UNRWA – Annual report of the Commissioner-General

REPORT

OF THE COMMISSIONER-GENERAL

OF THE UNITED NATIONS

RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY

FOR PALESTINE REFUGEES

IN THE NEAR EAST

______________

1 July 1983 – 30 June 1984

NOTE

Symbols of United Nations documents are composed of capital letters combined with figures.  Mention of such a symbol indicates a reference to a United Nations document.

In the present report, the term "West Bank" refers to the occupied West Bank of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the term "Jordan refers to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan excluding the occupied West Bank, wherever it is necessary to differentiate between these two Fields of the Agency's area of operations.

[Original: Arabic/English/French]

[12 September 1984]

CONTENTS

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

31 August 1984

Sir,

I have the honor to submit, my annual report to the General Assembly on the work of the United Nations Belief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for the period 1 July 1983 to 30 June 1984, in compliance with the request in paragraph 21 of resolution 302 (IV)  of 8 December 1949  and paragraph 8  of resolution 1315 (XIII) of 12 December 1958.

It has again been incumbent upon me to focus in the foreword to the report on the serious financial difficulties faced by the Agency. In past years, the lack of funds to cover budgeted expenditure could be met to a certain extent by cutting programmes of lower priority and by postponing much-needed construction and maintenance. Further cuts would now endanger the Agency's operations. The support of Governments will therefore be determinant for the Agency's future activities.

Chapter I of the report gives a detailed account of the Agency's emergency operations in Lebanon. Chapter II reports on the regular education, health and relief operations and the support services. The third chapter treats the financing of the regular operations and the Lebanon emergency relief and reconstruction programmes.  It also presents the Agency's proposed budget for 1985, for consideration by the General Assembly at its thirty-ninth session, and the revised budget for 1984.

The two annexes supply statistical information on UNRWA's programmes and finances and references to the pertinent records of the General Assembly and other United Nations bodies.

The Advisory Commission of UNRWA examined this report in draft. Its views are set forth in a letter dated 30 August 1984 from its Chairman, of which I enclose a copy.

I have deemed it appropriate to maintain the practice of showing the draft to representatives of the Government of Israel and to give consideration to their comments, given that a major part of the Agency's operations is conducted in areas occupied by Israel in 1967 and thereafter.

Accept, Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

(Signed) Olof RYDBECK

Commissioner-General

The President of the General Assembly

United Nations

New York

LETTER FR0M THE CHAIRMAN OF THE ADVISORY COMMISSION OF THE

UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY FOR PALESTINE REFUGEES

IN THE NEAR EAST TO THE COMMISSIONER-GENERAL

30 August 1984

Dear Mr. Rydbeck,

At its meeting in Vienna today, the Advisory Commission of UNRWA considered the draft report on the Agency Is operations during the period 1 July 1983-30 June 1984, which is to be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly at its thirty-ninth session.

The Commission reaffirms to the international community the importance of the Agency's fulfillment of its obligations to the Palestine refugees until a just solution to their problem is found, in accordance with United Nations resolutions. It further considers that the continued existence of the Agency contributes effectively towards easing the situation in the Near East and in providing the minimum stability needed in that region.

Realizing and understanding the financial straits of the Agency and the scarcity of resources available to it, the Commission urges you and the working Group to continue your efforts to obtain additional contributions. It appeals at the same time to all Member States of the United Nations General Assembly to contribute sufficiently generously to UNRWA to enable it to continue to carry out its tasks, particularly in health and education, and to recommence ration distribution to all refugees throughout the area of operations.

In view of the continued suffering of the Palestine refugees in Lebanon, the threats to the lives of the refugees and the destitution which they face because of their inability to leave their camps in search of work, the Commission considers it necessary that the Agency continue to provide all services, including rations, to the Palestine refugees in Lebanon. The Commission shares your concern for the security conditions under which the Palestine refugees live, especially those in south Lebanon, as a result of the Israeli invasion, and for the attacks, kidnappings and killings to which they and the Agency’s locally-recruited and international staff are exposed. It requests you to pursue your efforts and representations to put an end to these practices.

The Commission also notes with deep concern the arbitrary practices to which the refugee camps, particularly those in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, are exposed. It appeals to you to make the necessary representations to the authorities concerned with a view to putting an end to those practices.

Recalling the General Assembly resolutions requesting you to reunify your headquarters in its former site in Beirut, as soon as practicable, the Commission asks that you keep this in mind as a matter of priority. The Commission also notes the offer of the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to host the headquarters in Amman, until the return to Beirut becomes possible.

The Commission thanks the-Arab host Governments for the valuable services which they continue to provide to the Palestine refugees in addition to the Agency's programmes. The Commission is also grateful to all Governments which continue to make annual contributions to the Agency. The Arab host Governments also hope that the Agency will continue to co-ordinate its programme with them.

The Commission thanks the United Nations Secretary-General for his support and the efforts which he personally exerts, to facilitate the Agency’s mission.

Finally, the Commission' expresses its deep appreciation to you for the fruitful efforts which you have made throughout the period of your office and for the courageous stands which you have taken. Likewise, it thanks all the staff of UNRWA.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) Ghaleb BARAKAT

Chairman of the Advisory Commission

Mr. Olof Rydbeck

Commissioner-General of the

  United Nations Relief and Works

  Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

FOREWORD

BY OLOF RYDBECK, COMMISSIONER-GENERAL OF UNRWA

1. In 1985, when the United Nations celebrates its fortieth anniversary, UNRWA will have been in existence for 35 years.

2. The Agency was created by the General Assembly on 8 December 1949 (resolution 302 (IV)) and began operations in May 1950. Its original mandate has been renewed by the General Assembly 13 times,  the last time  December 1983 for  three years,  that is until 30 June 1987.

3. UNRWA is thus only five years younger than the United Nations itself. It began as a temporary agency charged with the task of providing the most basic relief to hundreds of thousands of destitute Palestinians who, as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, had lost their homes and means of livelihood. Now, 34 years later, it is an institution dispensing services to a registered refugee population numbering 2 million people (almost half of the presumed total number of Palestinians), living in five territories administered by four different Governments – services which would normally be provided by national governments in the spheres of education, health and welfare.

4. UNRWA has become an established institution in its area of operations and plays a central role in the lives of the Palestine refugees registered with it. Most of them depend on it socially and emotionally, a fact that has emerged clearly during the past two years. To the Palestine refugees, UNRWA is not only an agency which provides valued services. It is also, and, above all, the symbol of international commitment to their welfare and to a just resolution of their plight.

5. UNRWA is a strictly humanitarian institution. However, it is important to recall that all General Assembly resolutions extending the Agency's mandate, including the latest one, have stipulated that the extension is made without prejudice to paragraph 11 of resolution 194 (III): that is, without prejudice to the rights of the Palestine refugees to return to their homes or receive compensation if they so prefer. The resolutions have. also regularly expressed regret over the fact that the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine has failed to make progress towards realizing those rights.

6. Thus, from the very outset, the mandate of UNRWA has been linked to the Political dimension of the Palestine question. Pending a Political solution, the Agency has periodically been requested to continue its services to the refugees. Because of the refugees' perception of UNRWA as a token of international commitment to their cause, and because of the nature of the services it renders, in particular to hundreds of thousands of Palestine refugee school children, the Agency has become an important factor in the overall Middle East political context. It promotes stability.

7. UNRWA's ability to continue to play this role is, however, seriously threatened by the increasing difficulty it faces in financing its regular programmes, even at the present level. In past years, the lack of funds to cover budgeted expenditure could be met to a certain extent by cutting programmes of lower priority, in particular the basic ration programme, and by postponing much needed construction and maintenance. However, the ration programme is now reduced to the minimum needed to care for the destitute, and if construction and maintenance are postponed much longer the consequences will be such as to endanger operations.  It should be noted, too, that the welfare, construction and maintenance programmes nowadays represent only a dwindling share of the Agency’s total expenditure.

8. Costs have been relentlessly pushed up by the growth of the school population and by inflation. In the five years through 1983, the Agency added 16,500 students to its education system. Toward the end of that period, the rate of increase leveled off, most noticeably at the elementary level. For the 1984/85 school year, it is estimated that 150 additional teachers will be required. As with any other service organization, the effects of inflation show themselves above all in rising staff costs, which now account for 71 per cent of UNRWA's expenditure. Most UNRWA employees are teachers and the education programme in 1984 accounts for 64 per cent of the total budget.

9. Education takes up such a large proportion of the budget that, if programme cuts have to be made to meet a major shortfall of income, they will have to be made in that programme. The grave consequences of such a possibility were demonstrated in the spring of 1981, when the financial outlook was such that I had to make preparations for the closure of schools in Jordan and the Syrian Arab Republic. The repercussions, among staff and refugees were shattering and, although last-minute contributions made it possible to avoid school closures, this crisis reverberated for a long time afterwards. If UNRWA is to remain a factor for stability in its area of operations, everything possible must be done to avoid a recurrence.

10. All of this does not relieve the Commissioner-General of his duty to see that UNRWA is fully able to meet its financial obligations, in the event that large-scale staff cuts are forced upon the Agency.

11. At the beginning of each year, an estimate has to be made of whether cash income will be sufficient to carry the Agency through to the end of the year. If it is found that expected cash income will not cover essential expenditure, measures should be taken to reduce programmes and to meet existing commitments. The fact of the matter is, however, that the Commissioner-General is not in a position to make an accurate estimate of income early in the year, because of late pledging of the voluntary contributions which make it up. He therefore has to base himself on assumptions which may or may not turn out to be correct in the end.

12. I have considered it to be extremely important to avoid, if at all possible, any action by the Agency which would cause distress to the refugees and harm to the host countries, and which would add fuel to the flames in the Middle East. After careful consideration, I therefore decided at the beginning of 1984 that I should take the risk of assuming that cash then available, together with the payment of outstanding and new pledges, would carry the Agency through to the end of the year, provided it cut out $17 million of planned capital expenditure (mostly construction) and continued the process of general belt-tightening. I was prepared to accept that the cash reserve at the end of the year would be close to zero.

13. The cash situation is closely monitored. At the end of the reporting period, a careful examination of the cash flow indicated that – provided all pledges for 1984 were paid during the year – the Agency would end the year solvent, but with a mere two weeks of operating funds in the bank.

14. This is a dangerous situation and one we can contemplate only because the United States of America has agreed to make its contribution in the form of a letter of credit on which we can draw immediately from the beginning of the year.

15. Thus I believe that the Agency will narrowly get through 1984 and the early months of 1985. I would be less than frank, though, if I did not express my grave concern about 1985 and the years beyond. The Agency's budget requirements for 1985, based on minimal programmes, an expected small increase in the school population, recent salary increases for area staff and some inflation, will be about $260 million. It one deducts certain deferred costs (primarily separation benefits payable in the event of the Agency’s closure), and if contributions in kind are eliminated, budgeted cash needs will approximate $230 million. That is a great deal of money for an organization that expects to receive cash contributions of less than $170 million in 1984. The sharp increase from 1984 levels to 1985 requirements is primarily in staff costs, and by far the largest single item is school teachers' salaries.

16. I should underline that UNRWA is a fair but not overly generous employer. Our salary scales are based on "prevailing rates" in the areas in which we operate, not the "best prevailing rate" which is the normal United Nations standard. We are facing a mote than normal increase in staff costs for 1985 because, a recently conducted survey by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) concluded that UNRWA staff benefits were substantially lower than. "prevailing rates". Salary survey is not an exact science and, to the dismay of many of our hard-working employees, I did not accept the ICSC's recommendation's in full. I did conclude, nonetheless, that some substantial increases were in order. Since many thousands of employees are involved, those increases will add about $21 million annually to staff costs. We have some reason to hope that the rates of increase in the years beyond 1985 will be more modest.

17. I referred earlier in this Foreword to the link which the General Assembly has made between UNRWA's mandate and the rights of the Palestine refugees to return to their homes or be compensated. My staff and I look forward eagerly to the day when a political solution to the Palestine question is found and UNRWA's services are no longer needed. But, until that day arrives, I appeal again to the international community to ensure that the Agency is supplied with the resources it must have if it is to carry out the will of the General Assembly.

(Signed)  Olof RYDBECK

REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER-GENERAL

CHAPTER I

EMERGENCY OPERATION IN LEBANON

A.  The operational context

1. The aftermath of the Israeli invasion in June 1982 continued to dominate UNRWA's operations in Lebanon. The emergency operation described in the Commissioner-General’s last annual report continued well into this reporting period. In addition, intra-Palestinian and intra-factional conflict wrought further death, destruction, distress and dislocation on the Palestine refugees throughout the country. Planned priorities for the relief and reconstruction operations had to be changed.

2. In July, fighting between Palestinians in the Beqa’a Valley provoked an exodus of PLO fighters and their families to north Lebanon, where some of them took refuge in Agency schools in Nahr el Bared and Beddawi camps.

3. In August/September, factional fighting which accompanied the withdrawal of Israeli forces to positions south of the Awali river caused death and destruction in and around the Beirut area. Most Agency staff were unable to reach the Field Office in the first week of September. On two occasions during the 10-day period, when the Field Office area came under fire, international staff with a handful of remaining area staff were forced to vacate the building and to continue working from offices in the Central Warehouse.

4. The withdrawal of the Israeli Defense Force left the coastal road between Beirut and Saida under the control of the Lebanese Forces. The road became virtually inaccessible to Palestinian staff and was fraught with danger for other staff as the Lebanese Forces exchanged fire with their Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) antagonists in the Chouf mountains overlooking the coast. Because of the danger to communications between Beirut and the south, the Agency reopened its alternative supply line to south Lebanon from its Field Offices in Jerusalem and Gaza, and Lebanese drivers were hired to maintain transport on that route.

5. Part of the Agency’s Siblin Training Centre, which is located in a strategic position in the Chouf overlooking the coastal road, was occupied by forces of the PSP. They had not been withdrawn by the end of the reporting period, despite representations to the PSP leadership. Nor was it possible to conduct training in the Centre, which suffered considerable damage and losses during the fighting and occupation (see also para. 186).

6. From August onwards, there was a build-up of forces and sporadic clashes in north Lebanon. The Agency expressed its concern over the danger to the refugee civilian population of the area to the PLO loyalists and dissidents involved; to Governments considered to have influence; and in public. On 4 November, intense fighting broke out in and around Nahr el Bared and Beddawi camps and Tripoli town. The Agency mounted an emergency operation to assure essential services and alleviate suffering as soon as it had access to the refugees, in some cases while fighting continued. The conflict in the north died down in December.

