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 1992-30 June 1993

__________

* The present document is a mimeographed version of the report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The final report will be issued as Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 13 (A/48/13).

CONTENTS

Chapter				Para.	Page
	LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL ………………………….				v
	LETTER DATED 6 OCTOBER 1993 FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE ADVISORY COMMISSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY FOR PALESTINE REFUGEES IN THE NEAR EAST ADDRESSED TO THE COMMISSIONER-GENERAL …………………………..				vii
	PREFACE ………………………………………				ix
I.	INTRODUCTION ………………………………….			1 – 35	1
II.	GENERAL DEVELOPMENTS IN AGENCY PROGRAMMES ………..			36 – 60	13
	A.	Education ………………………………..		36 – 40	13
	B.	Health …………………………………..		41 – 44	14
	C.	Relief and social services …………………		45 – 47	16
	D.	Extraordinary measures for Lebanon and the occupied territory …………………….		48 – 55	17
	E.	Expanded programme of assistance ……………		56 – 60	19
III.	FINANCIAL MATTERS ………………………………			61 – 77	21
	A.	Fund structure ……………………………		61 – 68	21
	B.	Budget and sources of income ……………….		69 – 71	22
	C.	Current financial situation ………………..		72 – 77	22
IV.	LEGAL MATTERS ………………………………….			78 – 92	24
	A.	Agency staff …………………………….		78 – 84	24
	B.	Agency services and premises ……………….		85 – 91	25
	C.	Claims against Governments …………………		92	27
V.	JORDAN ………………………………………..			93 – 107	28
	A.	Education ………………………………..		93 – 98	28
	B.	Health …………………………………..		99 – 103	29
	C.	Relief and social services …………………		104 – 107	30
VI.	LEBANON ……………………………………….			108 – 120	32
	A.	Education ………………………………..		108 – 112	32
	B.	Health …………………………………..		113 – 117	33
	C.	Relief and social services …………………		118 – 120	34
VII.	SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC ……………………………			121 – 134	36
	A.	Education ………………………………..		121 – 125	36
	B.	Health …………………………………..		126 – 130	37
	C.	Relief and social services …………………		131 – 134	37
VIII.	OCCUPIED TERRITORY ……………………………..			135 – 162	39
	A.	West Bank ………………………………..		135 – 148	39
		1.	Education …………………………..	135 – 139	39
		2.	Health ……………………………..	140 – 144	40
		3.	Relief and social services ……………	145 – 148	41
	B.	Gaza Strip ……………………………….		149 – 162	43
		1.	Education …………………………..	149 – 153	43
		2.	Health ……………………………..	154 – 157	44
		3.	Relief and social services ……………	158 – 162	45
Annexes
I.	Statistical and financial information……………..				48
II.	Pertinent records of the General Assembly and other United Nations bodies ………………….				66

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

6 October 1993

Sir,

I have the honour to submit to the General Assembly my annual report on the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East for the period 1 July 1992 to 30 June 1993, in compliance with the request contained in paragraph 21 of resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949 and with paragraph 8 of resolution 1315 (XIII) of 12 December 1958.

Owing to the important positive developments in the direction of peace which have taken place since the end of the reporting period, I have for the first time added a preface, which refers to these historical events, their possible impact on UNRWA and aspects which need to be borne in mind in any activity or operation resulting from these developments. Hence the information in the report, while relevant for the period covered by the report, should be evaluated in the context of the developments in the peace process.

In the introduction in chapter I, I have referred to the situation of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and actions and policies affecting their condition. The Agency's concern was focused on the socio-economic determination in the daily lives of the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in particular after the closure imposed at the end of March 1993 and the Agency's emergency response. The financial shortfall facing the Agency in 1993 and the administrative measures taken by the Agency are also referred to in this chapter.

Chapter II provides information on the Agency's three main programmes, in education, health and relief and social services. Included is information on the Agency's extraordinary measures in Lebanon and the occupied territory and the expanded programme of assistance.

Chapter III briefly outlines financial and budgetary matters, which are more fully dealt with in the addendum to the report. On the issue of the financial shortfall confronting the Agency in 1993, I wish to point out that the US$28.5 million deficit has been reduced to some US$ 4 million, mainly as a result of austerity measures, administrative savings and additional contributions. In the current environment, I am optimistic that increased contributions will be forthcoming for UNRWA. I believe that the donors' generosity at this time will reflect their support for the peace process.

Chapter IV deals with legal matters, especially those concerning Agency staff, services and premises.

Chapter V relates to Agency operations in Jordan, chapter VI to Lebanon, and chapter VII to the Syrian Arab Republic. Chapter VIII relates to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The annexes provide statistical and financial information related to the work of UNRWA, as well as references to pertinent records of the General Assembly and other United Nations bodies.

The addendum deals with the biennial budget of the Agency for 1994-1995.

The report, in draft form, was distributed to the 10-member Advisory Commission in advance, and any comments provided were given careful consideration. The draft report was discussed with the Commission at a meeting held at Vienna on 6 October 1993. The Commission's views are reflected in a letter addressed to me, dated 6 October 1993, from the Chairman of the Advisory Commission, a copy of which appears below.

I have maintained the practice of showing my report in draft form to representatives of the Government of Israel and giving due consideration to their comments, in the context of the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip by Israel since 1967 and the Agency's vast operation there.

Accept, Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

(Signed)Ilter TURKMEN

Commissioner-General

President of the General Assembly

United Nations

New York

LETTER DATED 6 OCTOBER 1993 FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE

ADVISORY COMMISSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND

WORKS AGENCY FOR PALESTINE REFUGEES IN THE NEAR EAST

ADDRESSED TO THE COMMISSIONER-GENERAL

Dear Commissioner-General,

At its regular meeting on 6 October 1993, the Advisory Commission of UNRWA considered your draft annual report on the Agency's activities and operations during the period 1 July 1992 to 30 June 1993, which is to be submitted to the General Assembly at its forty-eighth session. The Commission also examined a draft version of the biennial budget of UNRWA for 1994-1995.

The Advisory Commission expressed great appreciation for the programmes of assistance of UNRWA for over 2.8 million Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic and the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The Advisory Commission welcomed, as a first step, the signing of the Declaration of Principles between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Government of Israel, and in particular its impact on the situation in the occupied territories. It expressed its hope that recent developments would usher in a new era in the region.

The Advisory Commission believed that, in order to ensure the further progress of the peace process, it was imperative that a significant improvement in the social and welfare services and the daily life of the Palestinians in the occupied territories be achieved as a matter of urgency. It also stressed that UNRWA had unique competence in these fields, given its existing staff, infrastructure and experience, including that gained through its programmes and general assistance. It was therefore essential to build a firm financial base for the Agency and to overcome its existing financial difficulties. The Advisory Commission therefore called for full international support and cooperation and called upon Member States and donor countries to contribute generously to the financing of UNRWA activities.

The Advisory Commission commended the host Governments of Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic for the cooperation extended to UNRWA in the discharge of its duties, as well ads for their contributions and assistance to the Palestine refugees.

In this connection, the Advisory Commission emphasized that while International attention was focused on the occupied territories, the conditions If the Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic should be Of equal concern. The Commission stressed that the services to the refugees in those three countries should be enhanced. It therefore called on Member States and donor countries to facilitate the task of these countries by seeking to provide them with all necessary assistance.

The Advisory Commission referred to new developments in the region that would affect the environment in which UNRWA operated, and considered that the scale and implications of the changes under way should be more clearly assessed and taken into account in the future activities of UNRWA.

The Advisory Commission noted that your draft annual report covered a period preceding the important developments of recent months, which could therefore not be taken into account. None the less, the Commission commended UNRWA for the report it had submitted and recommended its approval by the General Assembly.

On budgetary and financial issues, the Advisory Commission had learnt with great concern in March of the projected cash shortfall of US$ 28.5 million facing the Agency in 1993. It took note that the shortfall had been reduced to an estimated US$ 4 million, after various efforts made by UNRWA and the receipt of additional contributions.

