNRWA) and a few other donors, particularly as we felt our way through the early stages of revitalizing the Advisory Commission.

I recall also the support and encouragement the SDC provided to the seminal 2005 IUED survey on refugee perceptions and conditions. The establishment and continued operation of UNRWA’s valuable Representative Office in Geneva enables the Agency to participate in a range of important processes and fora pertaining to humanitarian policy and operations.

In these and other instances, the SDC has been extraordinarily generous and quick to respond to UNRWA’s calls for help, and even more welcome, to make the first approaches to suggest areas worth exploring for improvements and reform. You have also been uniquely supportive of, and engaged with us in activities and initiatives that are innovative, reform-oriented and forward-looking in nature. (And again, I refer to Santi.) I emphasize that this kind of support has been, and will continue to be, empowering for an agency which is in reform mode and is seeking to encourage staff to take creative approaches to programme delivery.

To be truly strategic, however, we – SDC and UNRWA together – must look beyond the familiar frontiers of existing policies and approaches. We must consider adopting fresh rationales and conceptual bases for our relationship and contemplate how our partnership could be extended to new areas that better respond to contemporary challenges in our region and work to the benefit of Palestine refugees.

Colleagues:

Allow me to offer a few suggestions of areas which might bear closer examination.

One of the SDC’s most beneficial roles has been as a vehicle or facilitator for UNRWA’s acquisition of knowledge and expertise. Perhaps there is scope to expand this function and give it novel content. Switzerland is home to ICRC, the custodian of principles and practice of international humanitarian law. Are there possibilities for SDC to play a facilitative and support role in the provision to regional agencies of expert advice, training and dissemination of IHL precepts? UNRWA would welcome such support, as it is still in the early stages of clarifying and making more systematic how to operationalize its own protection role.

Regarding IHL in particular, the recent conflict in Gaza was a reminder of the demand for, and the immediate practical value of, such a role. In its aftermath, there have been no fewer than three formal fact-finding missions under the auspices of the Secretary General, the League of Arab States and the Human Rights Council. On account of the impact of the conflict on UNRWA’s staff and property, UNRWA has been called upon to play a supporting role to these missions, thus drawing attention to our need for a higher standard of knowledge in the specialized procedures required for the investigation of alleged violations of the laws of war. Such enhanced knowledge will as well serve the work of UNRWA’s Operations Support Officers and others in protection-related functions in the West Bank and Lebanon.

Another area you have already dealt with is the interplay between the humanitarian and development paradigms and the extent to which our understanding of these concepts influence resource allocation choices. For UNRWA, this dichotomy has had a direct bearing on the availability of funding. Our humanitarian role is synonymous with emergency appeals which, given their emotive resonance and heightened media profile, tend to generate more liberal donor responses, at least in initial stages, relative to overall requirements. Emergency appeals are also the preferred destination for contributions from Gulf States. By contrast, UNRWA’s human development function, which is the preserve of the General Fund, often comes off as a distant second in terms of its ability to engender reactions from donors, again particularly those from the Gulf region.

The irony is that UNRWA’s human development role and the extensive service infrastructure through which it is delivered – in particular the schools, health clinics and relief distribution networks – are the life-blood of the Agency’s rapid, effective emergency response, as well as its capacity to assist recovery and reconstruction. Attention to longer-term human development needs strengthens coping mechanisms of communities affected by armed conflict and other crises, thus minimizing the time needed for recovery.

In light of this experience, UNRWA also asks that the humanitarian-development dichotomy be understood in flexible, non-doctrinaire terms guided by the need to ensure optimal, holistic outcomes for Palestine refugees and other vulnerable persons. To strike the right balance between the two dimensions, donors must bear in mind the resource implications that flow from the relative importance they ascribe to each element. In this regard, we hope you will find time in your deliberations to ponder the grave financial situation UNRWA faces. I trust you will also consider ways to help mitigate the planning uncertainties and impediments to quality programme performance which are two consequences of perennial funding deficits. You might wish to consider increased contributions to our General Fund, as well as the possibility of adopting, as the UK and others have done recently, a multi-year funding arrangement with UNRWA.

A call for multi-year funding may sound ironical, coming from an agency created to serve a temporary purpose of assisting Palestine refugees, but which finds itself marking this year its 60^th anniversary of operations. UNRWA’s existence is necessarily associated with the continuing plight of Palestine refugees and the absence of a just and lasting solution to their condition. For these reasons, an element of solemnity is unavoidable in the commemoration of UNRWA’s sixtieth milestone.

There must also be, however, a measure of acknowledgement of and appreciation for, the international community’s and host countries’ resolve to maintain their support for addressing the humanitarian and human development needs of Palestine refugees. Also worthy of recognition are UNRWA’s perseverance and consistency in directly serving the refugees, striving always to attain the high standards of service they deserve. And, I might add, a sixtieth anniversary, unwelcome though it may be, is still an occasion to rekindle our belief in a brighter tomorrow. In this spirit, I invite the SDC and its staff to join us in one or more of the events marking UNRWA’s sixtieth anniversary. (mention Fritz as chief organizer)

I will conclude, as I began, by strongly reaffirming the significance UNRWA attaches to its partnership with the SDC and by expressing our sincere wish to strengthen and further cultivate our relationship. Following recent political exchanges and developments as well as significant speeches by prominent political actors, the prevailing wisdom is that after many years of declining fortunes, our region could be on the verge of experiencing more favourable events. UNRWA, like the refugees we serve, warmly welcomes any policy changes that will bear fruit in more self-sufficient, dignified lives for Palestinians.

As we await the tangible effects of a more auspicious approach to the Palestinian question, we will continue to nurture the possibilities that exist in our fraught operational environment. And we will maintain our efforts to cement management and programme reforms with a view to ensuring that that we remain an effective provider of humanitarian and human development services to refugees and a reliable and effective partner to the SDC and other donors.

I wish you a productive and fulfilling strategic retreat.