UNIFIED REGISTRATION SYSTEM

UNRWA's Unified Registration System (URS) was established in 1995 with the aim of developing and managing Agency-wide integrated electronic data bases on more than 3.6 million Palestine refugees for better programme planning, delivery and monitoring. It has the potential to be the link between data from all of the Agency's programmes, to offer improved access for research and to constitute the backbone of a future national archive for the Palestinians.

In its present phase of development, the URS has three components: the Registration Data Base, the Socio-Economic Data Base, and the Family Files. By using the same indexing method, the three components of the URS can be completely integrated.

• THE REGISTRATION DATA BASE, of which a complete master set on all registered refugees is stored on computer at the Agency's Headquarters in Amman. Each of the five Fields of operation (Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) has its own sub-set in the Field and Area Offices for daily use, which are updated electronically. Monthly updates from this Field Registration System are transferred to the master set.

• THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DATA BASE provides detailed socio-economic information on the families and individuals enrolled in the special hardship programme. This data base is a key tool for the planning and day-to-day management of the special hardship programme and for the inclusion of families in this category in UNRWA's more developmental programmes. In Jordan and the West Bank, a Field Social Study System is already operational in the Field and Area Offices.

  Through the ongoing decentralization of the Socio-Economic Data Base, Jordan and West Bank fields now have local access to their respective data on special hardship cases and the ability to update it on the spot. This significantly enhances the capacity of the Relief and Social Services management staff to plan, monitor and evaluate the special hardship and social development programmes. It also gives the Agency's social workers immediate access to information on their clients for improved casework management and referrals of beneficiaries to services which can assist them.

• THE FAMILY FILES contain information on registration dating in many cases back to 1948 and earlier, supported by copies of birth, marriage and death certificates, records of property ownership or leases, taxation receipts, employment records and passports and travel documents - in all an estimated 25 million critical documents. These family files are stored in card folders at the Field Offices, where they are frequently used by Registration staff. In order to both preserve them and make them more accessible, they will be scanned and stored on electronic media.

Considerable progress has been made towards the realization of a Family Files Archiving System that could, together with the other URS components, constitute the backbone of a future national archive for the Palestinians. During various meetings and discussions with representatives from the Palestinian Authority, several research institutions and donor countries, this concept was generally adopted and further coordination efforts were initiated.

The Unified Registration System is a project that is innovative in nature and that has immediate as well as long-term benefits for the provision of UNRWA services.