In its consideration of the biennial budget of UNRWA for 1994-1995, the Advisory Commission took note with appreciation of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions of 17 September 1993. The Commission was grateful for the observations and recommendations contained therein. The Commission noted that the Agency had prepared the budget for the next biennium on the same premises as had guided its actions in the face of a projected deficit in 1993. However, neither the Commission nor the Agency, at the time of the meeting, found it possible to revise the two-year budget to take into account changes that could occur in the future. Nevertheless, the Commission examined the document and recommended its transmittal to the General Assembly for final adoption. In doing so, the Commission noted that it could be necessary for UNRWA, within the overall totals and broad programmes and categories contained in the budget, to adapt allocations and expenditures to new requirements and needs as those arose.

Finally, the members of the Advisory Commission wished to express their appreciation, Mr. Commissioner-General, for your work and commitment at the head of the Agency and for the impetus you have given to it. They also wished to express their gratitude to, and their confidence in, all the Agency staff who, in difficult circumstances, fulfil their duties with devotion and efficiency.

(Signed) Kunisada Kume

Chairman of the Advisory Commission

Mr. Ilter Türkmen

Commissioner-General

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for

Palestine Refugees in the Near East

Vienna

PREFACE

Since this report covers the period 1 July 1992 to 30 June 1993, I thought it necessary to add, for the first time, a preface on the historical events which have taken place since the end of the reporting period but which should obviously be borne in mind in reading this year's annual report.

The exchange of letters on recognition and the signing of the Declaration of Principles between the Palestine Liberation organization and the Government of Israel mark a turning-point in the region in general and in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in particular. I therefore hope that this report covers an era which is gone forever. The real significance of this report lies perhaps in the fact that it underscores how vital it was to reach such an agreement.

It is clear that the recent developments will have an impact on the operations and programmes of UNRWA in different ways, especially in the initial period. There is no doubt that from now on the other programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, and the World Bank, will have an important contribution to make to economic and social development in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and therefore towards political stability. Because of the scale of its presence in the area, its largely Palestinian staff and its historical experience, UNRWA will, I hope, be a major contributor to this combined effort. At the same time, the need for continued assistance to the Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic should not be overlooked.

At this stage, I am heartened at the recognition by the Palestine Liberation Organization of the important role UNRWA has played in the lives of the Palestinian people and am pleased at the strong support expressed by the PLO and the Palestinian people for the continuation of our operations in a manner adapted to the new circumstances.

I am also gratified at the good working relationship and spirit of understanding arrived at with the Israeli authorities and look forward to the continuation of this relationship for the promotion of the economic and social advancement foreseen in the agreement between the PLO and the Government of Israel.

I am grateful to the donor countries for their spontaneous offers of financial support to enable UNRWA to meet the challenges in the initial phase of the emerging situation.

Ilter Turkmen

Commissioner-General

INTRODUCTION

1. The period under review was marked by the continuation of the peace negotiations. Although there were many disappointments and no breakthrough, it was remarkable that all the parties continued to maintain their support and dedication to the peace process. Unfortunately, however, the negotiations were not accompanied by an improvement in the political, security and economic environment affecting the Palestinians. On the contrary, there was a serious deterioration in the situation, culminating in some of the highest fatality figures recorded in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the intifadah and Israeli countermeasures. That was parallel to an unprecedented worsening of economic and social conditions. A new dimension was introduced by the closure of the occupied territory. At the time of writing, it was difficult to indicate to what extent those adverse developments had an impact on the perceptions of the parties to the peace talks, although it was clear that the closure had injected a complicated political variable into the already difficult process of reaching an agreement.

2. In contrast to the serious deterioration in the situation in the second half of the year under review, a relatively optimistic note had followed the election of a new Government in Israel in mid-1992, which announced a commitment to advancing the peace process. Indeed, the new Government cancelled deportation orders issued in January 1992 by the previous government against 10 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, released some 600 Palestinian security detainees prior to the expiry of their sentences, opened some streets which had been blocked with cement barrels in preceding years and announced that it would consider allowing homes which had been sealed prior to the intifadah to be reopened. In addition, shortly after the new Government took office, it chose not to use force to resolve a siege that had developed at al-Najah University in the West Bank where, it was reported, some Palestinians wanted by the security services and hundreds of students were surrounded by the army. A solution to that crisis was negotiated whereby a number of students accepted voluntary expulsion to Jordan for a limited period. In December 1992, the Government announced that it would grant renewable visitor permits to the non-resident spouses and children of Palestinians carrying Israeli-issued identification cards. That decision was expected to affect about 1,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, who had entered the occupied territory on visitor permits in mid-1992 and who would otherwise have had to leave the occupied territory in order to reapply for new permits or face deportation. Punitive demolition or sealing of houses decreased substantially following the election of the new Government.

3. By late 1992, however, a marked deterioration had become evident in the security and economic situation in the occupied territory, and in the Gaza Strip in particular. There were high fatality levels in the Gaza Strip towards the end of the reporting period and rapidly rising levels of socio-economic hardship in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the wake of the Israeli-ordered closure Of the occupied territory in late March. The effect of the imposition of harsher measures by the security forces, which had both economic and security-related consequences, was to contribute to the overall level of frustration over developments on the political level.

4. The security situation began to deteriorate in late September 1992, when Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons in the occupied territory and inside Israel began a hunger strike over conditions of detention. During visits to staff members in detention and in interviews with them upon their release, UNRWA had consistently received reports of mistreatment during interrogation and poor conditions of detention. Some detained staff, for example, had repeatedly reported not being permitted access to medical treatment for chronic ailments, despite requests to the prison authorities by the detainees, attorneys as well as by UNRWA. The prisoners ended the strike in mid-October 1992 after the Government had reportedly acceded to some demands and agreed to consider others. The hunger strike was accompanied by sit-ins and demonstrations in support of the prisoners. During the strike, the frequency and size of clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli security forces increased, especially in the Gaza Strip, as did the resulting casualty figures. In the months following the strike, certain aspects related to detention were reported by detainees as having improved. However, it appeared that the improvements effected were of a limited nature. At the end of the year under review, there were an estimated 13,000 Palestinians in detention in the occupied territory as well as in Israel, the latter in violation of the prohibition contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention (Convention relating to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War) against transferring members of a protected population outside occupied territory and against the specific obligation that protected persons be detained and serve sentences in occupied territory.

5. The situation worsened further in mid-December 1992 following the decision of the Government of Israel to deport over 400 Palestinians from the occupied territory to just north of the Israeli-declared security zone in occupied southern Lebanon. The Government of Israel attributed that decision to the increase in attacks on Israeli military personnel by Palestinians. During 1992, 13 members of the Israeli security forces had been killed in such attacks. Beginning in mid-December 1992, following the kidnapping and subsequent killing of an Israeli border guard from inside Israel, up to 2,000 Palestinians believed to be associated with Hamas or Islamic Jihad, including a number of UNRWA staff members, were arrested. The Government then moved to deport over 400 Palestinians for periods ranging from six months to two years, but after changing the law governing appeals which had afforded those facing possible deportation the opportunity to appeal prior to the implementation of the deportation order. Among the deportees were 16 UNRWA staff members. The Government of Israel rejected the Agency's request for information regarding the names of staff members detained in the arrest campaign and did not respond to Agency protests over the mass deportation.

6. Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces rose significantly in the weeks and months following the deportation. For example, on 19 December, following the temporary lifting of the round-the-clock curfew that had been in effect since before the deportation, clashes took place during which seven persons from Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, including a nine-year-old girl, were shot and killed by security forces. Throughout December 1992, and indeed during much of the reporting period, Israeli forces responded to civilian disturbances, including minor demonstrations, in a consistent pattern involving the frequent and excessive use of lethal force. Following the deportation, attacks by Palestinians against Israeli military personnel, settlers and civilians, both inside Israel and in the occupied territory, increased. In March 1993 alone, 15 Israelis were killed in such attacks.