7. In the Beirut area, clashes continued intermittently. The fighting which most affected the refugees between September and December erupted when the Lebanese Armed Forces moved into the Shatila camp area in December. During this operation, the Lebanese arrested 35 refugees, of whom 31 were released almost immediately.

8. On 4 January, an Israeli air-raid on a building near Wavell camp in Baalbek killed 15 refugees and wounded 125, destroyed the accommodation of seven refugee families in the former barracks and 52 individual shelters, and damaged 66 refugee shelters. Agency installations in the camp, including two schools, were damaged.

9. In February, heavy fighting broke out once again in the Beirut area and again the Lebanon Field office premises had to be closed, with operations controlled from the Agency's Central Warehouse. During this fighting, non-essential international staff in the Lebanon Field office were evacuated for a, brief period. All have since returned, and the international. staffing in Lebanon has actually strengthened. A serious consequence of this fighting was the complete breakdown of communications, except by radio and telephone, between south Lebanon and the rest of the country for nearly three weeks. The coastal road was cut, and the tenuous route through the mountains which was subsequently established involves a long and often frustrating journey for UNRWA Vehicles. An added burden has thus been placed on the Agency's programmes, including the reconstruction programme.

10. In June, fighting among the various Lebanese factions greatly aggravated the security situation in and around Beirut. There was heavy shelling towards the middle of the month during which hundreds of persons were reported to have been killed and wounded. In addition, accounts of individual violence and general lawlessness increased in Beirut. Several Agency staff members were robbed, two Agency cars and a bus were stolen and the lives of two of the Agency's international staff were threatened in such a way that, in accordance with the advice of the United Nations designated official responsible for security, they were evacuated from Beirut and replaced. The situation became so threatening that the Agency started to prepare contingency plans for a possible withdrawal of its Field Office from west Beirut. However, towards the end of the month the security situation showed signs of improvement.

11. Throughout the reporting period, refugees in Lebanon lived in an atmosphere of fear. Many killings, woundings, kidnappings, disappearances, forced evictions and threats were reported. The situation was so disturbing that the Commissioner-Genera several times felt constrained to alert both the Governments of Lebanon and Israel and other Governments considered to be influential. He also drew public attention to the alarming state, of affairs. These efforts seemed to have helped alleviate the problem somewhat, but at the end of the reporting period there continued to be serious threats to the security of Palestine refugees living in the south.

B.  Emergency relief measures

12. The emergency relief measures reported last year continued during most of the reporting period. During the fighting in north Lebanon, 36,085 emergency rations, 9,080 blankets, 678 kitchen kits and 1,682 mattresses were issued. 1/

13. Emergency food rations were distributed to all displaced refugees through the winter and were then phased out in March, except for issues to the destitute, of whom there are about 24,000. The daily meal served under the supplementary feeding programme is still being extended beyond the normal age limit of 6 years to youngsters of up to 15 years.

14. The discontinuation of the emergency rations has caused consternation among the refugees, many of whom are living in extreme hardship, unable to find steady work and cut off from other sources of income. They demonstrated against the decision and in the Tyre area refused for a time to accept any Agency services. By the end of June, assistance to the special hardship cases was still being refused in Tyre and Saida, although other services were being provided normally. The Agency believes, however, that the resources, available for continued relief measures should be directed to specific needs. The expanded welfare programme, described in last year's report, is continuing. Other measures are described in the paragraphs which follow.

15. The economy of Lebanon, which had hitherto been remarkably resilient, has deteriorated, critically in recent months.  Unemployment is widespread, and it has affected the Palestine refugees severely. Apart from the overall shortage of work, the refugees suffer more than other groups from the Government's restrictions on the employment of foreigners, and are the targets of hostile attitudes and acts. The Agency has therefore embarked on a programme of self-support and income-generating projects with the co-operation of the Norwegian People's Relief Association. It is also working closely with others, such as the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), who are running or funding short training courses. As the programme develops, the Agency may seek additional financing from Governments and invite partnership from other non-governmental organizations in specific work schemes. In the continued absence of many of the men, and in response to their, own demands, many of these projects will be directed to the needs and skills of women refugees.

16. The Agency continued to give priority to environmental sanitation, particularly to ensuring an adequate supply of potable water and provision of essential sanitary facilities (see paras. 102-105)

C.  Restoration of regular services

17. Despite the turmoil in Lebanon, the normal education, health and welfare programmes were carried out to the extent that circumstances permitted. These are covered in chapter II of the present report.

18. The additional measures taken by the Department of Health, and reported upon last year, continued. The regular budget of the Field Health Department was increased, particularly for the hospitalization of refugee patients. The difficulty of travel in Lebanon compelled UNRWA to change some of its arrangements for hospitalization. For example, patients from north Lebanon and the Beqa'a Valley, who in normal circumstances would be referred for more advanced treatment to the American University Hospital in Beirut, were sent to the Syrian Arab Republic. Patients in south Lebanon could not be referred out of the south, but had to be treated at private hospitals subsidized there by the Agency. The intermediate health care unit for Saida, mentioned in last year's report, was opened by the International Rescue Committee on 9 January 1984; and the Agency and the Norwegian Refugee Council have agreed to an extension of the jointly operated rehabilitation Centre in Tyre for a further year, until 31 March 1985 (see also para. 82).

19. Most schools were able to operate for much of the 1983/84 school year, although their reopening was delayed in the north and in Beirut. The various disruptions to the programme because of fighting are reported in paragraph 52.  In the Beirut area, the school day was prolonged classes were held on six rather than five days a week from the end of April and the school year was extended from the end of June to mid-July to compensate for the lost time. Attendance fell from 34,078 at the end of January to 32,050 at the end of the school year.

20. About 4,000 students eligible for Agency schooling are unable to take advantage of it because they live too far away from a school. For most of them the only alternative is private schools which are expensive. In recognition of this difficulty, the Agency has decided to increase the small grant paid to such students so as to cover about 10 per cent of the cost to parents.

21.   The Siblin Training Centre, closed for vacation on 20 August 1983, has been unable to reopen since (see paras. 5, 60 and 186).  The Agency has, however, been able to use other premises in Lebanon to run five vocational training courses for 118 trainees and a teacher-training course for 34 trainees. Twenty-two other trainees have been transferred to the Damascus Vocational Training Centre. Where possible, the staff have been temporarily employed in other posts in the field.

D.  Re-housing the refugees

22. Since the autumn of 1983, supplementary cash grants have been given to refugees whose shelters had been damaged or destroyed as a result of the invasion. The programme was expanded to cover those whose shelters were damaged or destroyed as a result of fighting or bombing in the Beqa'a Valley, the north and the Beirut area or as a result of demolition in the south. By the end of June 1984, the Agency had paid out almost LL34 million in cash grants to 15,058 refugee families. It should be reiterated that, although this programme has an important practical value and has boosted the morale of the refugee community, it still leaves many refugees unsatisfactorily housed, particularly as it cannot be applied to refugees living outside camps or to those who were living in camps but whose homes were destroyed before 1982, as for example in Nabatieh, where local opposition to reconstructing the camp continues.

23. The Government of Lebanon has recently indicated that it should be asked for specific authority before shelters are reconstructed, though such reference is not required if only repairs are made. This introduces a qualification to the assurances given by the Director- General for the Administration of the Affairs of Palestine Refugees on 1 March 1983, and confirmed by the then Prime Minister of Lebanon on 17 May 1983 at a meeting with the Commissioner-General, that UNRWA may restore the refugee camps to the state they were in before the Israeli invasion.

E.  Repair of UNRWA installations and reconstruction

24. The continuing clashes and turmoil over the year have interfered with the orderly programme of repair and reconstruction for which the Commissioner-General appealed for $13 million in June 1983. So far $10.23 million have been received in response to that appeal.

25. In addition, it has proved necessary to repair other Agency facilities damaged during the year which could be put back into service, or to rebuild or relocate those which could not. After the fighting in north Lebanon, repair to Agency installations and camp infrastructure there was estimated at more than LL252,000. Moreover, the Agency's Area Office in Tripoli town was so badly damaged that control of operations during the fighting was transferred to a temporary office in a hotel in a safe area. After the fighting, alternative premises had to be leased at a substantially increased rent.

26. In the area of Beirut, despite the sporadic clashes interspersed with major battles, damaged installations were repaired or alternative, premises found so that the provision of services could continue, and refugees were helped to repair or rebuild shelters that had been hit.

27. The cost of damage to Agency installations and to refugee shelters in Wavell camp resulting from the Israeli air-raid on 4 January was estimated it LL235,500. Replacement of furniture and textbooks destroyed during the air-raid was estimated at $9,482.

28. In the south, Agency installations were restored to usable condition and assistance was given to refugees to repair or rebuild shelters damaged or destroyed by bombing or demolition. The Siblin Training Centre, which had suffered loss and damage in the early months of the Israeli invasion, was largely rehabilitated in 1983 with funds given for the emergency operation. The cost of repairing the more recent damage to the Centre, and of repair or replacement of equipment damaged or stolen during the occupation by PSP, cannot yet be assessed.

29. In carrying out the repair and reconstruction programme, the Agency is endeavoring to ensure that the labor employed is drawn from among the Palestine refugees, and that more of them are equipped with the necessary basic skills.

F.  Protection of the refugees

30. The Palestine refugees in Lebanon are the victims of violence.  Much of it affects them and Lebanese citizens indiscriminately. But in many instances, they are the specific target.

31. The civilian population in the Beqa'a Valley and the north, swollen by displacement from the south as a result of the invasion, were vulnerable during the fighting between rival factions of PLO. In October 1983, before the fighting intensified, the Commissioner-General expressed to the factions involved and to Governments which he felt had influence in the area his grave concern over the consequence of fighting in the north. These expressions of concern had little or no effect and scores of innocent civilians are estimated to have been killed and wounded during that fighting.

32. It is in south Lebanon, though, that the safety of Palestinians continues to cause special concern. In the past year, the Lebanon Field Office has reported the following serious incidents in south Lebanon: 25 violent deaths, 71 woundings, 199 arrests, 13 kidnappings, 7 disappearances, 22 evictions in the face of threats, and 74 explosions or cases of arson. It cannot be assumed that this list is exhaustive. On several occasions, the Commissioner-General has made public announcements to draw attention to the lack of security for Palestinians in the south, as well as making representations to the occupying power. The Agency has pointed out that, Under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the occupying power has responsibility for safeguarding the welfare of the civilian population) and the Israeli Government has acknowledged this responsibility.

G.  Co-ordination of the relief programme

33. The fragmentation of the Lebanon Field continues to cause problems of command and control. UNRWA continued to reinforce its staff in south Lebanon (including some international members) and in the Beqa’a Valley. It also strengthened the staffing of the Field office itself in Beirut, again including the international staff complement. Further reinforcements are contemplated.

34. To ensure a continuous flow of foodstuffs and other relief goods, the supply lines into south Lebanon from the Gaza and West Bank Fields and into north Lebanon and the Beqa'a Valley from the Syrian Field have been maintained, although towards the end of the period under review support from other Fields was I no longer necessary on a large scale. The ability of the Agency's Field Office in Beirut to communicate with the various area off ices was greatly enhanced by the use of a radio network based on frequencies allotted to other United Nations organizations, and the Agency is indebted to the United Nations interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for its invaluable assistance in setting up this network.

35. UNRWA continued to co-ordinate its relief work with other United Nations organizations involved in Lebanon. There was close contact with the International Committee of the Red Cross, particularly on questions of protection and security.

36. The Agency is grateful to the many non-governmental organizations that have continued to respond so generously and flexibly to the needs of the Palestine refugees in Lebanon. A consultation meeting, co-sponsored by UNRWA and the International Council of voluntary Agencies in June 1984, examined ways in which co-operation could be enhanced, especially to serve the needs of the refugees in Lebanon.

H.  Evaluation of the emergency operation

37. Last year's report described the Lebanon emergency operation as having been the most difficult in UNRWA's history because of the political and military complexities. To those two characteristics must now be added a third the duration of the crisis.

38. Over the past year catastrophe has been compounded with each new event, and the Agency staff have had to react to fresh outbreaks of violence throughout Lebanon. That they have been able to maintain services to the refugees and embark on reconstruction at all is a credit to their capabilities and devotion to duty.

39. UNRWA continues to derive valuable insights from the emergency operation in Lebanon and to apply those lessons in Lebanon itself, in headquarters and in the other fields, so that it may continue to improve the delivery of services to the Palestine refugees entrusted to it by the international community.

CHAPTER II

REGULAR OPERATIONS OF THE AGENCY

A. Organization and management of UNRWA operations

40. UNRWA's operations are administered from its headquarters in Vienna and Amman, five Field Offices in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic and the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza strip, and Liaison Offices in New York and Cairo. 2/ (See annex I, chart 4 for organization chart.)

41. The Commissioner-General is the chief executive officer of the Agency, responsible to the General Assembly for the management of its affairs. He is assisted by the Deputy Commissioner-General, who serves both a s deputy chief executive and as chief administrative officer.

42. The Field office Directors are responsible to the Commissioner-General for the direction, co-ordination and control of Agency operations in the five Fields, in accordance with approved policies, programmes and procedures. Headquarters Department Heads are responsible to him for professional and technical advice on and supervision of policies, programmes and procedures, and for the direction and control of designated central services and facilities. Collectively, the Field office Directors and Headquarters Department Heads, together with the Director of UNRWA Liaison, New York and the Deputy Commissioner-General, advise the Commissioner-General on Agency policy.

43. In his dealings with Member States of the United Nations, inter-governmental bodies, other organizations of the United Nations and other agencies, the Commissioner-General is assisted by the heads of the Liaison Offices and the Field Office Directors, in the locations to which they are assigned, and generally by the Divisions of External Relations and Public Information at the Vienna headquarters.

44. UNRWA's experience in Lebanon in recent years has convinced the Commissioner-General of the need to strengthen the international staffing in the Field Offices, in the interests of the Agency's operations, of the refugees who are served and of the international community which funds the Agency. 3/ The first steps have been taken in this direction, and further measures are envisaged. One additional post has been established in each Field to improve administration and management in Gaza and Jordan, relief services in Lebanon and the West Bank, and both administration and relief services in the Syrian Arab Republic. At the same time, the number of headquarters posts has been reduced. The increased international presence permits more frequent surveillance of Agency facilities, and in Lebanon has been important for the protection of the refugees (see paras. 30-32). The Agency efforts to reinforce financial control in the area of operations include upgrading the international finance officer post, to give the officer greater authority and to reflect a higher level of qualifications. The emergency operation in Lebanon has required supplementary international staffing, which the Agency hopes will be temporary (see para. 33).