7. On 29 March, the Government sealed the Gaza Strip one day after an Israeli had been killed in Nissanit settlement located in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The next day, following the killing of two Israeli policemen inside Israel, the Government announced that as of 31 March the West Bank would be sealed as well. That was not the first occasion during the reporting period on which the Gaza Strip had been closed off. With closures imposed four times, Gaza was sealed off from the outside world for a total of four months during the 12 months ending on 30 June 1993. The Gaza Strip was sealed and under curfew in December 1992 at the time of the mass deportation. UNRWA had to respond to the resulting hardship by distributing food to nearly 80,000 persons. The March closure of the occupied territory continued throughout the remainder of the period under review and appeared set to become a permanent feature, with only a limited number of labourers and others allowed to enter Israel on a regular basis. By making entry into East Jerusalem of Palestinians carrying West Bank or Gaza strip identification cards contingent upon possession of special passes issued by the Civil Administration, the Israeli authorities reinforced the division of the occupied territory into four separate and isolated regions that had first resulted from the pass system that had been imposed, but not strictly enforced, following the Gulf war. Thus the occupied territory was effectively divided into the northern West Bank, the southern West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Since 1967, the municipal boundaries of East Jerusalem had been expanded by about 60 square kilometres into the West Bank to include an area almost extending from Bethlehem to Ramallah. As that enlarged area had previously been annexed by Israel, it was cut off from the West Bank by the closure. Over 150,000 Palestinians lived within the expanded borders of East Jerusalem.

8. In both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the closure resulted in a substantial rise in socio-economic hardship, as some 130,000 Palestinians were suddenly cut off from the approximately US$ 2.75 million per day in wages previously earned in Israel. Prior to the closure, over one third of the gross, national product (GNP) of the West Bank and half of the GNP of the Gaza Strip were attributable to income derived from Israel, primarily from wage labour. The local economies soon suffered the effects of the substantial decline in disposable income of those labourers as well as the de facto division of the occupied territory into isolated zones between which commerce was virtually impossible. Within weeks of the closure, local businesses had begun to lay off workers. It was reported that in Nablus, industrial output had fallen by 45 per cent by late June and in Ramallah plans to establish 17 new factories during 1993 were cancelled owing to the situation. Agriculture was also affected by the drop in consumer income, the closure of external markets, and the division of the occupied territory itself. For example, the price of eggs fell by 50 per cent in the West Bank to below the cost of production, and many egg farms were reported to have been forced out of business. Trucks carrying citrus fruit to Amman were detained by the Israeli authorities at the Allenby bridge for longer periods than usual after the closure, and by late May 1993 nearly one quarter of the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip fleet of trucks permitted to cross the bridge were being held up at the bridge. As a result of such administrative and security obstacles, transport costs in the citrus sector in the Gaza Strip, the second largest source of income after wages earned in Israel, doubled. That meant that the cost of picking, packing and shipping oranges via Amman was higher than the market price, which had dropped by as much as 50 per cent by late May. By early June, at a time when most of the crop should already have been exported, there were still 25,000 tonnes of oranges left on the trees.

9. The combination of loss of work in Israel and lay-offs in the occupied territory caused unemployment to rise to nearly 60 per cent in the Gaza Strip and to almost that level in the West Bank during April and May. Palestinians in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip began liquidating savings and selling personal belongings and household appliances to buy food, pay debts and cover rents. Consumption patterns changed following the closure, leading to a large drop in the purchase of meat, fruit and even vegetables, the prices of which had dropped owing to the closure of external markets. Many families began to consume mainly bread, rice and lentils.

10. UNRWA was concerned that if incomes did not return to near normal within a short period, and in the absence of an adequate level of relief intervention, the percentage of growth-retarded children under three years of age could rise. That would mean that more children could suffer from protein-energy malnutrition, and as that was closely associated with infant and child mortality rates, there could be an increase in child deaths. By the end of the reporting period, some 20,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and 15,000 from the Gaza Strip were being allowed to return to work in Israel. In addition, approximately 10,000-15,000 persons in the West Bank and 6,600 in the Gaza Strip were being hired on a short-term rotating basis on work schemes. The Israeli Treasury financed those schemes through the Civil Administration from funds which were considered advances on 1993 tax revenues to be collected from Palestinians in the occupied territory. Those measures fell considerably short of compensating for the increased unemployment generated by the closure, whether due to loss of work in Israel or the lay-offs that occurred in the occupied territory itself.

11. Following an assessment of the prevailing situation, UNRWA responded by initiating a distribution of its available stocks of flour and issued an emergency appeal for imported staples such as flour, rice and sugar for distribution initially to 39,000 families in the West Bank and 120,000 in the Gaza Strip. Donations received in response to that appeal were sufficient to meet the immediate needs of the occupied territory, but would not permit UNRWA to provide the level of support required through the remainder of 1993. The extent of the new and urgent need for relief assistance in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip created by the closure was beyond the resources available to UNRWA. The Agency was concerned that should the circumstances continue without adequate measures to meet the immediate needs of the unemployed and effect significant changes in the web of economic restrictions, the requirement for large-scale relief could overwhelm the capacity of UNRWA and other agencies to respond to those needs.

12. The significance of UNRWA's expenditure in the occupied territory was highlighted by the closure. The Agency's income generation programme had provided some US$ 3.3 million in loans to over 140 enterprises in the occupied territory by mid-1993, contributing to employment creation in the local economy. At a time of widespread job losses, it became even clearer that salaries paid by UNRWA were a stabilizing force among refugees, who constituted the overwhelming majority of UNRWA staff. The 8,000 staff members employed by UNRWA in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip represented the second single largest source of employment after the Israeli authorities. In terms of expenditure, in 1993 the Agency had a regular and emergency budget of nearly US$ 56 million for the West Bank and US$ 73 million for the Gaza Strip. An additional US$ 20.6 million for the West Bank and US$ 20.3 million for the Gaza Strip were invested in projects under implementation. Those figures represented an estimated 45 per cent of expenditure by the Israeli Civil Administration in the occupied territory.

13. The closure disrupted the work of UNRWA and other institutions based in Jerusalem. For example, gaining access to medical facilities in Jerusalem necessitated permits, and even in a number of emergency cases UNRWA and other ambulances were refused entry into the city. By the end of the reporting period, some three months after the imposition of the closure, few Palestinians from Gaza were able to travel to Jerusalem for medical care. The number of patients from the West Bank admitted to the UNRWA-supported Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem was 25 per cent less than one year ago. With access to Jerusalem hospitals difficult, improvements which had been implemented, as well as those still in the planning stage for UNRWA's own hospital in Qalqilya, took on added significance. The education of hundreds of young Palestinians was interrupted by the requirement that students and faculty obtain permits to enter or even pass through Jerusalem to institutions located in that city or the northern part of the West Bank. Classes at UNRWA's training centres in Kalandia and Ramallah were suspended for over two months because students from the Gaza Strip were initially not allowed to travel to or remain in the West Bank. Similarly, students from the southern West Bank and the Gaza Strip attending Birzeit University were unable to return to their classes, while Bethlehem University students from the northern West Bank and the Gaza Strip faced similar problems.

14. The closure was accompanied by severe security measures, particularly in the Gaza Strip, where May 1993 witnessed the highest number of fatalities in a single month since the beginning of the intifadah and Israeli countermeasures in December 1987. Actions taken by the Israeli authorities included intensifying military presence in refugee camps and stepping up measures against Palestinians wanted by the security forces as well as those whom the authorities believed were assisting wanted Palestinians. The reinstatement of frequent patrolling of populated areas was accompanied by the introduction of the use of high buildings as observation posts. Those observation posts, which were erected out of the range of stone throwers, became the focal point of demonstrations and clashes. Twelve Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, including seven children, were shot and killed from observation posts in the six-week period from 1 April to 15 May 1993. The security forces also increased their efforts against wanted persons: during the initial three months of the closure, 16 wanted persons were killed, 25 reportedly fled across the international border and 48 were arrested by Israeli forces. Harassment by security forces of the families of wanted persons continued and included threats against the lives of wanted persons, actual arrest of family members not known to be wanted, denial or revocation of work permits for family members, threats to demolish the family home, and violent assaults on family members during frequent, and at times daily, searches of their homes.

15. The period following the closure also witnessed the intensification of a practice begun in July 1992 involving the shooting of anti-tank rockets against Palestinian homes where the Israeli authorities later stated that they believed wanted persons to have been hiding. In the course of such operations, families were evacuated from entire neighbourhoods, after which many of the evacuated houses were attacked with heavy machine-gun fire and anti-tank rockets. Subsequently, soldiers entered those premises firing automatic weapons at household belongings and appliances. Furthermore, on a number of occasions, that was followed by the planting of explosives in houses, which were then detonated by the security forces. During the year under review, there were 27 such operations carried out in the Gaza Strip and 3 in the West Bank, damaging or destroying 133 houses where some 1,300 persons lived. On 11 April 1993 in the Gaza Strip, security forces used anti-tank rockets against homes in Khan Younis, Nuseirat, and Rafah refugee camps, as well as in the village of Bani Suhayla. That type of destruction of homes was to be distinguished from punitive demolition or sealing of homes. In cases of the latter, residents were issued administrative orders in advance and were given 48 hours to file an appeal, although such appeals rarely resulted in a ruling overturning the initial administrative decision.

16. Total fatalities and injuries during the year under review, particularly among children, were significantly higher than during the preceding period. Security forces were responsible for the death of 80 Palestinians from the West Bank, including 8 children, and 120 persons from the Gaza Strip, among them 28 children. Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians continued to be a cause for concern. Six Palestinians were killed by Israeli settlers or armed civilians during the reporting period. In one case, a settler fired into the body of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian, killing him. Gunshot injuries inflicted by Israeli forces were high as a percentage of total injuries: for example, between February and May 1993 in the Gaza Strip, nearly 90 per cent of injuries treated at UNRWA clinics and local hospitals had been caused by live ammunition. Situations in which fatalities occurred, whether caused by regular troops or special undercover units, continued to give rise to charges from Israeli, international and Palestinian human rights groups of wilful killing by Israeli forces. UNRWA protested the excessive use of force by the security forces, the behaviour of troops, the high fatality rate among Palestinians, particularly among children, and the destruction and damage of Palestinian homes during searches for wanted persons.

17. The security and economic consequences of the closure compounded existing obstacles to planning and implementing effective measures to address socio-economic conditions in the occupied territory. As noted in previous annual reports, those obstacles included the confiscation of over half of the land in the West Bank and 40 per cent in the Gaza Strip for use by the Israeli military or settlers. Despite the freeze on new construction in settlements announced by the new Government, the decision to allow the completion of housing units defined as having started would lead to a further 11,000 units in the occupied territory which could accommodate 60,000 additional settlers. That figure did not include occupied Jerusalem, where no restrictions were imposed. Military orders and planning regulations strictly limited Palestinian use of the remaining land, whether for residential construction, agriculture or other economic activity. Palestinian access to the water resources of the occupied territory remained far less than that afforded to settlers. For example, it was reported that the amount of water granted to settlers for agricultural use was 13 times greater on a per capita basis than that allowed to Palestinians in the West Bank and 7 times more than to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Private consumption of water among Palestinians in the West Bank was approximately 35 cubic metres per year per person, while for settlers consumption was more than 100 cubic metres. It was estimated that about 30 per cent of the total water used in Israel was taken from the resources of the West Bank, representing about 80 per cent of the groundwater potential in the West Bank.

18. Taxation of business and personal income remained high compared to the relatively low levels of business revenues and personal income in the occupied territory and continued to represent a significant disincentive to investment in productive ventures. Tax raids on Palestinian enterprises continued during the closure despite the significant decline in economic activity. The economic and social infrastructure in the occupied territory, including communications, energy, finance and transportation, remained underdeveloped. Despite the announcement by the Israeli authorities of a relaxation in restrictions on economic activity and a programme to encourage investment in the occupied territory, those initiatives were not seen as contributing to an improvement in the economic situation. However, near the end of the year under review, the Israeli authorities extended the zone within which Palestinian fishermen were allowed to fish from 12 to 20 kilometres, a decision that was expected to have a beneficial impact on the fishing industry in the Gaza Strip.

19. There was an unprecedented period of inter-factional violence in the Gaza Strip in July 1992, which led to the death of one Palestinian and the injury of over 100. That was the first outbreak of such inter-factional strife in the occupied territory since the start of the intifadah. The killing of alleged collaborators continued at a high level in the Gaza Strip, despite attempts by community leaders to control such incidents through discussions on a pact which, inter alia, addressed the issue of alleged collaborators. However, those efforts were not entirely effective and during the reporting period, 104 persons were killed in the Gaza Strip for alleged collaboration, including one UNRWA staff member. In the West Bank the practice continued, but at a lower level, with 23 Palestinians being killed.

20. Regrettably, the safety of UNRWA staff serving in the occupied territory, both area and international, continued to be a cause for concern during the reporting year. Two Agency staff were shot and killed in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli security forces in February and March 1993. One of them, a male nurse from Rafah, was shot in the back of the head while providing emergency medical aid to an injured youth. The other staff member, a teacher from Rafah, was shot in front of a wake house. There were no clashes under way in the immediate vicinity of either incident. Despite repeated requests by UNRWA, the Israeli authorities had not informed the Agency of the status of the investigations into those cases as of the close of the reporting period. Members of the Israeli security forces continued to subject Agency staff to mistreatment such as beatings, threats, insults, intimidation and temporary detention. Israeli security forces continued to interrupt ambulance services, make incursions into Agency clinics and schools and use Agency installations as interrogation centres. UNRWA protested all such incidents regularly, though with little effect. UNRWA was equally concerned over incidents of mistreatment of staff, including the killing of one staff member in the Gaza Strip for alleged collaboration, and misuse of Agency premises by certain Palestinian groups. UNRWA protested such incidents to the Palestinian community.

21. UNRWA remained concerned about the situation of Palestinians remaining in Kuwait. The Agency sent a special mission to Kuwait from July to September 1992 to assess their situation. The Agency followed with interest the situation of Palestinians who had gone to Kuwait from the Gaza Strip and who carried laissez-passers issued by the Government of Egypt. Those Palestinians, although allowed to remain in Kuwait, faced particular difficulties since most could not obtain work permits. They had no Israeli-recognized residency privileges which would allow them to return to Gaza; the Government of Egypt did not seem inclined to permit them to settle in that country; and few other countries were willing to accept them. Some Palestinians subsequently left Kuwait for those few third countries that would allow them entry. A few were able to obtain residency privileges in the Gaza Strip under an Israeli programme that granted such privileges to Palestinians who invested at least US$ 100,000 in the local economy. By the end of the reporting period, approximately 25,000 Palestinians remained in Kuwait. UNRWA was disappointed that its efforts with concerned Governments on behalf of those Palestinians remaining in Kuwait under difficult circumstances had so far met with only limited success, but intended to continue its efforts on their behalf.

22. The overall situation in Lebanon continued to improve at a steady pace following the election of a new Government, which put national reconciliation and reconstruction at the top of its agenda. The extension of governmental authority throughout the country progressed further and the security situation improved as political stability began to return after nearly 16 years of conflict. However, conditions in the south of the country, which remained under Israeli occupation, continued to be tense and fighting frequently erupted between Lebanese resistance groups on the one hand and Israeli troops and the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army on the other. There was also sporadic fighting involving Israeli troops and South Lebanon Army personnel, and Palestinians. The continuing clashes in southern Lebanon led to a number of deaths on all sides. Some attacks against Israeli and South Lebanon Army positions were followed by reprisal raids by Israeli air forces, on occasion against targets in Palestine refugee camps.