45. At  the  Vienna  headquarters,  there  has  been  a  reorganization with effect from 1 January 1984 by which the Commissioner-General has delegated to the Deputy Commissioner- General increased responsibility for internal co-ordination and management. In recognition of this (and following his own upgrading in January 1983 to Under-Secretary-General), the Commissioner-General upgraded the post of Deputy Commissioner-General to Assistant- Secretary-General from May 1984, after consultation with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNESCO have upgraded the posts loaned to UNRWA of Director of Health and Director of Education respectively, from D1 to D2.

B.  Education and training services

46. Under an agreement between UNRWA and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO is responsible for the professional aspects of the education programme, which includes general education at elementary and preparatory (lower secondary) levels` in Agency schools; vocational and pre-service teacher training at Agency centres; in-service teacher training) and a university scholarship programme. The curriculum followed in Agency schools is that prescribed by the host Government in each Field (and by  the Jordanian and Egyptian authorities for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip respectively). Thus, with some assistance from, the Agency, many refugee children are able to continue their education at the upper-secondary level in government or private schools. In 1983, expenditure on education and training amounted to $125.5 million and accounted for 64.2 per cent of the Agency's total expenditure on its regular programmes.

47. In addition, the Departments of Health and Relief Services organize programmes of pre-school education, youth activities, adult training in crafts, and medical and paramedical education and training, described elsewhere in this report.

1.  General education

48. The general education programme strengthened its position as the largest single Agency activity in 1983/84. In October 1983, a total of 342,245 pupils, 6,038 more than in 1982/83, were enrolled in the 653 Agency elementary and preparatory schools in Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, served by a teaching force of 10,027. A further 98,044 refugee pupils were known to be enrolled in government and private elementary and secondary schools in the same areas, and about 45,100 non-eligible children were in Agency schools (see note b/ in table 3, annex I).

49. It is UNRWA's policy to accept all eligible refugee children who seek admission to its schools. The growth each year in the school-age population, together with inflation, accounts largely for the annual increases in budgeted expenditure. Given the funds, the Agency would construct purpose-designed buildings to accommodate the schools. But it has not been possible to build enough schools, with the result that the children and teachers of two separate schools usually have to share one building, taking morning and afternoon shifts. Such double-shifting in 1983/84 involved 489 schools, 75 per cent of the total.

50. Double-shifting is not an uncommon practice in other education systems. Nevertheless, it is generally recognized as detrimental to the child's development. Given the lack of recreation facilities in Palestine refugee camps, the much shorter school day also makes life more difficult for mothers, particularly as in many cases children from the same family attend different shifts. In UNRWA schools, double-shifting means that periods are reduced from 45 to 40 minutes and that some subjects prescribed by the host Government curricula cannot be given the attention specified. Triple-shifting, especially where schools lack adequate heating and lighting, is not to be contemplated except as a temporary emergency measure. This did happen as a result of damage to schools in Lebanon but was eliminated during the year. The school construction programme accords first priority to the building of classrooms to avoid triple-shifting.

51. Lack of funds for capital expenditure generally limited school construction to the minimum necessary to avoid triple-shifting and to replace only the most unsatisfactory school premises. During 1983/84, over all Fields, five entire school buildings were constructed (comprising 75 class and administration rooms) and work has begun on seven school buildings (comprising 127 class and administrative rooms and 13 special-purpose rooms). At existing schools, an additional 20 standard class and administration rooms and 22 special-purpose rooms were constructed, and work has begun on a further 12 class and administration rooms and 19 special-purpose rooms. Some of this work had been made possible by special contributions from Governments and others, who also provided funds for school furniture and other equipment.  The refugee community itself, with some help in materials from the Agency, also built two classrooms and six special-purpose rooms, and began work on a school comprising 20 class and administration rooms.

52. In Lebanon, military and political events inevitably disrupted the functioning of the school system. The reopening  of the schools after the summer vacation was planned for 12 September, but the disturbed conditions prevailing throughout that month meant that only 44 out of the 86 schools actually reopened on the scheduled date. By September, the intra- Palestinian conflict had moved from the Beqa’a Valley to the Tripoli area, where 10 of the 16 schools were promptly occupied by displaced refugee families. By November, families were occupying all the schools, though by January they had all been vacated, repaired and put back into normal operation again. Fighting in Beirut caused the reopening of the 26 Agency schools to be postponed for a few weeks after the end of the summer vacation. From late September until early in February they were able to function, but heavy fighting in the city caused the suspension of operations in all Beirut schools, including Agency schools, until late April. Overall, the number of Agency schools operating in Lebanon fluctuated from as low as 44 in September 1983 to 84 in January 1984, of the total of 86 schools. (The two schools unable to operate were attached to the Siblin Training Centre (see para. 60) and in the Nabatieh camp (see para. 22).) Enrolment in Agency schools in Lebanon totaled 34,920 refugee pupils, 24,516 of whom were in the elementary cycle and 10,404 in the preparatory cycle. The 84 functioning schools comprised 680 elementary and 310 preparatory class sections with a total of 1,210 teachers, and of these, 51 schools with 568 class sections operated on double shift. Prescribed textbooks for Agency schools in Lebanon totaled 186, all but one of which have been approved by UNESCO.

53. In the Syrian Arab Republic, UNRWA schools started on 10 September and operated satisfactorily throughout the year. In all, 50,904 pupils attended the 70 elementary schools and 45 preparatory schools, including 1,036 refugee pupils displaced from Lebanon since the June 1982 Israeli invasion. The schools comprised 1,278 class sections served by 1,514 teachers. One hundred of these schools, involving 1,165 class sections and 46,838 pupils, operated on double shift. To replace unsuitable rented premises, new schools are to be built in Mazareeb and Akrad with the Agency's general funds and in Qabr Essit with a donation from the Canadian Government. Of the 115 textbooks currently prescribed for schools in Syria, 69 have been approved by UNESCO.

54. In Jordan, the 213 Agency schools also started on 10 September and operated normally throughout the year. The total enrolment was 134,527 in the elementary and preparatory cycles, comprising 3,340, class sections served by 3,805 teachers. Double-shifting was necessary in 196 schools, involving 3,126 class sections, and 126,494 pupils. Six school buildings are currently being constructed in Jordan, two of them with help from the Canadian Government and one at the expense of a wealthy Palestinian whose contracting firm is undertaking the work. The total number of textbooks prescribed in Jordan is 142, of which 108 have been approved by UNESCO.

55. In the West Bank,  Agency  schools  were  scheduled  to  start  the  school  year on 2 September but, by order of the Israeli authorities, the reopening of all schools in the area, including the Agency's 98 schools, was deferred for one month. On 2 November, the occupying authorities ordered the closure of the two Kalandia Girls' Schools because of stone-throwing incidents, until concrete walls two meters high with wire fences had been, erected between the school and the road. The school was allowed to re-open on 13 December. On 15 November, the two Jalazone preparatory schools were ordered closed for similar reasons and allowed to reopen on 9 December, (see para. 179) During October, November and December curfews in various camps closed some schools briefly. UNRWA schools in general operated normally for the remainder of the school year. Enrolment totaled 39,593 pupils, in 778 elementary and 334 preparatory class sections served by 1,281 teachers. Fifty schools with 582 class sections and 21,229 pupils operated on double shift. Construction of a new girls' school at Sourif is complete and two new schools are being constructed at Doura. The 142 textbooks prescribed for Jordan are also the prescribed textbooks for the West Bank. Of the 108 approved by UNESCO, the Israeli authorities have refused import permits for nine.

56. In the Gaza Strip, the Agency schools started on 1 September and operated normally throughout the school year apart from some minor scattered disturbances. Enrolment totaled 82,301 pupils in 143 schools, comprising 1,320 elementary and 469 preparatory, class sections with a teaching force of 2,217. There was double-shifting in 92 schools involving 1,141 class sections with 52,794 pupils. There were many improvements in school facilities, including the construction of 18 classrooms to avoid triple-shifting; 16 science laboratories; 12 multi-purpose rooms; and 14 toilet units. The help of the Canadian Government has made much of this possible. The refugees have helped to maintain schools, to convert two old milk distribution sheds into teachers' rooms, and to provide two administration rooms, a library, two school canteens, and five large covered areas in school compounds to protect pupils from rain or sun. They have also helped with the re-roofing of some 300 old, damaged classrooms, and the erection of verandas alongside about 50 classrooms.  The total number of textbooks prescribed by the Egyptian Ministry of Education was 120; of these UNESCO has approved 81, of which the occupying authorities have permitted the importation of 70 and disallowed the importation of 11.

57. Of some 4,350 registered refugees stranded on the Egyptian side of the border re-established between the Gaza strip and the Sinai in 1982, 1,213 are of elementary and preparatory school age. (These are included in the Gaza school population figure cited in para. 56.) As a temporary measure until the situation of these refugees is resolved, more than 40 Agency teachers who are also stranded, are providing schooling for these children in a government school building made available for the purpose. Two supervisors from the Gaza Strip make monthly visits to the school. Through the co-operation of the Israeli and Egyptian authorities, arrangements have been made for the pupils to take the sixth Elementary, third Preparatory and Tawjihi (secondary) state examinations.

58. The quality of the school education programme has continued to improve, through curriculum enrichment continuous in-service teacher training which are guided by the Education Department’s biennial work plan (see also para. 71).  The objective evidence of this improvement is to be seen in those fields where state examinations are held: UNRWA pupils not only consistently outperform pupils in Government schools, but have continued to widen the performance gap. Palestine refugee children’s motivation to learn is remarkable; so are the support they receive from their parents, and the dedication of the teachers (themselves almost all Palestine refugees).

2.  Vocational and technical education

59. The number of training places available to Palestine refugees in the vocational and technical courses conducted in UNRWA training centres was 3,720. (Details of the capacity of the training centres in 1983/84, by trade group, centre and sex are given in table 4 of annex I. The kindergarten teachers' course is now classified under teacher training rather than vocational training, and the number of places at the Siblin Training Centre in Lebanon has been reduced because of poor employment prospects.)  In addition the Agency sponsored the vocational training of 43 refugees in private institutions.

60. The Siblin Training Centre in Lebanon functioned normally until 20 August 1983. During the month's vacation which followed, armed militiamen of the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party entered the centre and have remained in virtual occupation since (see para. 186). In an effort to compensate for the loss of the facilities UNRWA has run classes for many of the Siblin trainees in neighboring Saida and in Beirut; and some students have been transferred to the Damascus Vocational Training Centre In the Syrian Arab Republic.

61. The vocational training centres in the Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan, and the Gaza Strip functioned normally throughout the year. In Jordan, the only country where a straight comparison can be made with Government centres, the two Agency centres had success rates significantly higher than the national average. At the time of reporting it seems as if a problem which has seriously affected the functioning of the two training centres in the West Bank is well on the way to being resolved. The centres suffered during the year through the resistance of the students, in common with students in Community Colleges in the West Bank generally, to the General Comprehensive Examination set by the Jordanian Government. By the end of June, almost all the eligible students in the Ramallah Women's Training Centre had registered for the Comprehensive Examination and paid the required fees. The academic year was extended by periods ranging from three to four months to compensate for time lost due to disturbances.

62. Work opportunities for graduates of the Agency's vocational training centres – excluding the Siblin Training Centre, for which employment figures are incomplete because of the continuing crisis in Lebanon – continue to be quite good.  A total of 1,238 found jobs, representing 81 per cent of the 1982/83 graduates. There is a continuing high demand for places in the Agency's centres from eligible Palestine refugees, but not more than 20 per cent of the qualified applicants can be accepted for lack of facilities. A large-scale expansion of the programme, particularly to provide more opportunities for women, would be amply justified.

63. To ensure, that the vocational training courses reflect the current needs of the labor market in the Near East, the Agency regular surveys technological developments and the requirements of employers. A number of courses are consequently being upgraded or replaced. Aluminum fabrication is being incorporated into relevant existing courses in all the vocational training centres.  An electronics course will begin at the Damascus Vocational Training Centre and one is planned for the Amman Training Centre. At the Kalandia and Wadi Seer Vocational Training Centres, materials testing laboratories are being installed. More modern equipment has been introduced into the electricians' course at the five centres where it is offered. And the machinist/welder course at the Siblin Training Centre is being replaced by a maintenance/fitter/machinist course.

3.  Teacher training

64. The teacher-training programme aims primarily at providing qualified teachers for UNRWA schools. The Agency's training centres accept, Palestine refugee candidates who have successfully completed 12 years of general schooling, and prepare them through a two-year professional training programme to teach at the elementary school level.  Graduates of these centres are given priority for Agency appointments. If further teachers are needed, the Agency employs university or high-school graduates. Usually this group lacks professional qualifications, and the Agency therefore arranges basic in-service teacher- training courses for them through the institute of Education, which forms part of the Department's Teacher and Higher Education Division.

65. At the beginning of February 1984, enrolment in the Institute in-service courses was 871, of whom 130 were in the basic two-year course for unqualified elementary teachers, 176 in specialized courses for unqualified preparatory teachers, 219 in courses designed to meet curricular changes, 76 in courses for key education personnel, and 270 in refresher and ad hoc courses. In October 1983, 49 trainees graduated from the basic two-year course and 115 trainees from the specialized two-year preparatory courses. These 164 graduates were recognized by UNRWA as professionally qualified teachers and were graded accordingly.

66. Pre-service teacher training continued to be provided at three Agency centres, one in Amman and two in Ramallah (West Bank). The fourth centre, in Siblin (Lebanon), has been occupied by militia units since September (see para. 60). However, in mid-December arrangements were made for the teacher trainees to resume their training on the premises of an Agency school in Saida. Enrolment totaled 1,340 (609 men and 731 women).

67. Because of an oversupply of teachers in Lebanon, it has been decided to phase out the teacher-training section at Siblin and to replace it by a kindergarten teacher’s course when the Centre is able to function again.