23. As part of the effort to rebuild the country, the Government of Lebanon began to address the difficult problem of persons displaced during the years of conflict. Among the displaced in Lebanon were some 6,000 Palestinian families, or about 30,000 persons, who were identified by UNRWA during the reporting period as requiring assistance. The process of returning property to the lawful owners would necessarily involve evicting displaced Palestinians squatting on those sites. For a number of years, UNRWA had made concerted efforts to raise additional funds to help rehouse displaced Palestine refugees, yet none of the Agency's appeals had met with a positive response. During the reporting period, the future of displaced Palestinians became an even larger concern to UNRWA, which had long recognized the need to participate in the effort to provide housing to displaced families. By June 1993, over 1,000 Palestinian families had been served with official eviction notices. The Agency itself re-programmed some funds for the reconstruction of damaged shelters, but those amounts fell far short of what was required simply to rehouse those families which had received eviction notices. The situation of some 315 displaced Palestinian families living along the coastal road between Beirut and Saida was the focus of discussions between representatives of the Government of Lebanon, UNRWA and the Palestinians. Many displaced Palestinian families throughout the country continued to live in intolerable conditions, having taken refuge years earlier in shacks or abandoned and damaged buildings which lacked decent sanitary facilities and access to a safe water supply.

24. Socio-economic conditions for most Palestine refugees remained precarious as a consequence of the overall weakness in the economy of Lebanon. Palestinians were limited mainly to seasonal or temporary employment, such as in construction or agriculture. The lack of access to steady employment was a major reason why, at 11.8 per cent of the refugee population, enrolment in the special hardship programme in Lebanon was the highest Agency-wide.

25. In Jordan, the absorption of large numbers of unemployed persons, including many Palestinian returnees from the Gulf States, continued to pose a big challenge to the economy. Demand for employment at UNRWA far exceeded available positions and was indicative of problems facing the country as a whole. For example, when the Agency advertised for the recruitment of 450 teachers for the 1992/93 school year, it received 9,000 applications. It was hoped that the gradual improvement in regional relations would lead to the return of trade possibilities and increased external assistance, thereby boosting socio-economic conditions throughout the country, including those affecting the refugees. At 1.07 million registered persons, an increase of 6 per cent over the previous reporting period, Jordan continued to host the largest number of Palestine refugees in UNRWA's five fields of operation. UNRWA's presence in Jordan would be augmented in 1993 and 1994 by the relocation to the Agency's headquarters branch in Amman of certain operational units such as education, health, and relief and social services as well as the technical and audit offices. That decision was taken to enhance operational efficiency and proximity to the fields of operation and effect financial savings.

26. In conformity with an education reform policy adopted by the Government, UNRWA successfully extended the basic education cycle in its schools in Jordan to a tenth year. To accommodate the 10,870 students who entered the tenth year, UNRWA recruited nearly 400 additional teachers and built or rented over 74 new classrooms. As part of the new education policy, the Government had also decided to raise the minimum qualification of teachers in the basic education cycle to the first university degree level. In accordance with that development, UNRWA would phase out its two-year teacher training programme, replacing it with a four-year educational sciences faculty leading to a university-level degree. The faculty, scheduled to accept the first class of students in October 1993, would train new teachers as well as upgrade the qualification of serving teachers to meet the new requirements. A similar faculty would open in September in the West Bank, where the school curriculum was based on that of the Government of Jordan. As in Jordan, that faculty would train new as well as serving teachers in UNRWA schools in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. As a major employer of teachers and educator of students in the occupied territory and Jordan, the new education sciences faculties would represent a significant contribution by the Agency in continuing to ensure that Palestine refugees had access to quality educational opportunities despite their poor socio-economic situation.

27. UNRWA's operations in the Syrian Arab Republic continued to function well, with no major problems. The project to construct a new airport road and municipal sewerage scheme, which was reported in previous years and would result in the relocation of some 338 families in Jaramana camp, moved forward during the reporting period. The Government had guaranteed that no family would be evicted until alternative housing had been built in Huseiniyeh in the suburbs of Damascus. UNRWA continued operations for the construction of a school and health clinic on land provided by the Government. The Government was expected to commence construction of the housing units in Huseiniyeh after the end of the reporting period. UNRWA remained particularly concerned about the state of much of its educational infrastructure in the Syrian Arab Republic and the Agency's inability to raise sufficient special funds to improve existing schools adequately and replace old or rented premises, many of which had not been upgraded in over 30 years. There was similar concern that funds were not sufficient to enable the Agency to address the acute need for shelter rehabilitation or rehousing, as in the case of Neirab camp, where many refugees continued to live in crowded conditions in barracks built in 1950. Examples of the effective level of cooperation between UNRWA and the Government could be drawn from the health sector, where the Agency cooperated with the Ministry of Health in programmes for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, surveillance of the expanded programme on immunization target diseases and family planning services.

28. The financial situation of the Agency took a decided turn for the worse during the current reporting period, becoming a cause for major concern as the gap between funding levels and needs generated by worsening socio-economic conditions, particularly in Lebanon and the occupied territory, widened considerably. The outlook for 1993 was critical, with a deficit of US$ 28.5 million projected at the beginning of the year: US$ 17 million in the regular budget and US$ 11.5 million in the extraordinary measures for Lebanon and the occupied territory (EMLOT) budget. Despite concerted efforts to expand the donor base, particularly among countries in the region, and secure additional contributions from the Agency's traditional major donors, some US$ 6.5 million only had been provided to UNRWA by the end of June 1993. Merely to maintain a constant level of services, UNRWA's budget had to increase by about 5 per cent per annum to accommodate population growth and rising costs. However, more than at any other time in recent years, UNRWA's financial needs competed with shrinking donor aid budgets and the large increase in emergencies world wide. Exchange rate losses incurred as a result of the fluctuating currency markets further exacerbated the Agency's financial situation. In anticipation of the shortfall, the Agency was forced to implement austerity measures, which had an immediate impact on the quality of its services: already crowded classrooms had to find room for even more students as fewer new teachers could be hired and fewer new classrooms built to accommodate the 10,000 additional students entering the UNRWA school system in 1992/93. The patient load carried by each UNRWA medical doctor climbed higher, following several years of efforts to bring the level down to an average 100 patients per doctor per day. A ceiling was imposed on the number of families that could register in the special hardship programme, despite increased hardship. In the Gaza Strip, a special training programme which gave a stipend and on-the-job training to 450 graduates of vocational training centres and universities had to be eliminated when funding for that programme ceased.

29. There was considerable anxiety over the cumulative effects of such measures, particularly as the outlook for 1994 gave little cause for hope that donor countries would increase contributions substantially. In the absence of sufficient funding, the Agency would be forced to reduce the level and extent of services that it provided. In the light of the rapid deterioration in socio-economic conditions prevailing in the occupied territory and continued hardship in Lebanon, as well as the normal growth in demand in Jordan and the Syrian Arab Republic, the impact of such cuts would not only be felt by UNRWA's beneficiaries but could well influence the region's sensitive political climate. Particularly at a time when UNRWA itself was facing financial difficulties, the financial burden that had long been borne by host Governments took on even greater significance. With limited resources of their own and similar rates of growth in the demand for services by their citizens, the millions of dollars worth of assistance that host Governments continued to provide in the areas of education, health, social and other services were critical in meeting the basic needs of Palestine refugees.

30. At the same time, the deterioration in socio-economic conditions in both the occupied territory and Lebanon contributed to structural problems resulting from environmental degradation and demand by a growing refugee population on increasingly scarce resources. In the Gaza Strip, for example, a recent study confirmed that 20 per cent of the population was born in the past five years. At the same time, only one in 20 persons in the Gaza Strip had full-time employment. Population density in the Gaza Strip was over 1,800 persons per square kilometre in 1993. When land that had been confiscated or otherwise restricted by the Israeli authorities was taken into consideration, the population density in relation to actual living space was almost twice as high. Environmental problems in the Gaza Strip, whether related to household and commercial waste disposal, housing conditions, land use or water quality, were growing at an exponential rate. However, immediate needs arising from increasing poverty on the one hand and the annual need to build more classrooms, employ more medical staff and provide assistance in response to curfews and closures on the other, meant that adequate resources were not available to allow the Agency to respond to the long-term environmental health threat. In the past year, UNRWA had significantly expanded its environmental health initiatives, particularly in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, where the problems were more severe than in the other three fields. The aim of those initiatives was to expand the basis of information available on environmental issues, develop plans for addressing those problems in an integrated fashion to include refugee camps and surrounding areas, and begin implementing projects for which the Agency was able to secure funds.

31. During the reporting period, 2.8 million registered Palestine refugees were living in the Agency's five fields, with access to UNRWA schools and training centres, health centres and specialist clinics, and basic food and clothing when they had no resources of their own. Agency-wide, over 392,000 pupils were enrolled in 641 elementary and preparatory schools, and over 5,000 in UNRWA's eight training centres. Refugees had guaranteed access to primary health care through the Agency's 119 health centre or points and mother and child health care clinics, 62 dental clinics and 39 specialist clinics for paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, cardiology, ophthalmology and for the treatment of ear, nose and throat illnesses and chest diseases. The Agency further developed its mental health programme in the occupied territory, and preparations were in hand for implementing community mental health programmes in all fields in 1994. Social services, increasingly provided through management by, as well as with, the active participation of Palestine refugee communities, were available through 71 women's programme centres. Those centres reached 12,800 women. There were 18 locally run community rehabilitation centres that provided services for persons with disabilities and their families, with technical assistance from UNRWA. The Agency's services for disabled refugees reached almost 1,500 children and adolescents in 1993, an increase of about 600 beneficiaries over the preceding year. Assistance provided included referral to specialist institutions; rehabilitation through community centres; integration into mainstream schooling and vocational skill training. Most of the youth activities centres in the occupied territory were reactivated during the reporting period, including many that had been closed previously by order of the Israeli authorities. Agency-wide, 6.5 per cent of the refugee population were registered as special hardship cases, qualifying them for basic food rations, clothing for children, shelter rehabilitation, and preferential access to vocational training centres.

32. Within UNRWA, whose mandate was extended by the General Assembly for a further three-year period ending June 1996, the reporting period saw further progress in consolidating certain conceptual and policy changes introduced in the wake of the Gulf war and the beginning of the peace talks. Those two developments, for different reasons, required the Agency to look more closely at its overall socio-economic role in the region and effect changes with the objective of channelling limited resources more effectively and efficiently to maximize the support provided in fragile economic circumstances. At the same time, it became clearer that the Agency needed to look for more innovative ways to assist Palestine refugees. In that context, UNRWA gave more attention to evaluation activities to allow for a systematic examination of the efficiency and effectiveness of Agency programmes. During the year under review, UNRWA carried out evaluations of, inter alia, paramedical diploma courses of the vocational and technical education programme as well as the special hardship assistance programme, which led to the introduction of changes into each of those activities. Steps were also taken to make the Agency's management and administration at Headquarters in Vienna leaner, and to place even more emphasis on Agency operations in the fields. The Agency's expenditure on management at Headquarters was 6.4 per cent of its biennial budget for 1992-1993 and was expected to decrease to 5.7 per cent in 1994-1995.

33. To enhance the impact of UNRWA expenditures, the Agency made efforts to increase local procurement, which was expected to help Palestinians directly and indirectly in the area of operations. In another example of the adaptation of programmes to changing circumstances, UNRWA decided to convert to cash subsidies imported clothing and blankets provided to special hardship families which would be targeted more precisely to those specifically needing such items. The cash grant would not only give the beneficiaries the opportunity to select those items which most suited their needs, but would also ensure that those funds would be spent locally. The income generation programme, begun in 1991, continued to be of the utmost importance to UNRWA as well as the Palestinians, who viewed it as an initiative that allowed them to increase self-reliance at the same time as it helped to create new jobs. In the area of social services, the Agency increasingly worked with refugee communities to enable Palestinians, with technical and other assistance from UNRWA, to provide certain social services on their own. In a period of growing financial constraints, that approach allowed UNRWA to assist more refugees than ever before at a lower per capita cost and at the same time contributed to growing self-reliance on the part of the refugee communities. The Agency further expanded its cooperation with both international and Palestinian non-governmental organizations and had joint projects with at least nine United Nations agencies. Over the course of the reporting period, there was equally a significant improvement in the Agency's working relationship with the Government of Israel, which enabled solutions to be found to certain pending issues as well as more effective coordination on Agency construction projects.

34. With the peace process continuing on modalities for an interim period of self-government in the occupied territory, the international community and the parties to the negotiations remained interested in UNRWA programmes and infrastructure. Over the preceding 12 months, UNRWA cooperated closely with the Palestinians in exchanging views on the Agency's role and possible contribution to a new situation which could emerge after an agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It had also been the Agency's hope to maintain its services and facilities at levels that would assist in the implementation of an agreement reached between the Palestinians and Israel. However, the financial constraints that emerged in 1993 and which seemed likely to continue into 1994, and perhaps beyond, threatened to erode slowly the progress made by UNRWA in assisting Palestine refugees to continue to maintain health and education standards that were at least as good as those of surrounding populations, if not better in certain categories.

35. The year under review, therefore, was a painful, difficult and challenging one for Palestine refugees and UNRWA. It was disconcerting to see that after 45 years, most of the refugees, not only in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip but in other fields as well, continued to live in extreme poverty. Many families were still deprived of that very basic element of life, an adequate shelter to provide protection from the heat, cold and rain. It was sad to witness that under the pressures of demographic growth and worsening political, social and economic factors, the standard of living was gradually being eroded even further. The future seemed bleak unless, in the foreseeable future, a political solution ending the plight of the refugees could be found.

II. GENERAL DEVELOPMENTS IN AGENCY PROGRAMMES

A. Education

36. The education programme, which continued to be UNRWA's largest single activity, grew substantially during the reporting period as a result of the addition of a tenth year to the basic education cycle in Jordan and natural growth in the Palestine refugee community. A total of 392,757 elementary and preparatory pupils attended UNRWA's 641 schools, an increase of 18,350 pupils over the preceding school year. Vocational training, comprising two-year post-preparatory trade courses and post-secondary technical courses, increased from 4,296 to 4,496 training places. The number of education staff benefiting from the in-service training programme increased from 857 to 1,075, while university scholarships for outstanding students rose from 661 to 746. (Details are contained in tables 5, 6 and 7 of annex I to the present document.) In addition to those activities and in view of the reduced opportunities for Palestinians to seek work in the Gulf, the Agency introduced in the occupied territory short-term vocational training courses of 20 or 40 weeks duration aimed at meeting the immediate needs of the local labour market.

37. The education programme followed the curricula of the host Governments of Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic and of Jordan and Egypt in the occupied territory of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip respectively. UNRWA's education programme operated with the technical cooperation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which supplied 12 staff on secondment to UNRWA. To meet the changing educational needs of the Palestine refugee community and to provide more technical support to the five fields, the Agency decided to reorganize its department of education by integrating all divisions into the UNRWA Institute of Education in Amman, Jordan and moving the office of the director of education from Vienna to the UNRWA Headquarters Branch in Amman effective 1 July 1993.

38. UNRWA successfully extended the basic education cycle in Jordan from nine to 10 years in conformity with the host Government's reform programme. A similar extension had been scheduled for UNRWA's West Bank programme, beginning in the 1993/94 school year. However, owing to a shortage of funds in 1993, that was suspended, pending improvement in the Agency's financial position. Another aspect of education reform in Jordan was the raising of minimum qualifications for certification of basic education cycle teachers to include possession of a four-year university degree. That development, added to the fact that large numbers of teacher training graduates had been unable to find employment in the existing labour market, led to UNRWA's decision to phase out its two-year teacher training programme in June 1993. It was in that context that the number of teacher training places Agency-wide was reduced from 850 to 645. Following consultations with the Government of Jordan and Palestinians, UNRWA further decided to replace the phased-out teacher training courses in Jordan and in the West Bank with educational sciences faculties offering a first-level university degree. Those faculties would provide pre-service teacher training to 225 students per year, or half the number of students enrolled in the former two-year course. They would also upgrade the qualifications of more than 6,000 serving teachers in Jordan, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the first university degree level through in-service teacher training programmes.