68. Operations at the Amman Training Centre were satisfactory, but the West Bank centres suffered disruptions provoked by the highly charged political situation in the area and by trainees' resistance to the Jordanian Government Comprehensive Examination, although the latter problem now seems on the way to being resolved. (See also paragraph 61 in respect of the West Bank vocational training centres.) The two Ramallah Training Centres were closed, by the Agency for a month in February/March, following strikes, and the Ramallah Men's Teacher Training Centre was again closed, following a further strike on 26 March, until 20 May. The academic year was extended to compensate for time lost and in an effort to assure minimum training standards.

69. Of the 268 second-year teacher trainees of the Amman Training Centre who sat for the General Comprehensive Examination in July 1983, 241 (90 per cent) passed. Second-year trainees at the two Ramallah centres declined to sit for this examination, which was to have been held in the West Bank for the first time in 1983.

70. At the end of the 1982/83 training year, 624 teacher trainees (317 men and 307 women) graduated from the pre-service teacher-training centres. By 30 June 1984, 143 of them were employed in Agency schools and 120 were known to have found employment outside the Agency. Excluding the Siblin Training Centre in Lebanon, for which employment figures are incomplete 01, this represents 63 per cent of the 1982/83 graduates.

71. The Education Development Centres continued their efforts, in co-ordination with the institute of Education, to improve the quality of education in UNRWA schools in their respective Fields. They do this through in-service training courses and by enriching the curriculum with teaching aids and supplementary materials to promote a variety of approaches to teaching and learning.

72. Eighteen senior Palestinian staff members were awarded fellowships for overseas study aimed at improving their professional competence. Of these, nine were awarded by UNESCO, three by UNRWA, one by the Australian Government and five by voluntary organizations.

4.  University scholarships

73. During the academic year 1983/84, UNRWA awarded 346 scholarships to Palestine refugees for study at Arab universities; 271 of the awards were continuing scholarships and 75 were new. The UNRWA scholarships., partly funded from special contributions, are awarded for one year, but are renewable from year to year for the duration of the course of study, provided the student passes the end-of-year university examinations and is promoted to the next stage of his course (see table 5, annex I).

74. In its resolution 38/83 D Of 15 December 1983, the General Assembly appealed, inter alia, to all Member States And United Nations agencies to make special allocations, scholarships and grants to Palestine refugees and requested UNRWA to receive, hold in trust and award them to qualified Palestine refugee candidates. The Secretary-General describes the response in detail in his report to the General Assembly (A/39/375).

C.  Health services

75. Under the professional guidance of the World Health organization (WHO), UNRWA provides medical services to some 1.7 million eligible Palestine refugees. The emphasis is on preventive care, through maternal and child health clinics, school health and health education programmes, supplementary, feeding to assure satisfactory levels of nutrition, and environmental sanitation in the refugee camps. Outpatient services, preventive and curative, are delivered through the Agency's 98 health units and by special arrangement at one clinic run by a voluntary agency and 22 run by governments. The Agency also operates 27 dental clinics, three central laboratories and 24 clinical laboratories. It runs a small hospital at Qalqilya, in the West Bank, and, jointly with the local Public Health Department, a tuberculosis hospital in Gaza.  Other hospital and specialist services are subsidized at government, university and private health institutions. In Lebanon, the health services have been further strengthened to meet the emergency needs of the refugees, and additional hospital beds are being subsidized in locations where facilities which had been available before June 1982 are unable to function.

1.  Curative medical care

76. Curative medical care, both in-patient and out-patient, continues to be delivered at about the same levels as in previous years. Newly constructed clinics replaced unsatisfactory premises at Bin el-Tal in the Syrian Arab Republic, Hebron in the West Bank and Maghazi in Gaza. The Jerash health centre received three badly-needed extra rooms. Five maternal and child health sub-centres were built in the Gaza Strip. The 4,350 refugees stranded on the Egyptian side of the re-established border between the Sinai and the Gaza Strip receive basic health services from Gaza Field health staff living there, helped by frequent visits of staff from the Rafah health centre and the Field Office in Gaza Town. (Statistical data in respect of the out-patient care directly provided by the Agency are given in annex I, table 6.)

77. The Agency continues to increase and strengthen its specialist clinics, where patients with degenerative and chronic diseases or malnutrition are seen by appointment and proper follow-up is ensured. With the changing demography of the refugee population, there is now a higher incidence of the degenerative diseases, notably diabetes mellitus. As this problem has not been well-defined, a three months' prospective study was conducted between November 1983 and January 1984, based on data obtained from two diabetes clinics in each of the five Fields. The initial analysis of the data suggests that incidence is highest among obese, middle-aged women who have borne more than one child, and that early recognition and intervention could allow for effective treatment. The Department of Health is therefore seeking the services of a consultant to advise on improvements to the diabetic service.

78. A rudimentary dental service has formed part of the general out-patient services for many years, but at a level largely limited to extractions and pain relief. Only one in 30 refugees is treated by an UNRWA dentist each year The Department of Health is working to develop the service into a properly balanced programme which emphasizes preventive and restorative dental care and oral hygiene, and in which treatment will be more generally available. As a preliminary step, a new dental team was formed this year to serve two new dental clinics at Jabalia and Nuseirat health centres in the Gaza Strip; and one dental team and unit each were also established in Jordan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Lebanon.

79. Laboratory facilities and equipment were further improved, in part with the financial help of UNICEF. The Agency administers three central laboratories in Gaza, Amman and Jerusalem, and 24-clinical laboratories at its larger health centres, where simple tests are carried out. Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic, subsidized private laboratories provide the services normally performed by an UNRWA central laboratory. UNRWA continues to administer a small cottage hospital of 36 beds in Qalqiliya (West Bank), nine camp maternity wards, the majority in the Gaza Strip) and, jointly with the Public Health Department in Gaza, a tuberculosis hospital with 70 beds in Bureij camp.

80. The Agency also subsidizes in-patient facilities in government and private hospitals, with a daily average of 1,388 hospital beds (see annex I, table 6). The continually rising cost of medical services entailed substantial increases in the subsidies, particularly for the emergency in-patient care of refugees in Lebanon. In addition to their use of the subsidized facilities, an undetermined number of refugee patients independently seek admission to government hospitals at nominal cost.

81. In Jordan, the Ministry of Health continued to collect fees from refugee patients referred to its hospitals by UNRWA medical officers. The Agency's scheme to refund the cost of hospitalization at government hospitals to those who are members of destitute families or to whom the cost causes financial hardship has not, on the whole, been accepted either by the refugee community or the Government of Jordan. Discussions with the Government on ways of improving the hospitalization of refugees are in progress. In the Gaza Strip, a similar refund scheme for refugee patients hospitalized in government institutions in Gaza or Israel continues.

82. There is a persistent shortage of hospital beds in Lebanon, since many of the hospitals are still inaccessible to Palestine refugees. Consequently, many cases have continued to be referred to the Medical Centre of the American University of Beirut or, for some time, to the Makassed hospital there or to private hospitals in Saida, Tyre and Ba'albek, at high cost. The problem has partly been resolved in the Saida area, with the establishment in January by the International Rescue Committee of an intermediate health care unit, where patients are admitted for 24 to 48 hours for investigation and urgent treatment. Since April, the terms of hospital contracts have been reviewed and strict controls imposed on admissions to subsidized hospitals, especially in south Lebanon, to reduce excessive costs.

83. The Agency provides to a limited extent for the medical rehabilitation of crippled children in specialized institutions, as well as for the fitting of orthopedic devices such as artificial limbs. Contributions from voluntary agencies usually help to meet the cost of appliances. A rehabilitation clinic in Tyre, run with the professional and financial assistance of the Norwegian Refugee Council, continues to treat war injuries and polio victims.

2.  Control of communicable diseases

84. The prevention and control of communicable diseases is, as it has always been, one of the Agency's main concerns.

85. Infants and young children attending the maternal and child health clinics are immunized against tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, poliomyelitis and measles. Reinforcing doses of vaccines are given when the children enter school. UNRWA health staff work to improve environmental conditions. They plan emphasis in health activities (particularly at schools and clinics) on personal and food hygiene. And they administer specific chemotherapy and chemoprophylaxis.  They maintain close co-operation with the government authorities in disease surveillance and control.

86. Two cases of cholera occurred among refugees in the Gaza Strip. Both received treatment and were cured. Ten cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis were reported; five in the West Bank, mostly in the Jericho area, and five in the Syrian Arab Republic (Aleppo area).

87. The following diseases occurred less frequently than in the previous years: chicken pox, diarrhoeal diseases, infectious hepatitis, measles, mumps and trachoma. But there were more reported cases of typhoid fever (mainly in the Syrian Arab Republic) poliomyelitis and respiratory tuberculosis. There was no significant change in the incidence of other communicable diseases. (Further details are given in the annual report of the Director of Health.)

88.   The Agency operates a comprehensive tuberculosis programme, including case detection, hospital and home treatment, and follow-up of cases and their contacts. The incidence of respiratory tuberculosis continues to be less than one case in 10,000 of the population eligible for health services in spite of an increase of reported cases this year.

3.  Maternal and child health

89. All 98 of the Agency's health units provide maternal and child health care supported by specialist and hospital referral services. A number of government institutions and voluntary agencies supplemented Agency services, especially in Amman, Damascus and Jerusalem. Data on maternal and child health services are presented in table 6 of annex I.

90. Pre-natal care includes regular health supervision and the issue of extra rations and iron-folate tablets. The number of deliveries in hospitals is steadily increasing, and less than half the number of deliveries reported took place at home, attended by Agency-supervised dayahs (traditional birth attendants). In Gaza, which has six maternity wards attached to the UNRWA health centres, just over one quarter of the deliveries took place in these wards, one quarter at home and almost half of them in two government hospitals.

91. Family planning is an integral part of the maternal and child health programme in Gaza, where also a special programme on "health and family life" is included in the school curriculum for girls in the third preparatory classes, jointly conducted by the Departments of Health and Education. Four health centres in the Syrian Arab Republic offer family planning services, in co-operation with the Ministry of Health. In Jordan, limited family planning activities are carried out in three health centres.

92. Regular health supervision and immunization is provided in child health clinics for children up to three years of age. Their nutrition is promoted through the provision of nutritionally-balanced meals at the Agency's feeding centres. Dry milk is distributed to all children from six months to three years of age.

93. Early and effective treatment with oral dehydration for children suffering from diarrhea continues to be an important service in the child health clinics. Children up to the age of five who are in need of special care receive it in the nutrition/rehabilitation clinics established in most of the health centres throughout the five Fields.

94. The data collected last year for the retrospective study of risk factors connected with infant deaths among the entire camp population in the West Bank are now being analyzed. As part of the prospective risk studies in the West Bank and Gaza, systematic recording of birth weight was introduced for all deliveries, including those attended by Agency-supervised dayahs at home.  Portable spring scales are used for this purpose, and all the dayahs have been trained An their use. The data have been tabulated by each Field on its micro-computer and analyzed with the help of the WHO consultant, who made two follow-up visits during the year. Children at risk of becoming malnourished were treated in the special care clinics in the West Bank, in accordance with the recommendation of the WHO Consultant in his previous study on risk factors connected with infant deaths and malnutrition. This study was a precursor to the present risk studies.

95. As planned, the school health services were reorganized from the beginning of the school year 1983/84, with the aim of developing an effective programme to monitor the health of pupils throughout the school cycle.  A healthy school environment is stressed and teachers are expected to take an active part in health education in the schools. Joint committees of health, education, welfare and engineering staff in each field carried out surveys of school sanitary facilities and began carrying out plans for renovation and construction of school toilets.

96. Health education workers collaborated with camp health committees and other Agency staff in health centres, schools and welfare centres, to promote good health practices. In particular, they gave a course for women attending sewing centres. World Health Day was celebrated Agency-wide with exhibitions and meetings.

97. The involvement of health and education staff together in the promotion of health education is being encouraged through training programmes. Teachers in the Lebanon, Jordan and Gaza fields participated in one-week experimental summer courses.  Selected teachers in the Jordan and Syrian fields are being systematically trained to become tutors in health education in their respective schools. Training in oral health, sponsored by the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) of WHO, started at the Demonstration, Training and Research Centre for oral Health, Damascus, with a two-week course for 10 teachers and five health staff from the Damascus area. This programme will be repeated for teachers and health staff in the other Fields.

4. Nursing services

98. Nursing staff contribute to both the curative and, preventive health programmes but mainly to the maternal and child health services, in which registered nurses, midwives, practical nurses and traditional birth attendants (dayahs) all participate.

99. Senior nursing staff conducted programmes of in-service training for their junior colleagues in their respective fields. Two senior staff nurses were sent on courses to further their professional education. An 18-month basic midwifery training course began in Gaza in March (see also para. 117).

100. It remains difficult to recruit and retain the services of well qualified nursing personnel, particularly as the Agency has so far been unable to approve the up-grading of staff nurses.

5. Environmental health

101. The environmental health services comprise mainly the provision of potable water, sanitary disposal of waste, storm-water drainage, latrine facilities and control of disease-carrying insects and rodents.  A total of 746,800 refugees and displaced persons living in camps (or in temporary refuge in various places in Lebanon) benefited from the services. Host Governments, local councils and municipalities, who co-operate increasingly with the Agency in the delivery of services have given a high priority to the improvement of environmental health conditions in the camps. Through the self-help efforts of the refugee communities and with the sustained support of the local authorities concerned, essential work wag carried out during the year as described below.

102. Subsidies amounting to more than $US 1.5 million were provided by the Agency in cash or kind to self-help schemes. A major portion of the funds was used for repair and reconstruction in south Lebanon. Refugee communities paved pathways constructed surface drains for the disposal of rain water, laid sewer lines, improved water supplies and reconstructed family latrines in camps which were hit by the fighting. The substantial community effort to restore waste water disposal systems And reconstruct latrines in the south Lebanon and Beirut areas did much to prevent epidemics.

103. In all Fields, most of the camps took advantage of the Agency's aid to carry out community programmes. The scheme also prompted refugees to improve their family shelters, which are typically not only overcrowded but poorly insulated against the sometimes extreme climate.

104. The Government of Jordan has provided all shelters in the Talbieh camp with indoor water taps. In the Syrian Arab Republic, Khan Eshieh camp has been linked to a municipal water supply network, and a scheme to provide indoor water taps at the Khan Dannoun, Sbeinch and Bin el-Tal camps is nearing completion. Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij camps in the Gaza Strip have been connected to a regional water distribution system recently installed by the Israeli authorities. The Agency plans to subsidize self-help schemes to provide indoor water taps for the camps of Deir Ammar, (West Bank), Rashidieh and Bin el-Hilweh (Lebanon). Additional public water points have been installed in the Jerash and Marka camps in Jordan to meet a growing need. And water chlorination systems have been further improved by the Agency in Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic.