39. Academic achievement in Lebanon and the occupied territory remained a major concern. In Lebanon, the results of the 1992 Brevet examination showed reasonable improvement over 1991. However, in the occupied territory, where schools continued to suffer from military-ordered closures, curfews and general strikes, student achievement deteriorated further. The extent of that decline was revealed in a study conducted in Jordan and the West Bank in April and May 1992 by the Jordanian National Centre for Educational Research and Development, using international standardized tests in science and mathematics for eighth grade students. Although the results in UNRWA schools in both Jordan and the West Bank were disappointing compared with international average scores on both tests, the results among West Bank students were far below those of their counterparts in Jordan. That was a clear indicator that the frequent disruption of schools since the outbreak of the intifadah had had a significant effect on the academic achievement of Agency pupils. Similar examinations were given to Agency students in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic; results were expected towards the end of 1993. Of the 21 education systems world wide covered in the examination, only Jordan and the West Bank were from the Arab world.

40. Three of the four Agency training centres in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip also suffered considerably as a result of military closure orders, curfews and strikes, as well as the sealing-off of the occupied territory in late March 1993. The Gaza Training Centre was closed twice during the academic year by military order for periods exceeding one month in each case, while training at the Ramallah Men's Training Centre and the Kalandia Training Centre, both in the West Bank, was suspended for more than five weeks each as a result of the closure of the occupied territory. Students from the Gaza Strip, who accounted for over 50 per cent of the student body, were unable to return to the Ramallah Men's Training Centre until mid-June, when 102 out of 120 students were given permits by the Israeli authorities to leave the Strip. Of the 67 students from the Gaza Strip at the Kalandia Training Centre who applied for permits, 17 were denied permits and thus prevented from continuing their studies in the West Bank. In response to lost teaching time, UNRWA continued exceptional measures such as extending the school day by one or two periods, extending the training year, distributing self-learning materials and offering special classes to pupils with learning problems. Owing to budgetary constraints facing the Agency in 1993, funds for the future development and production of self-learning materials were frozen.

B. Health

41. UNRWA's primary health care included both preventive and curative medical care, environmental health services and supplementary nutritional assistance to pregnant and nursing women and children under the age of 3. Medical care at the primary level was complemented by secondary services such as hospitalization and other referral and support services. More than 3,000 professional and support staff, the majority of whom were locally recruited Palestinians, provided those services through a network of 119 health centres or points and mother and child health clinics, 62 dental clinics, 65 laboratories, 39 specialist clinics for paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, cardiology, ophthalmology and for the treatment of chest diseases and ear, nose and throat illnesses, as well as 204 special care clinics for the treatment of diabetes mellitus and hypertension. The effectiveness of the Agency's health care system was confirmed in a recent study conducted by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the occupied territory. The study revealed that refugee camps had the lowest infant and child mortality rates and that, despite high population density, economic hardship and poor environmental health conditions, infant and child mortality rates in the Gaza Strip were significantly lower than those among the general population of the West Bank. Those results could only be attributed to the fact that approximately two thirds of the Gaza population were refugees with guaranteed access to UNRWA-provided health care. Agency-wide, UNRWA's health clinics received nearly 6.1 million patient visits during the reporting period.

42. UNRWA introduced or expanded a number of services during the year. Of particular significance was the integration of family planning services, comprising health education, counselling and provision of a range of contraceptive techniques, within the maternal and child health care programme. In addition, new efforts were made to control non-communicable diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hereditary anaemia and management of iron-deficiency anaemia. UNRWA further developed its mental health programmes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with special emphasis on post-traumatic stress disorders among children, mainly related to the present situation. The Agency also planned the establishment of community mental health programmes in other fields. Through those initiatives, UNRWA strengthened its cooperation with local non-governmental organizations and maintained an active training programme for human resources development through in-service and post-graduate training at universities outside the region for one Agency medical officer from each of the five fields. In addition, mechanisms for the ongoing evaluation of UNRWA's mental health programme to assess appropriateness, cost-effectiveness and the efficiency of its basic components were further developed. Begun on an experimental basis in 1991, the Agency's annual health centre assessment survey surpassed expectations and was repeated in 1992, proving to be an effective management tool for motivating staff and maintaining control over both the quality and implementation of health services, in particular in new initiatives. An assessment was made of all Agency health centres and special recognition accorded to the health centre maintaining the highest standards in each field.

43. Demand on UNRWA medical services, whether general clinic, hospital or basic support services, continued to increase at a rate greater than the additional resources which could be made available to the programme. Increased demand could be attributed largely to the rising cost of alternative medical care and worsening socio-economic conditions, both of which had led many refugees to rely less on the private sector and more on UNRWA. During the period under review, UNRWA faced growing difficulties in maintaining, let alone improving upon, its provision of secondary and tertiary health care through general and specialized hospitals. In the absence of additional donor funds, the Agency would either have to substantially curtail services or extend existing cost-sharing arrangements with patients.

44. Poor environmental health conditions in refugee camps in the occupied territory and Lebanon were a further challenge to the Agency. Over the reporting period, UNRWA made marked progress towards completing the pre-planning phase for developing sanitation and water-related infrastructure in camps. Future implementation would require substantial funding, institutional development and extensive efforts to coordinate action with all parties concerned. In the Gaza Strip, contamination of the environment was severe, constituting a major threat to the health of the population, to environmental resources, and to future development. Within camps, only about 20 per cent of homes were connected to sewers, while outside the camps, in the municipalities, towns and villages, about 40 per cent were connected to sewers. The rest of the population in the Gaza Strip disposed of sanitary waste in seepage pits which often overflowed into surface drainage systems, which in turn overflowed onto roadways and into homes. Growing water salination surpassed by far the internationally accepted limits, and in some areas was dangerously high. Deteriorating water quality was also a problem, with nitrate concentrations having increased from about two times the international standard in the early 1980s to over six times the standard today. Nitrates originated from seepage of sewage and storm drainage into the ground as well as from fertilizers applied to agricultural lands. In the West Bank, environmental health problems tended to be localized and were often less evident than those in the Gaza Strip. Nevertheless, in some areas, such problems posed immediate and long-term threats to health and environment. For example, because extensive development of water supply systems in the West Bank was not accompanied by parallel development of waste-water disposal systems, sewage was fast becoming a major problem. Sewage and sullage commonly overflowed into surface drainage systems in urban areas and camps, which in turn caused flooding of streets and houses. That waste eventually flowed into valleys and agricultural lands, creating a major health and environmental hazard. As in the Gaza Strip, poor solid waste management was also a major concern, as municipalities did not have sanitary landfills. Instead, they resorted to uncontrolled open dumps and waste burning in the open air, causing air, surface and ground water pollution, which contributed to high rat and insect infestation. Most of the camps in the occupied territory had mechanized collection systems and disposed of solid waste at municipal dumping sites. In Lebanon, environmental health conditions in many of the sites where displaced Palestine refugees were squatting were cause for serious concern and inside the refugee camps conditions were poor, largely as a result of the damage caused to the environmental health infrastructure during the years of conflict.

C. Relief and social services

45. The relief and social services programme provided direct relief to refugees unable to meet basic needs for food and shelter, and promoted self-reliance among them and other disadvantaged Palestine refugees through developmental social welfare strategies. Over the reporting period, the demand for both approaches grew beyond the Agency's financial capacity to meet it to the extent required. The drastic curtailment in Palestinian economic activity in the occupied territory and continued restrictions on obtaining work permits in Lebanon further reduced self-reliance. Deteriorating socio-economic conditions, especially in the Gaza Strip, led to increased insistence by refugees that UNRWA provide sustained direct relief for larger numbers. At the same time, worsening socio-economic conditions in the occupied territory, and to a lesser extent in Lebanon, hampered the developmental initiatives of local communities supported by UNRWA, as limited local resources were increasingly used to address basic needs. It was in the context of soaring needs and diminishing resources that UNRWA conducted an evaluation of its special hardship programme, which by June 1993 reached 6.5 per cent of the refugee population. Following consideration of the evaluation's findings, decisions were taken to re-fashion the programme to make more efficient use of limited resources and to better meet immediate needs identified by refugee families receiving such assistance. Despite growing socio-economic hardship, 1993 budgetary constraints led to the imposition of a cap on the special hardship programme, and in particular the shelter rehabilitation component, at the 1992 level of cash allotments.