105. The sewerage network in Bin el-Hilweh camp (destroyed by the war) has been largely restored, and work should be completed soon. In the Syrian Arab Republic, additional sewers and sturdy cast iron man-hole covers were provided to improve the efficacy of sewerage systems in four camps. In the West Bank, the surface drainage of Am’ari camp has been linked with a municipal terminal sewer, and a self-help sewerage scheme is planned. With the help of the municipality concerned, a sewage pumping station is about to be installed, at a cost of $202,000, at the Ramallah Women's Training Centre, where the disposal of waste water has become an acute problem. The Government of Jordan, in co-operation with the Agency, plans to execute sewerage schemes at Beqa’a, Zarka and Irbid camps. Efforts are also continuing to start self-help sewerage schemes in the Rafah and Jabalia camps in the Gaza Strip. In agreement with the Rafah Municipality, the Agency is making substantial contributions to a sewage disposal scheme which includes the drainage of a hazardous waste water pool in the Rafah camp. Unfortunately, the work, which commenced a year and a half ago, is proceeding very slowly: it was expected that the pool would be, drained by the spring of 1983, but it still exists. Garbage from the large Beach and Jabalia camps had to be transported by hired trucks at substantial costs to the Agency because the dumping area had been moved several kilometers away by the Israeli authorities. For about one month previously, the authorities had prevented the Agency from dumping garbage at the former site, causing considerable difficulties.

106. Skip-lift trucks and matching refuse containers are being obtained to improve the refuse collection system in the Jabalia and Beach camps. If money can be found, the Agency plans gradually to replace all of its slow-moving tractor-trailer units with more efficient equipment at the remaining six camps in the Gaza Strip.  Satisfactory arrangements have been made with the municipalities concerned for the removal of refuse from Marka and Zerka camps in Jordan and the Nairab camp in Syria. Efforts are continuing to make similar arrangements for the Irbid camp in Jordan, and the Arroub and Kalandia camps in the West Bank.

107. In collaboration with WHO, UNRWA has launched a programme to train sanitary engineers to meet the Agency's needs for-this kind of technically qualified staff. Six civil engineers are being considered for WHO fellowships, while one from Gaza is already following a course in the United Kingdom. Chronic financial problems make it difficult for the Agency to augment its sanitation labor force to the extent justified by the increase in the work-load as camp populations grow, and as the physical ability of senior workers diminishes.

108. A serious problem of rodent infestation in Gaza is being satisfactorily tackled by the Gaza Municipality with the co-operation of the Agency. An annual campaign carried out in the town and Beach camp, to which UNRWA has contributed $3,000 towards the purchase of rodenticides, has given encouraging results. It is hoped that the local authorities will extend the programme to the entire Strip. As an integral part of the leishmaniasis control programme, rodent control is also in progress in the Jericho area of the West Bank.

6.  Nutrition

109. One of the main objectives of UNRWA's health programme is to combat malnutrition among the refugees most at risk: children, pregnant and nursing women, tuberculosis patients who are not in hospital and the destitute. The data collected through routine surveillance of the growth and development of children under five years of age who attend the child health clinics show that they are in good condition as far as feeding is concerned: cases of third-degree malnutrition have virtually disappeared, while second-degree cases are very rare now. On the other hand, the Department of Health is concerned that six-to-eight year olds may not be adequately fed, and would extend the supplementary feeding programme to this age-group if the funding were available.

110. The supplementary feeding programme provides mid-day meals and monthly distribution of milk powder and extra rations to selected groups. At the 90 UNRWA supplementary feeding centres and four voluntary agency centres, nutritionally balanced mid-day meals are served six days a week to children up to the age of six, all of whom are eligible to receive them, and on medical grounds to older children, sick adults and the destitute. In Lebanon, the authority given in 1982 to issue mid-day meals to any Palestine refugee children up to the age of 15 years has been maintained, and about 7,500 children receive meals in addition to the beneficiaries of the normal programme.

111. A special high-protein high-calorie diet is also available daily to infants and children suffering from diarrhea and malnutrition.  Vitamin A and D capsules are issued with the meals. Whole and skim milk powder are distributed to non-breast-fed infants up to six months and to all children from 6 to 36 months attending the child health clinics. Almost 72,000 children benefit from this programme (see annex I, table 7).  To improve the standard of hygiene of the milk distribution operation, the Agency has installed three machines to pack milk powder.

112. In Jordan, as in previous years, the Agency has provided, on behalf of the Government and against reimbursement, milk and mid-day meals for persons displaced in 1967 (other than UNRWA-registered refugees) who live in camps.

113. In collaboration with WHO, UNRWA conducted a nutrition survey in Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. The survey covered about 8,000 children under three years of age, pregnant women and nursing mothers, and included anthropometric, clinical and bio-chemical examinations. The data are now being analyzed by WHO headquarters.

7. Medical and para-medical education and training

114. The Agency maintained and further developed its programme of education and training in the field of health.

115. In 1983/84, 129 refugee students held UNRWA medical university scholarships (see annex I, table 5) and 206 refugee trainees were enrolled in courses for laboratory technicians, public health inspectors and assistant pharmacists in Agency training centres. of these, 23 university students and 90 trainees either successfully completed their courses of study or were expected to past their qualifying examinations.

116. Scholarships for basic university education are funded from donations received from voluntary agencies for the purpose. While the need for nursing staff in UNRWA is very great, the Agency has no means of providing basic nursing training itself and relies entirely on outside sources. It is becoming more and more difficult to fill vacant posts with properly qualified staff (see also para. 100).

117. Intensive in-service training was carried out by the Department of Health for its own staff in the various disciplines of the programme. Within the framework of a WHO-sponsored training and fellowship programme for health personnel, six fellowships were granted by WHO/EMRO in the academic year 1983/84: two to medical officers (one each from Lebanon and Syria), to pursue a one-year post-graduate training course leading to a Master Is degree in community health at the University of Liverpool in England; one to the area sanitation officer of the Hebron Area in the West Bank, to pursue a 22-month course in community health at the Bethlehem University; one to a camp sanitation officer from Gaza, to pursue a nine-month course in sanitation at Khartoum University; one to the field sanitation officer, Jordan, to pursue a one-year training course in public health leading to a Master's degree at the University of Dundee, Scotland; and one to the assistant field sanitation officer (water), Gaza, to pursue a course in public health engineering at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. WHO/EMRO also granted short-term fellowships to the headquarters health educator for a two-week study tour in school health education at the Demonstration Training and Research Centre, Damascus, and to 5 health and 10 teaching staff from Syria for a two-week training course in oral health at the same centre (see also para. 97). A graduate nurse from Gaza, on a one-year WHO fellowship for public health nursing, successfully completed her training in Cairo in November. A medical officer from the West Bank, on a WHO fellowship, successfully completed his 17-month training in maternal and child health in London in December 1983. A senior staff nurse from Jordan successfully completed a one-year post-basic midwifery training course at the College of Nursing, Amman in March. And a medical officer from Lebanon was awarded a 25-month Australian Government scholarship to pursue his studies towards the degree of Master of Public Health at the Commonwealth institute of Health, University of Sydney.

D.  Relief services

118. The Agency's relief services comprise assistance to the destitute, including the provision of basic food commodities, blankets, clothing, shelter repair or reconstruction and cash grants; and, for all eligible refugees, welfare case-work, the organization of youth and women's activities, adult training courses and rehabilitation of the disabled. In addition, a small measure of humanitarian assistance is still provided for persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 war.

119. The continued occupation of south Lebanon, the fighting in and around Tripoli in north Lebanon and the general unrest in the remainder of the country resulted in movements of the refugee population, damage and destruction to property and facilities, and unemployment among the refugees. The greatly increased relief operation described in the last report thus continued throughout most of the present reporting period. It is described in more detail in chapter I.

120. In the West Bank, the relief services continued to be interrupted over the past year by local unrest, as a result of which one refugee was reported killed and 28 wounded by Israeli soldiers or armed Israeli civilians.

121. The position of the 4,350 refugees who were left stranded in the Egyptian sector of Rafah as a result of the re-establishment in April 1982 of the border between the Sinai and the Gaza Strip remains unchanged. The majority are unemployed and living in hardship. With the co-operation of the Egyptian and Israeli Governments, food and blankets are distributed to these refugees and they receive some schooling and health care. But these are interim measures which cannot continue indefinitely. The Agency understands that, within the accords prior to Israel's withdrawal from Egyptian territory, an agreement had been reached between Egypt and Israel that the refugees should be relocated in the Gaza Strip. The agency further understands that this is one of a number of bilateral issues still outstanding between the two Governments, which the Agency is anxious to see concluded so that the refugees again have free access to UNRWA’s facilities and services.

122. General Assembly resolution 38/83 C and its predecessors request the Agency to provide humanitarian assistance, as far as practicable, on an emergency basis and as a temporary measure to persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities but who are not registered with UNRWA as refugees. The relief operation in Lebanon was extended to non-registered Palestinians who sought help. At the request of the Jordanian Government, the Agency has continued to distribute rations in Jordan on the Government's behalf to some 193,000 persons, and to provide schooling, supplementary feeding, milk, and medical, sanitation and other camp services to those residing in the post-1967 refugee camps. The Government reimburses the Agency for the cost of supplies used in the supplementary feeding and milk programmes and the cost of distributing basic rations to displaced persons.

1.  Eligibility and registration

123. The number of refugees registered with the Agency on 30 June 1984 was 2,034,314, compared with 1,957,061 on 30 June 1983. The eligibility of refugees for Agency services is continually monitored to the extent possible.

124. There are two categories of registration for refugees: one for those who are eligible for all Agency services and the other for those who, mainly because of income, are eligible for very few services.

125. In i982, the Agency decided to provide all refugees with individual registration cards. Previously, registration cards were issued to the head of the family only. The individual cards are intended to reassure the refugees that the suspension of the basic ration in the autumn of 1982 will not somehow deprive them of their recognition by the international community as Palestine refugees, with certain rights acknowledged by General Assembly resolutions. There are also practical considerations: when two or more family members simultaneously need Agency services at different places, they can use their personal cards to prove eligibility, rather than taking turns to use a single family card. Between October 1983 and June 1984, more than 283,000 of the 410,745 registered refugees in the Gaza Strip requested an individual card and received one.  In the Syrian Arab Republic, cards had been given to more than 50 per cent of the registered refugee population when the Syrian Government requested the Agency to cease issuing them. The Jordanian Government made strong representations to the Agency against issuing the cards in east Jordan and the West Bank. No cards have been given to the refugees in either place, and only a few Agency staff members in Jordan. No attempt has been made so far to issue the cards in Lebanon, because of the security situation there.

2.  Rations

126. In its decision 36/462 of 16 March 1982, the General Assembly, inter alia, called upon Governments and organizations making contributions in kind to UNRWA either to give cash instead or to allow UNRWA to sell the contributions for cash. The Agency would continue to solicit contributions of foodstuffs sufficient to meet the needs of the hardship cases, the supplementary feeding programme and catering at the residential vocational and teacher-training centres) but the basic ration programme, which offered only a token food supplement mostly to persons who, anyway, were not hardship cases, had the lowest priority among the Agency's programmes and could be phased out if cash resources were correspondingly increased for higher priority services.

127. The need to conserve food stocks to provide aid to the refugee victims of the war in Lebanon accelerated this development, and from September 1982 the Agency ceased to distribute, the basic ration everywhere except to beneficiaries in Lebanon.

128. General Assembly resolution 38/83 F of 15 December 1983, which also called upon all Governments to offer the necessary resources, requested the Commissioner-General "to resume on a continuing basis the interrupted general ration distribution to Palestine refugees in all fields". Given the efforts to implement General Assembly decision 36/462 and the lack of sufficient resources, it has not been possible for the Agency to comply with this resolution.

129. The Agency nevertheless continued to provide emergency food aid to some 158,750 registered and non-registered Palestine refugees in Lebanon and to registered refugees from Lebanon who were displaced in the Syrian Arab Republic until the end of March 1984. A further 36,085 registered refugees who were affected by the fighting in and around Tripoli were given food aid for a period of two months at the end of 1983.

130. In addition, an average of 24,000 refugees in Lebanon who were considered to be in special need were treated as hardship cases and received food aid and other assistance throughout the reporting period.

131. Flood rations continue to be distributed to the hardship cases, which include widows, orphans, the aged, the physically and mentally handicapped and the chronically sick. They also receive blankets, clothing, token cash aid, cash grants for self-support projects, assistance in the repair or reconstruction of shelters and Preferential access to vocational and teacher training. Needy persons must apply for this assistance, which is given after verification (and periodic re-verification) by Agency staff, following strict criteria, that the family has quite inadequate means. The level of Agency support still leaves hardship case families dependent on relatives and neighbors. After the general ration distribution was suspended, the Agency made a public commitment to develop its assistance to the destitute, but the extent to which it will be able to make that commitment good depends largely on additional resources becoming available.

132. By the end of June 1984, the programme of assistance to hardship cases was benefiting 97,213 destitute persons Agency-wide:

The relatively high percentage of destitute refugees in Lebanon is readily explained by the ravages of war and devastation of the economy. In Jordan, the Agency believes that the very much more favorable economic situation has enabled most refugees to find work and support themselves.

133. In 1983, persons registered as hardship cases received, by Field, the following:

3. Camps and shelters

134. The population of the 61 refugee camps has increased from 733,270 to 763,773 since June 1983. The registered refugees living in camps represented 35.23 per cent of the registered refugee population, varying from 55.25 per cent in the Gaza Strip to only 25.45 per cent in the West Bank. UNRWA provides services to Palestine refugees whether they live in camps or not.

135. The camps were constructed on Government land or on private land made available (with one or two minor exceptions) by the host Governments, which remain responsible for the maintenance of law and order and similar governmental functions as part of their normal responsibilities towards the population within their borders. It is desirable to distinguish between three categories of buildings in camps: installations constructed or rented by the Agency (for example, schools, clinics and stores), which are in the possession of the Agency and used by it for the purpose indicated; shelters (huts) constructed by the Agency, which are the dwellings of and in the possession of refugees, who have maintained them in repair and in many cases added to and improved them; and houses and other buildings constructed and occupied or otherwise used by refugees (or others), for some of which the Agency might at most have given some assistance at the time they were constructed. It should be noted, too, that some camps contain large numbers of persons who are not registered refugees or even registered camp inhabitants. The camps established on the edges of towns have in the course of time tended to merge with the towns and to be indistinguishable from other parts of them.

136. Absolutely essential maintenance of Agency buildings and installations continues to be done, but much important maintenance work (for example, external painting and road repair) has not been carried out because of lack of funds. This postponement adds to the problems in the following financial year, when the maintenance required might well be more serious and costs have risen.

137. The Agency assisted 328 families registered as special hardship cases in repairing or reconstructing their camp shelters during 1983 at a cost of $130,018.

138. Many self-help projects were completed, with the Agency contributing part of the cost and the refugee communities, municipalities or other local sources contributing the remainder in the form of labor, materials or cash. The Governments of Jordan and the Syrian Arab Republic carried out various work projects to improve living conditions and facilities in the camps (see paras. 104 and 105).

139. In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli authorities demolished the shelters of 35 families (211 persons) on the borders of the Beach camp (see para. 184). Some of the families had built their shelters here after their original shelters were demolished by the authorities in 1971 (see para. 140). The Agency has made representations to the authorities on behalf of these families on humanitarian grounds, in an effort to obtain accommodation for them, but so far to no avail.

140. Details of the housing situation of the 2,554 refugee families whose shelters were demolished by the Israeli occupation authorities in the Gaza Strip in 1971 are given in the Secretary-General’s report to the General Assembly (A/39/457). Some of these refugees are among those who have moved into new housing projects developed by the Israeli authorities. Other refugees have purchased plots of land in these housing developments and built their own homes. But UNRWA is concerned for the families still living in unsatisfactory conditions, many of whom were reported last year (para. 117) to be in real hardship. After lengthy discussions with the authorities, the Agency was asked to provide up-to-date information on these 88 families and a comprehensive review of their living conditions has been carried out. The survey found that 23 families were living in wretched accommodation, 18 families were unsatisfactorily housed, 37 were in satisfactory circumstances, nine had purchased land and built houses in government projects, and one family had died. The authorities have agreed to try to do something towards re-housing the remaining hardship cases, but maintain the position that they have no further obligation towards the other families.

141. In the year under review, according to UNRWA records, 748 refugee families (4,594 persons) moved to 550 plots of land in Israeli Government-sponsored housing projects, which they had purchased or (in the case of eight of the families) received as compensation. The Agency acknowledges that the accommodation provided in the projects is superior to the shelters in which these families were formerly living, and therefore supports voluntary moves, although it is disturbed that some refugees may be motivated by apprehension (see para. 184). Moreover, the overall shortage of housing for refugees in the Gaza Strip persists, partly because families moving from camps into the housing projects are required by the Israeli authorities to demolish the rooms they previously occupied. In the year under review, 1,063 rooms were demolished for this reason and were therefore not available to re-house families living in over-crowded conditions who do not have the financial means to move into the housing projects.

142. The punitive demolition by the Israeli authorities of refugee shelters in the West Bank and south Lebanon is reported in paragraphs 178 and 187.

143. Hardship has been caused to the refugee population in the West Bank, particularly the aged and the very young, by the curfews imposed by the Israeli authorities on camps and by the barricading of entrances (see also para. 177).

4.  Welfare

144. There are now 26,036 families registered with UNRWA as hardship cases, comprising 97,213 persons. Small cash grants totaling $267,190 were given to 66,203 persons, while assistance in other forms was given to 50,381 persons.  Welfare workers helped solve individual and family problems through counseling and guidance. Artificial limbs and other prosthetic devices were given to 612 handicapped refugees, while 32 destitute persons, 153 old people and 43 orphans were placed in institutions, most of them free of charge. Voluntary agencies donated 100 tons of used clothing to UNRWA for distribution to refugee welfare cases. And 253 destitute families were helped to repair or reconstruct their shelters (not including Lebanon, on which see chapter I).

145. Pre-school  activities for children are directed to the particular needs, of the three– to six-year-olds and aim to develop their potential through play periods supervised by, trained, teachers. There, are 51 centres serving 4,816 children. The American Friends' Service Committee obtained funding for 16 UNRWA-operated centres in the Gaza Strip, including one in the Egyptian sector of Rafah (see para. 121); the Holy Land Christian Mission finances and operates seven in the West Bank, and the United Kingdom Save the children Fund runs three in Lebanon. The remaining centres are financed either by local groups or other voluntary agencies.

146. Youth activities are carried out in co-operation with the World Alliance of Young Men's Christian Associations in 38 refugee camps. Over the past year, 13,654 young refugees participated, including 1,334 boys under 16 years of age who took part in self-improvement projects and recreational programmes. Twelve self-help projects were completed in camps by the members of youth activities centres.  In the West Bank, five of the centres were closed by the Israeli authorities, four of them throughout the reporting period, and in the Gaza Strip one of the centres was also closed, in both cases for activities regarded as hostile (see para. 181). In the West Bank, the Agency itself closed the Centre at Jalazone for the entire year under review and the Fava’a Centre from 12 February, because of internal disturbances. But at other centres there has been increased interest in the youth activities programme. In the Arroub camp in the West Bank, refugee youngsters have constructed a new centre, which will soon be ready for use) and three new centres have been established under the Agency’s auspices in Jordan (Prince Hassan Quarter, Sukhneh and Madaba). In the West Bank, the Agency also runs three carpentry centres where 48 young refugees who other wise would not receive further education or training are equipped with basic skills during a one-year course.

147. Many of the refugee girls and young women, who are unable to complete formal schooling are nevertheless keen to acquire skills which will enable them to provide more for their families and raise their standard of living. The Agency's women's activities, embroidery and sewing centres are popular for this reason. The 16 women's activities centres offer a varied afternoon programme of instruction in crafts, health education and child care, literacy classes and cultural and sporting activities. Two new centres were opened in the Gaza Strip in the past year, while work was begun on an extension to a third but stopped by the Israeli authorities. A more formal one-year course is offered at the 33 sewing centres in dressmaking, embroidery and knitting, by hand and machine. At the end of the course, which over the past year was followed by 874 young women, the successful graduates are awarded a diploma which helps them obtain employment. In Lebanon, the demand from women for training which will enable them to make money has greatly increased with the loss of normal sources of income (see para. 15).

148. Special training was provided for 133 disabled refugee children to integrate them into the life of their community. Forty-nine of them attended the Centre for the Blind in Gaza, which is operated for refugees by the Agency and financed by the Pontifical Mission for Palestine, and the others were trained at similar specialized institutions in the area.

149. A new programme was introduced in Jordan to help hardship cases to become self-supporting. Funds totaling JD 8,786.540 were granted to 17 families to start carefully studied projects. Five of these families have already been removed from the hardship rolls.

150. A pilot project run with the co-operation and financial support of OXFAM, with the aim of showing the Suf camp community in Jordan how the disabled can be assisted in the community by the community, has been making slow but steady progress. The Agency is now seeking among voluntary organizations a partner to co-operate in a similar scheme in a neighboring camp whose inhabitants have requested it.

E.  Personnel and administrative matters

1.  Changes in the staffing table

151. Over the year there was an increase of 140 posts in the staffing table;

__________

a/ Including one post reimbursed by the Japanese Government.

b/ See annex I, table 8, for details of the distribution of local posts.

152. The total number of staff occupying these posts is presently 16,931. Women represented 14.6 per cent of international staff and 35.1 per cent of local staff, compared with 18.4 per cent and 34.6 per cent respectively a year ago.

153. Of the 103 UNRWA international posts, 6 are funded from the Agency's own budget and 5 by non-governmental organizations (the Norwegian Refugee Council, Redd Barna and the United Kingdom Save the Children Fund). The latter posts were established to assist with the emergency operation in Lebanon and they (and their incumbents) will be phased out as operations in Lebanon return to normal.

154. The marginal increase in the number of local posts was due primarily to the employment of additional teachers to match the growth in the school population.

2.  Local staff pay administration

155. With the participation of representatives of the staff and administration, the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) conducted comprehensive pay surveys covering all local staff in the Syrian Arab Republic, the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the teaching staff in Jordan. The ICSC Panel recommended increases in salaries, dependency allowances and interim social security supplements which would have increased the Agency's staff costs by about $23.9 million per annum. Other ICSC recommendations concerning working hour differentials, health insurance and revised eligibility for dependency allowance would have further increased the Agency's staff costs by an additional, $6.1 million, bringing the total annual estimated increase in staff costs to $30 million. The recommended salary increases alone (including the incorporation of the existing cost-of-living allowance into the salary scales) would have cost over $21.6 million.

156. The Commissioner-General expressed serious concern to the Commission that its recommendations did not appear to give sufficient consideration to prevailing conditions of service in the public sector of the local labor markets, despite the fact that the vast majority of employees in these markets who perform jobs similar to those in UNRWA are found in the public sector. The Commissioner-General recognizes that the Agency's staff are its most valuable asset and must be treated fairly and equitably. However, he could not justify to the Agency's contributors or the refugees remuneration levels substantially higher than those applicable to most other employees in the outside local labor market who do similar work.

157. A further analysis of the survey data, made by the UNRWA administration with the assistance of the ICSC secretariat, resulted in revised pay lines which give more appropriate consideration to the public sector. The estimated annual cost of the salary scales constructed from these pay lines is $16.7 million $4.9 million less than the scales recommended by the ICSC Panel.

158. On the basis of the ICSC Panel's recommendations and the UNRWA administration's further analysis of the survey data, the Commissioner-General is convinced that significant improvements in conditions of service are both justified and necessary, to maintain comparability with the prevailing conditions of service in similar occupations in the local labor markets. He has therefore authorized increased in salaries, dependency allowances and interim social security supplements which will cost $18.8 million per annum ($5.1 million per annum less than the estimated $23.9 million cost of the ICSC Panel's recommendations). In response to the other ICSC recommendations, the Agency has adjusted working hours to reduce the impact of working hour differentials and has deferred consideration of revised health insurance premiums and eligibility for dependency allowances. This has reduced the estimated annual cost for these items from $6.1 million (the cost of the ICSC recommendations) to $2.2 million. In total, the increases authorized by the Commissioner-General will cost about $21 million per annum, i.e. some $9 million less than the ICSC recommendations.

159. Because the Agency could not have made improvements of this magnitude in 1984 without substantially reducing services and staff, the Commissioner-General decided to introduce pay increases in two installments. The first installment was included in the June 1984 payroll, back-dated to 1 November 1983, at an estimated annual cost of $12 million. The second installment will be introduced on 1 January 1985, at an estimated additional cost of $9.4 million per annum.

160. The Agency's staff unions and ICSC have been critical of the Commissioner-General's decision to set improved conditions of service which do not fully reflect the recommendations of the ICSC Panel and ICSC has informed the Commissioner-General that it can no longer conduct salary surveys for UNRWA. Nevertheless, the Commissioner-General is satisfied that his decisions will result in the staff being paid at the rates prevailing in the labor markets in which the Agency operates.

161. In addition to these comprehensive pay surveys, the Agency has engaged the consulting actuaries to the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund to make a detailed study of social security systems in the Middle East to determine what modifications, if any, might be appropriate to the Agency's separation benefits package to maintain overall conditions of service for UNRWA's locally-recruited staff which reflect the prevailing conditions in the local labor market. The consultant's report is expected in mid-August 1984.

3.  Staff training and development

162. Over the past years, increased attention has been given to staff development through training. With the assistance of consultants on loan from the Canadian Government, an assessment has been made of the skills required for greater effectiveness in middle and senior management positions; in-house courses are being held in the application of supervisory and work simplification techniques; and more staff have been sent on selected management courses offered by other institutions. A number of locally recruited staff are receiving English language training.

163. Additionally, training in specific professional areas is given to teaching and medical staff of the Departments of Education and Health, with the help of UNESCO and W40 fellowships, and to welfare staff of the Department of Relief Services. Staff members generally are encouraged to study for higher academic and professional qualifications, particularly where these are of direct relevance to the Agency's work, in which case financial assistance may be provided in the form of scholarships and special leave with pay.

F.  Legal matters

1.  Agency staff

164. The number of staff members arrested and detained by the local authorities in the period under review 4/ was somewhat smaller than in the previous year, but was nonetheless cause for concern, particularly where no charge has been brought:

165. In November 1983, the Israeli Defense Force in Lebanon released most of the staff in their custody, although there have since been a number of arrests (and re-arrests) and releases. At present, there are three staff in detention, two of whom have been in detention for over two years and removed from Lebanon to Israel. In UNRWA's view this action of the Israeli authorities is contrary to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, 1946, and the Fourth Geneva Convention, 1949.

166. With the exception of certain of the employees held by the Lebanese authorities, the Agency has bad no success in obtaining access to its staff members while they are in detention. Nor do Governments or the other authorities concerned provide adequate and timely information on the reasons for the arrest and detention of Agency staff. As has been reported in previous years, in the absence of sufficient information, the Agency is unable to ascertain whether the staff members' official functions are involved, or to ensure that the rights and duties flowing from the United Nations Charter, the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, 1946, and UNRWA's pertinent regulations are given proper effect.

167. Last year's report (para. 158) 5/ referred to the request by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the Government of Israel to reconsider its position that it was, in effect, for the Government itself to determine whether a charge against a staff member related to an official or unofficial act on his part. The Secretary-General had reaffirmed the organization's own right to determine this. There has been no response to the request.

168. On 29 March 1984, the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic, without giving any reason, required the Director of UNRWA Affairs in the Syrian Arab Republic to leave the country within 48 hours. The Commissioner-General immediately protested against the action as being contrary to the provisions of the United Nations Charter, the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, 1946, and the exchange of letters in August 1967 between the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Syria and the Secretary-General) and called upon the Government of Syria to reverse the decision and to give the reasons for its action. To date no response has been received. The Agency's Field Director left Damascus on 31 March 1984. The Secretary-General of the United Nations has conveyed to the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic his deep concern and has expressed the earnest hope that the Syrian authorities will give the most serious consideration to the issues raised in this case.

169. The difficulties in securing full recognition of first arrival privileges for expatriate area staff in Jordan (referred to in paragraph 160 of last year's report) 5/ have still not been resolved.

170. The Agency has continued to face problems in Jordan as a result of Agency staff being called upon to perform military service. One staff member was sentenced to a month's imprisonment for his failure to do so. The Agency has reiterated that its staff are exempt from military service, but the Government has responded that all Jordanian citizens must comply, without exception.

171. There has been no progress over the removal of the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on the duty travel of UNRWA staff to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, mentioned in paragraph 161 of last year's report. 5/ The Agency has pursued with the Syrian authorities the matter of their denying entry and exit visas in the United Nations laissez-passers to locally recruited Syrian and Palestinian staff members in the Syrian Arab Republic who are required to undertake duty travel. No progress can be reported.

172. The difficulties UNRWA has encountered with regard to the interrogation of its staff members by the Israeli authorities in the West Bank have eased. On the other hand, the authorities'  practice  in the Gaza Strip (mentioned in paragraph 162 of last year's report) 5/ of summoning some staff for interrogation on several consecutive days, often during Agency working hours, has continued. In the absence of other information, UNRWA regards this practice as a punitive measure, quite apart from its disruptive effect on the Agency's operations, and has on several occasions conveyed its concern to the authorities.

173. The protection of staff in Lebanon continued to be a source of concern to the Agency (as did that of refugees generally – see paras. 30-32). A senior area staff member, who had earlier been threatened by a group calling itself the "Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners", had his apartment made uninhabitable as a result of two successive attacks, in one of which an Agency vehicle parked outside was also destroyed. At each stage, the Agency called upon the Israeli forces to investigate the matter, to prevent further attacks and to ensure the protection of United Nations personnel and property.

174. In June 1984, two international staff members in Beirut received anonymous threats of death if they did not immediately leave the country. The threats could not be ignored, and the staff members were evacuated. The Lebanese authorities have been duly informed. The Agency views this matter with utmost concern, as its ability to operate in Lebanon depends on all staff, including international staff, being allowed to function without intimidation.

175. For the first time since its inception, the Agency has established a special panel of adjudicators under the terms of Area Staff Regulations 11.1 and 11.2, to rule on appeals against administrative decisions or disciplinary action.

2.  Agency services and premises

176. Curfews imposed by the Israeli authorities in the West Bank in the reporting period mostly lasted a few hours with little effect on the Agency's operations. The longest curfew was four days, from 13 to 17 November 1983 at the Dheisheh camp, where essential services were nevertheless maintained.

177. However, further serious hardship has been caused to camp residents in the West Bank – and to the Agency in carrying out its services, especially in the removal of garbage and the voiding of septic tanks – because entrances to the Arroub, Dheisheh and Kalandia camps have been blocked with bricks and cement by the Israeli authorities. In July, the barricade previously constructed at the main entrance to the Kalandia camp was strengthened. A road newly opened by the Agency at Dheisheh camp was closed from November until the end of May. Some of the paths to the main streets in Jalazone and Askar camps were also blocked, the latter until the end of May 1984. These actions followed stone-throwing incidents. The costs of the barricades at Askar camp have been imposed on the refugee families living nearby.

178. Rooms in eight shelters in Aida and Jalazone camps and part of one shelter unit in the Balata camp were sealed by the Israeli authorities as punitive measures against families for hostile acts said to have been committed by one or other of their members. The Agency has taken up these matters with the Israeli authorities.

179. The military authorities responded to stone-throwing at vehicles by children and trainees  at Kalandia by  closing the Kalandia Vocational Training Centre for 48 days from 1 November 1983 and the Kalandia Girls' School for 60 days from 2 November 1983. Similar incidents resulted in closure of the Jalazone Boys' and Girls' Schools for 25 days. To discourage such incidents, the Agency has increased the height of the wall/fences of the Kalandia Vocational Training Centre and of the Girls' School and other installations on the opposite side of the road at Kalandia Camp. Because of further stone-throwing incidents in May and June, the Agency erected additional fencing and made other reinforcements around the schools and other installations. It plans to do more during the summer vacation.

180 Israeli troops have again entered UNRWA premises in the Gaza Strip in violation of the Agency’s privileges and immunities. On one occasion, troops entered the clearly identified Field Office compound, by climbing over the gate in order to take photographs, from the Field Office roof, of demonstrators in nearby premises, but left shortly after having been requested to do so. On another occasion, troops entered an UNRWA school and used it for several hours for the interrogation of students, after an incident in which a hand grenade was thrown in the road outside the school. The situation was exacerbated by several 11-year-old pupils being slapped on their faces during interrogation. The incidents were taken up with the military authorities and assurances sought that they would not be repeated.

181. Four youth activities centres in the West Bank are still closed at the instance of the Israeli authorities: Kalandia since 13 December 1981, Dheisheh since 16 April l982,  Balata since 24 February 1983, and Aida since 11 March 1983. The centre at Fawwar reopened on 14 June 1984. In the Gaza Strip, the Rafah youth activities centre has been closed by the Israeli authorities since 18 August 1983 (see para. 146).

182. Difficulties which have arisen with the Israeli authorities in the Gaza Strip as a result of their interference with the Agency's building activities have been reported in previous years (see para. 167 of last year's report). 5/  The Israeli authorities have invoked local legislation of 1960, relating to the clearance of construction projects. The Agency has argued that this legislation is not applicable to UNRWA, a position explicitly confirmed by the Government of Egypt, which introduced it. The question of principle has not been resolved, although there has been progress through practical arrangements by which the Agency co-ordinates new construction projects with the Israeli authorities, without subordinating its operations to outside control.

183. While the majority of construction projects are now going ahead, however, the clearance of 24 classrooms to avoid triple-shifting has been outstanding for three months, even though the Israeli authorities have assured the Agency that the matter is being viewed favorably. Various other projects, mainly community-funded school facilities and work at youth activities centres, are still being held up by the authorities, who have given two reasons for their objections. One relates to the source of funds, which they believe is the Palestine Liberation Organization; the other is their dislike of youth activities centres, which they regard as potential focal points for political activity against them. The Agency believes that the local community should be encouraged to fund school projects rather than rely solely on UNRWA) and that youth activities centres are among the few places where young men can channel their energies into healthy pursuits rather than drift around the streets of overcrowded camps. Funds for the latter projects are provided from the Agency's headquarters at Vienna. Discussions are continuing with the Israeli authorities on these areas of current disagreement. Meanwhile, contracts which have been stopped by the authorities have given rise to claims by contractors, which UNRWA in turn has referred to the Israeli authorities.

184. There has been considerable apprehension in the refugee community in the Gaza Strip over the demolition of shelters, heightened by the demolition by the Israeli authorities of 73 private rooms in Beach camp belonging to 35 families of over 200 persons. The authorities claimed that the constructions were contravention’s of building regulations and that they had been built outside the boundaries of the camp, on state-owned land. In Rafah camp, the authorities marked for demolition a number of shelters also alleged to be contraventions. During bulldozing, a child was killed and the demolition was discontinued. The Agency has been informed by the authorities on several occasions, that new security roads were under construction, which would mean more shelters being scheduled for demolition. About 35 shelters in Nuseirat camp were marked with red for unknown reasons. All these and related press reports have provoked increased fears in the refugee community. The Secretary-General's report on Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip (A/39/457) provides further details. (See also paras. 139-141.)

185. Paragraph 160 of last year's report 5/ referred to an Agency school in Tyre which the Israeli forces had occupied after the invasion of south Lebanon in June 1982, for the return of which the Agency had been pressing. In November 1983, the building was almost completely destroyed by a truckful of explosives driven into the courtyard. The Agency is pursuing with the Israeli authorities the return of the site to the Agency and has also submitted a claim for the Value of the building.

186. The Agency has had other problems also with the occupation of its premises in Lebanon. For example, a school in Shatila camp was occupied first by a unit of the multinational forces stationed in Beirut And later, by a unit of the Lebanese army. (Restoring the premises to a usable condition on their return has-Added to the Agency’s expenses.) More critically, the Siblin Training Centre has been occupied since September by militiamen of the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party, (PSP). Bedding, kitchen and other utensils were taken from the Centre in October. Between 19 and 22 January, some 200 shells caused much damage to buildings on the lower campus of the Centre, which lies on a strategic hill, over looking the coast road. Representations have been made to the PSP leadership but without success. (See also paras. 5 and 60.)

187. As a punitive measure, the Israeli forces in south Lebanon demolished two refugee shelters in Burj el-Shemali camp and one in Ein el-Hilweh, camp, in September. The demolitions also caused damage to the walls of adjacent shelters. The Agency formally protested against these demolitions to the Israeli authorities, assisted the refugees to reconstruct the shelters and presented a claim for compensation to the Israeli authorities.

188. In may 1984, there were other serious incidents in the Ein el-Hilweh camp, when Israeli military personnel surrounded and searched certain refugee shelters. During this operation, a demolition charge was exploded without warning, causing grave injuries to three refugees and minor injuries to several others. Eight shelters were seriously damaged and 19 shelters slightly damaged. Despite earlier assurances of prompt access in such situations, UNRWA staff were frustrated in their efforts to reach the Israeli military authorities. A senior Agency official was barred from entry to the Israeli Defense Force Liaison Office in Saida and was told that the officer on duty had refused to see him. Agency officials were also unable to contact the IDF Headquarters at the telephone numbers given to them for this purpose. This inability to make contact with Israeli military authorities in a situation of emergency is a matter of grave concern to the Agency, which has protested against these developments and called upon the Israeli Government to take appropriate steps to ensure that UNRWA staff can have speedy access to the appropriate Israeli military officials as the need arises. There has subsequently been some improvement.

189. In Jordan, some Agency schools were used by the Government as centres for registration of voters and later as polling booths. The Agency has protested against such use of its installations and is unable to accept by way of explanation that the Government was obliged to use the premises because of the non-availability of public buildings in the camps.

3.  Claims against Governments

190. By resolution 38/83 I of 15 December 1983, the General Assembly called upon Israel to compensate the Agency for the loss and damage caused to its property and facilities resulting from the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. A claim is now being presented to Israel in the amount of $4,381,867. Concurrently, another claim is also being presented to Israel covering loss and damage caused to the Agency in the course of Israeli military action in Lebanon before June 1982, in the amount of $194,901.

191. The Agency has not succeeded, despite continuing efforts, in obtaining from the Government of Israel an indication as to whether it has completed examination of the Agency's claim's lodged in 1969, arising out of the 1967 hostilities.

192. Nor is the Agency able to report any progress with regard to claims against the Jordanian Government.

CHAPTER III

FINANCING UNRWA OPERATIONS

A.  Regular financial operations 1983

193. UNRWA's  income and  expenditure against  the 1983  regular budget is summarized below: 6/

B.  Financing the Lebanon emergency relief operation

194. The emergency relief operation in Lebanon has been budgeted and accounted for separately from the Agency's regular programmes. A number of special appeals were made to cover the costs involved. The following is a summary of the financing of the operation from June 1982 to March 1984:

___________

a/ Excluding $256,921 which represents part-pledges not received and now written off.

The shortfall in income has been met by the diversion of stocks and cash from the Agency's regular programmes.

C.  Lebanon emergency reconstruction programme, phase I

195. On 24 June 1983, the commissioner-General launched an appeal for funds to finance the reconstruction of Agency installations and camp infrastructure and to enable refugees living in camps to rehabilitate their housing. In this phase, only work which the Agency expected to start immediately and hoped to complete over the following months was included (see para. 177 of the 1982-1983 annual report). 5/

196. The following is a summary to 30 June 1984 of the financing of the programme, which has also been budgeted and accounted for separately from the Agency's regular operations:

(For information on the implementation of the programme see paras. 24-29.)

D.  Revised regular budget for 1984

197. The original budget estimates for 1984 were presented in chapter III of the 1982-1983 annual report. 5/ As at June 1984, those estimates have been revised from $233 million to $235.1 million, an increase of $2.1 million. This increase results from the need to pay $1.1 million more than expected to locally-recruited staff (see paras. 155-160), as well as increased hospital subsidies (an additional $0.5 million) and miscellaneous rises in costs Agency-wide ($0.5 million).

E.  Proposed regular budget for 1985

198. The budget proposed for UNRWA's regular programmes in 1985 is $258.2 million an increase of $23.1 million (10 per cent) over the 1984 budget. This arises from an increase of $27.2 million in recurrent costs, which is partly offset by a reduction of $4.1 million in non-recurrent costs.

199. The budget proposed for recurrent expenditure in 1985 is $231 million, compared with $203.8 million for 1984. The increase of $27.2 million provides for the following: normal programme increases ($1.4 million, reduced to $0.7 million by savings), mainly for education services as a result of the natural growth in school population; normal salary increments ($3.6 million); other staff costs ($18.5 million, of which $9.4 million is for the cost in 1985 of a second installment of pay and other improvements for locally- recruited staff (see para. 159), and $9.1 million is a further consequence of continued inflation); improvements in services ($2.5 million), and continued inflation in non-staff costs ($2 million, including increased hospital subsidies). On the assumption that there will be no significant variations in present currency exchange rates, no material exchange losses (or gains) are expected to occur in 1985. Accordingly no particular provision is made for exchange losses in 1985, as normal day to day fluctuations in market rates can be absorbed, and the movements tend to cancel each other out.

200. The budget proposed for non-recurrent expenditure in 1985 is $27.2 million, compared with $31.3 million budgeted for 1984. It provides for the followings: replacement of unserviceable vehicles and equipment ($l.7 million); classrooms for additional pupils ($1 million)); urgently needed capital replacements, additions and improvements, particularly in education, shelter, medical and environmental sanitation facilities (319.3 million)) and for increases in the provisions for local staff separation benefits ($5 million, of which $2.3 million represent the cost of outstanding ICSC recommendations on pay and allowances) and repatriation costs ($0.2 million) (see also paras. 211 and 212).

201. The provision for increased staff costs calls for a word of explanation. The greater part of the Agency's assistance to the Palestine refugees takes the form of personal services, particularly those provided by teachers, and health workers. For this reason, staff costs make up by far the largest item of expenditure in the Agency's budget (an estimated 71 per cent in both 1984 and 1985). Consequently, the effects of high inflation on staff costs have a big impact on the total budget.

202. This apart, the Agency again foresees an increase in the number of staff, mainly because the growing number of school children requires more teachers and supervisors.

203. In 1985, education services will account for about 66 per cent of the total budget, compared with 22 per cent for health services, 10 per cent for relief services and 2 per cent for other costs. (Comparable figures for the 1984 budget are 64 per cent for education services, 20 per cent for health services, 10 per cent for relief services and 6 per cent for other costs.)

204. The recurrent budget for education services provides for continuation of the Agency's general education programme and the vocational, technical and pre-service teacher-training courses conducted in Agency centres, including an allowance for a natural growth in the population served by these programmes.  Some vocational training outside UNRWA centres and other minor activities are also budgeted under education services, as are scholarships at universities in or near the Agency's area of operations The budget for non-recurrent costs provides for construction and equipment of classrooms to replace unsuitable premises and to avoid triple-shifting; additional multi-purpose rooms, school libraries and science laboratories; extraordinary maintenance and structural repairs to older schools and other buildings; and capital improvements at Agency training centres.

205. The proposed budget for health services, embracing the medical care, supplementary feeding and environmental sanitation programmes, provides for some improvement and expansion of existing services to cater for the basic needs of a slightly larger refugee population in 1985. The Agency has always tried to ensure that its health services do not fall below the level of those provided by host Governments for their own citizens. With the rapid increase in hospital costs and in the cost of supplies, utilities and staff required for UNRWA's own health centres, the Agency continues to find it extremely difficult to achieve this objective. The environmental sanitation programme allows only for the minimum expenditure needed to maintain essential community sanitation and water supply services at reasonably safe levels in the refugee camps.

206. Staff and other health service costs are expected to increase in 1985, mainly because of inflation; a few more staff will also be required. The budget provides for the essential replacement of equipment in medical, supplementary feeding and camp sanitation installations, and for highly desirable improvements in facilities (including sewage disposal and water supply systems and construction of health. Centres and supplementary feeding centres). Camp sanitation improvement schemes also include self-help projects, in which the refugees take part with the Agency.

207. The budget for relief services, comprising shelter, assistance to the destitute and welfare programmes, foresees the continuation of services in 1985 at the same level as in 1984, except for a further modest expansion of the special hardship programme ($1.3 million). Given that staff costs will also rise, recurrent costs are expected to be slightly higher than in the previous year. If the Agency could afford it, it would give priority to improving its aid to the destitute, which remains inadequate.

208. The estimates for non-recurrent relief costs are mainly for improvements in housing and roads, replacement of essential equipment, sewing centre renovations and Agency contributions to self-help projects.

209. The overall support, services and overhead activities which serve the operational programmes are grouped under common costs. These costs fall under three main headings as follows:

(a) Supply and transport services, covering the procurement, control and warehousing of supplies and equipment, port operations, and passenger and freight transport within the Agency's area of operations;

(b) General administration, covering administration services at Agency headquarters at Vienna and Amman, in the five Field Offices (including subordinate area and camp services offices), the Liaison Offices in New York and Cairo, and the public information services;

(c) Other internal services, covering personnel and administrative services) translation, legal, financial and data processing services; internal and external audit services) technical (architectural and engineering) services) and protective services.

210. The summary tables, of the budget estimates, which follow paragraph 215 below, allocate these common costs to the three main categories of Agency services (education, health and relief) on the basis of a detailed study of current Agency operations in all offices, from which they are extracted as weighted averages.

211. Other costs in the 1985 budget are estimated at about $6.2 million, compared with $13.9 million for 1984. Of this, $1 million will cover the recurrent staff costs still being incurred in the winding down of the basic ration programme. An estimated $5.2 million for non-recurrent costs comprises one-time adjustments in the provision for local staff separation benefits ($5 million in 1985 compared with $12.3 million in 1984) in line with pay increases, and an increase in the provision for the eventual return of local staff from Vienna and Amman to Beirut ($0.2 million).

212. Attention must be drawn to an under-provision in the budget. The growth of the separation benefits payable to its 17,000 staff has out-stripped the Agency's ability to provide for these benefits. If the Agency suddenly stopped operations for lack of income or any other cause, all these staff would be entitled to receive their benefits, presently valued at $70 million, for which no funds have been set aside to date.

213. In view of this burden on UNRWA's financial availability, the Commissioner-General suggested during the thirty-sixth session of the General Assembly that the contingent liability for separation benefits in the event of mass redundancies should be placed on the regular, budget of the United Nations. The Commissioner-General’s suggestion has not been adopted. It is therefore clear that, in the event of UNRWA's mandate not being extended or if the Agency ceases operations for some other reason, a special termination budget will be required and will need to be separately funded.

214. Attention must also be drawn to the existence of certain other material liabilities which are not included in these budget estimates:

(a) The cost of improvements in staff separation and other social security benefit's expected as a result of comparison of these benefits with the outside market, in a review being conducted by consulting actuaries to the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund. As the consultants’ report is still awaited, it is not yet possible to assess the costs involved.

(b)   Provision for the purchase of annuities for the dependent spouses of staff members who die in service, at a cost not yet determined but which could be $3 million for existing cases.

F.  Summary of regular budget estimates, 1984 and 1985

215. The following tables present in summary form the budget estimates for the 1985 regular programmes together with comparative data on the revised budget for 1984. Table A shows the estimates of recurrent costs, table B the estimates of non-recurrent costs and table C the estimates of total costs.

Table A

Recurrent costs

(Thousands of United States dollars)

G.  Funding the regular budget, 1984 and 1985

216.  UNRWA's budget is made up of expenditure in cash and kind which relates to current operations and covers part of the growth in certain contingent liabilities on which expenditure can be deferred so long as there is no mass separation of staff.  Deducting the deferred cash costs from the Agency's budget reduces the immediate funding requirement. The cash needs, after allowing for expected contributions in kind and contributions from United Nations organizations, are as follows:

___________

These net cash needs indicate the level at which UNRWA must appeal to the international community for voluntary contributions in cash to continue its programmes at existing levels.

217. A further important factor determining the Agency’s capacity to meet its current liabilities is the level of the cash balance at any time. As at 30 June 1984, the Agency had received 46.8 per cent of cash income pledged for 1984, although by 31 December it is estimated that all but 3 per cent will have been received. Timely receipt of contributions is essential and the situation will be most critical in November and December 1984, when a short term cash crisis could occur it contributions are not paid when expected.

Notes

1/ For further details, see the report of the Commissioner-General to the Special Political Committee on 18 November 1983 (A/SPC/38/PV.34).

2/ The Director of UNRWA Operations, Gaza, acts also as UNRWA Representative to Egypt.

3/ Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-eighth Session, Supplement No.13  (A/38/13), para. 43.

4/ See also the report Of the Secretary-General on respect for the privileges and immunities of officials of the United Nations and the specialized and related organizations to be submitted to the General Assembly under resolution 38/230.

5/ Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-eighth Session, Supplement No.13 (A/38/13).

6/ UNRWA's accounts for 1983, together with the corresponding report of the Board of Auditors, will be submitted to the General Assembly at its thirty-ninth session (see Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-ninth Session, Supplement No. SC (A/39/5/ Add.3)). In the present report, further details are given in tables 10-12 of annex I.

7/ Recurrent costs include salaries, supplies, rents, subsidies and other continuing costs, non-recurrent costs include construction and equipment and other items not regularly incurred.

Annex I

STATISTICAL INFORMATION*

Table

1. Number of registered persons (as at 30 June each year)

2. Distribution of registered population (as at 30 June 1984)

Chart 1: Age distribution of Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA

(as at 31 December 1983)

3. Distribution of refugee pupils receiving education in

UNRWA schools (as at end October 1983)

Chart 2: Growth of UNRWA school population, elementary and preparatory cycles, 1950-1984

4. Training places in UNRWA training centres (academic year 1983/1984)

5. University scholarship holders by faculty and country of study (academic year 1983/1984)

6. Medical care services (as at 30 June 1984)

Chart 3: Communicable diseases Agency-wide, 1967-1983

7. Number of beneficiaries of UNRWA food aid programmes (1 July 1983-

30 June 1984)

Chart 4: UNRWA organization (as at 1 May 1984)

8. Distribution of area and international posts (as at 30 June 1984)

9. International and locally-recruited staff (as at 30 June 1984)

10. Summary statement of income and expenditure (1 May 1950-

31 December 1984)

11. Detailed statement of income (1 May 1950-31 December 1984)

____________

* Further statistical information on UNRWA education and health programmes is given in the following UNRWA publications:

(a) UNRWA-UNESCO Department of Education Statistical Yearbook, 1982-1983

(b) Annual Report of the Director of Health, 1983.

For more detailed information on the financing of the Agency's programmes, see the audited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 1983 and Report of the Board of Auditors, (Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-ninth Session, Supplement No. 5C (A/39/5/Add.3).

Table

12. Statement of income from non-governmental sources for the year ended 31 December 1983

13. Lebanon emergency relief programme

(a)  Statement of expenditure and commitments (6 June 1982-31 March 1984)

(b)  Statement of income (6 June 1982-31 March 1984)

14. Reconstruction programme in Lebanon, Phase I: Statement of income (24 June 1983-

30 June 1984)

15. Direct Government assistance to Palestine refugees (1 July 1983-30 June 1984)

Table 1

Number of registered persons a/

(as at 30 June each year)

a/ These statistics are based on UNRWA's registration records which are updated continually. The number of registered refugees present in the Agency’s area of operations, however, is almost certainly less than the population recorded. The Agency's budgeted expenditure is based not on the registration records but on the projected numbers of beneficiaries of its services. In 1983/1984, about 348,000 refugees enrolled in education or training programmes, 1.7 million were eligible for health care and 97,213 destitute persons received special hardship assistance. Additionally, temporary emergency programmes were mounted for about 180,000 refugees in Lebanon and 4,350 stranded in the Egyptian sector of Rafah following the re-establishment of the border between the Sinai and the Gaza Strip.

b/ This total excludes 45,800 persons receiving relief in Israel, who were the responsibility of UNRWA until June 1952.

Table 2

Distribution of registered population

(as at 30 June 1984)

a/ The total camp population is made up as follows:

716 701 registered persons;

13,981 persons who are neither registered persons nor displaced persons.

CHART 1

AGE DISTRIBUTION OF PALESTINE REFUGEES

REGISTERED WITH UNRWA (*)

(AS AT 31 DECEMBER 1983)

records which do not necessarily reflect the actual

population due to factors such as unreported births and

deaths and false and duplicate registrations.  In particular,

some parents do not register their children until they reach

school age.

Table 3

Distribution of refugee pupils receiving education in UNRWA schools a/

(as at end October 1983)

a/ Excluding 98,044 refugee pupils attending elementary, preparatory and secondary government and private schools.

b/ Including non-eligible children attending UNRWA schools, who now number 45,128. Of these, 11,950 are in the Gaza Strip, where all refugee children have always been regarded in practice as eligible for education services.

c/ 1,036 refugee pupils displaced from Lebanon are at present attending UNRWA schools in the Syrian Arab Republic.

d/ In addition, 1,671 refugee children attend 16 pre-school centres served by 51 teachers.

CHART 2

GROWTH OF UNRWA SCHOOL POPULATION

ELEMENTARY AND PREPARATORY CYCLES

1950-1984

Table 4

Training places in UNRWA training centres

(academic year 1983/1984)

a/ Courses are offered in metal, electrical and building trades.

b/ Courses are offered in technical, commercial and para-medical fields.

Table 5

University scholarship holders by faculty and country of study

(academic year 1983/1984)

Notes: In addition, during 1983/84 two scholarships from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) were awarded to refugees in response to an appeal by the General Assembly in its resolution 38/83 D of 15 December 1983. These scholarships were tenable outside the area of operations.

a/ Other countries were Algeria (1 male student), Iraq (1 male and 1 female students), Saudi Arabia (2 male students), South Yemen (1 male student), Sudan (1 male student) and Turkey (1 male student).

Table 6

Medical care services

(as at 30 June 1984)

a/ Includes attendance for medical consultations, injections, dressings and skin and eye treatment.

b/ Consultations are monthly for age group 0-1 year; bi-monthly for age group 1-2 years, and tri-monthly for age group 2-3 years.

CHART 3

COMMUNICABLE DISEASES – AGENCY-WIDE

1967-1983

Table 7

Number of beneficiaries of UNRWA food aid programmes a/

(1 July 1983-30 June 1984)

a/ The figures in this table are average monthly numbers, except for the mid-day meal programme, which is an average daily number.

b/ Average for nine months only.

c/ The basic ration programme ceased on 1 September 1982 in Syria, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank and on 1 November 1982 in Jordan.

d/ As At 30 June 1984.

e/ Distributed in Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic to refugees displaced by the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982. The figures shown are an average for distributions over the year. In the immediate aftermath of the invasion, issues reached a peak of 183,554.

CHART 4

UNRWA ORGANIZATION

1 MAY 1984

Table 8

Distribution of area and international posts

 (as at 30 June 1984)

a/ Area; filled by local recruitment.

b/ International; filled by recruitment by UNRWA, UNESCO or WHO.

c/ Includes 3 posts in Cairo Office.

Table 9

International and locally-recruited staff

(as at 30 June 1984)

A. Internationally-recruited staff

B. Locally-recruited staff

 Note on grades of locally-recruited staff:   This system of grading is specific to UNRWA. For comparison purposes, posts established at grade 13 and above may be roughly equated with international Professional appointments; posts established at grades 3-12 roughly compare with General Service appointments; and grades 1-2 at Manual Worker posts.

Table 10

Summary statement of income and expenditure a/

(1 May 1950-31 December 1984)

 (United States dollars)

a/ The figures in this table reflect, for each year, the income and expenditure (including commitments) applicable to the budget for that year, regardless of when the income was received (except as indicated in footnotes (b) and (d) below) or the expenditure incurred. The accumulated figures for the period 1 May 1950-31 December 1975 are provided for record purposes.

b/ Includes $6 million pledged for 1976 but too late to be reflected in the Agency's audited accounts for that year.

c/ Excludes $6 million (see (b) above) reflected in the Agency's audited accounts for 1977.

d/ Includes $6,044,034 pledged for 1979 but too late to be reflected in the Agency's audited accounts for that year.

e/ Excludes the late pledge for 1979 (see (d) above) recorded in the Agency's audited accounts for 1980 as $6,035,215 (representing the value of the commodities actually received against the $6,044,034 pledged).

f/ Excludes Lebanon emergency relief programmes.

g/ Income as estimated, expenditure as budgeted.

h/ This will be the position if budgeted expenditure is fully implemented and no additional income is received.

Table 11

Detailed statement of income

(1 May 1950-31 December 1984)

(United States dollars)

I. Contributions from Governments