46. The number of Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA increased over the year by 5.6 per cent, from 2.65 million to 2.8 million. Natural increase offered only a partial explanation for this. In late 1992, UNRWA introduced a redesigned registration card. The old card had contained the name of the head of family only and cited the number of his direct descendants, while the new family card listed all members individually. That administrative measure did not alter refugee entitlement to services in any way, but was aimed at facilitating access and simplifying the administrative process required to establish individual eligibility. Many refugees, realizing that their family records were not current, requested that their files be updated. That process would take time to complete, and was likely to result in further augmentation in the number of registered refugees in the coming year. The remaining Palestinians in Kuwait were particularly concerned with ensuring that their records were correct. During the year, 1,102 of those families requested and received certification of their status as registered Palestine refugees.

47. In developmental social services, existing initiatives were consolidated and expanded in the areas of women in development, rehabilitation of the disabled and poverty alleviation through self-support projects for families registered under the special hardship programme, income-generating and income-conserving activities at women's programme centres and community rehabilitation centres, as well as under the Palestinian Women's Initiative Fund. A major effort was directed at building up the community's capacity to provide social services of its own, with technical support and complementary funding from UNRWA. By the end of the reporting period, of the 71 women's programme centres, 5 were managed by committees of Palestine refugee women themselves. Locally run community rehabilitation projects for disabled refugees increased from 14 to 18, with growing attention to home-based interventions and vocational rehabilitation. Community representatives with a role in both those programmes were trained in project management and the technical skills specific to each volunteer's role. The number of active self-support projects for the poorest refugees, assisted by grants or, increasingly, loans, rose to 672, of which 593 were ongoing. The number of projects implemented under the Palestinian Women's Initiative Fund, which had been established early in 1992 to provide technical support and financial assistance to women-owned business or support services, increased to 10. Local and international non-governmental organizations were important partners with UNRWA in those developments. By the end of the reporting period, however, financial constraints facing the Agency and the consequent need for austerity measures had begun to affect UNRWA's ability to implement fully its strategy on disability adopted only a year earlier to augment community-based rehabilitation and specialist education and other services. However, many more disabled refugees were being helped by the Agency with about the same level of financial resources.

D. Extraordinary measures for Lebanon and the occupied territory

48. The effects of the intifadah and Israeli countermeasures further affected the economy of the occupied territory, which had already suffered numerous set-backs in recent years. In Lebanon, despite the improvement in the security situation, the socio-economic conditions of Palestinians remained precarious. As a consequence, UNRWA was faced with the ever-growing emergency needs of the population. In the five years ending December 1992, expenditure on the programme of extraordinary measures for Lebanon and the occupied territory (EMLOT) totalled more than US$ 139 million. During 1992, US$ 1.68 million, including the value of in-kind donations, were expended under this programme in Lebanon, US$ 6.2 million were expended in the West Bank and US$ 7 million in the Gaza Strip. An additional US$ 2.6 million for Lebanon, US$ 8.8 million for the West Bank and US$ 14 million for the Gaza Strip, in cash and kind, were budgeted for 1993.

49. To meet the demands for emergency food distribution during the period under review, food commodities amounting to 14,270 tonnes in the Gaza Strip and 7,237 tonnes in the West Bank were budgeted for at a cost of US$ 7.7 million. However, curfews and closures and the resulting lack of income meant that the demand for emergency food aid greatly exceeded those amounts. Following extended curfews in several areas, as well as the closure of the Gaza Strip in December 1992, UNRWA issued an appeal for additional food donations, and distributed food to nearly 80,000 families. In May 1993, following the closure of both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, UNRWA began distribution of available stocks and issued an urgent appeal for special donations of flour, rice and sugar for distribution to 120,000 families in the Gaza Strip and 39,000 families in the West Bank.

50. The Agency provided US$ 1,044,000 in cash, plus tents and blankets worth US$ 46,000, for assistance on an emergency basis to needy refugee families in the occupied territory in connection with detention or deportation of their breadwinners; death or injury as a result of confrontations; and destruction or damage to shelters as a result of searches and military-ordered demolition. In the Gaza Strip, destruction of shelters and extensive damage to household contents increased significantly. Military operations carried out in February, March and April 1993 severely damaged 58 homes, of which 26 were rendered uninhabitable. In response, UNRWA expended US$ 10,000 in immediate emergency assistance in the form of food, tents, blankets, mattresses, kitchen kits and potable water. In addition, US$ 60,250 as emergency cash assistance was disbursed to the affected families. In December 1992, emergency teams assisted 54 families in Beach and Jabalia camps in the Gaza Strip when their shelters were flooded and damaged by heavy rain. Cash, roofing sheets, bedding and food were provided.

51. In the health sector, extraordinary measures introduced originally in 1988 to cope with the increased need for emergency medical care were continued, including the operation of afternoon clinics in the West Bank and afternoon and night clinics in the Gaza Strip, which required a staff of 184, including 37 doctors. UNRWA, in cooperation with UNICEF, maintained six physiotherapy clinics each in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The Agency provided US$ 895,000 from emergency funds to infants considered to be nutritionally at risk and to school-age children and pregnant and nursing mothers.

52. To compensate for lost teaching time in the occupied territory, UNRWA expended US$ 110,000 in 1992 for supplies and equipment to produce self-learning materials for elementary and preparatory school pupils. Large quantities of such materials were produced and distributed in the Gaza Strip in January 1993 to compensate for lost school time during most of October and December 1992. However, owing to financial difficulties facing the Agency in 1993, financing for that programme was suspended. To meet conditions imposed by the Israeli security forces for allowing some schools closed by military order to reopen, the Agency spent US$ 468,000 in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1992 to construct or reconstruct boundary walls and erect new wire-mesh fences surrounding school premises. Often those walls or fences were damaged in security operations and had to be rebuilt.

53. The refugee affairs officer and legal aid and assistance programmes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, described in detail elsewhere in the present report, were financed out of emergency funds at a cost of approximately US$ 3 million per year.

54. In Lebanon, some 6,000 Palestinian families displaced by the years of fighting still lived in intolerable conditions outside the camps, often squatting in damaged or unfinished buildings lacking basic amenities such as clean running water, electricity and proper sanitation facilities. The problem of rehousing those families gained urgency following the Government's decision to resettle displaced Lebanese. That would necessarily involve the eviction of displaced squatters so that properties could be returned to their lawful owners. UNRWA received no response to funding appeals to assist displaced Palestinians, and the total resources that the Agency was itself able to reprogramme came to only US$ 0.5 million, compared with an estimated immediate requirement of US$ 3.3 million. By June 1993, over 1,000 Palestine refugee families had been served with official eviction notices due to come into effect at the end of that month. The Agency engaged in a dialogue with government officials and refugee representatives in an effort to resolve the problem, and renewed its appeal for financial aid. The situation was further compounded by the reluctance of some refugee families to move from their temporary accommodation before receiving compensation for yet another upheaval.

55. UNRWA's emergency operations in Lebanon continued to assist those Palestinians most affected by deteriorating socio-economic conditions. Flour, rice, sugar, oil, skim milk and other commodities were distributed to 15,700 families totalling 81,000 persons. To assist refugees with repair or reconstruction of their shelters, US$ 461,000 was provided. The Agency continued to subsidize hospital expenses for refugees as well as for needy non-registered refugees, in the amount of US$ 104,000. Medical care services introduced on an emergency basis in 1986 for non-registered refugees continued, owing to that group's lack of access to alternative medical care. The deportation of over 400 Palestinians from the occupied territory to south Lebanon, a group that included 16 UNRWA staff members, created a humanitarian problem. In the initial period after the deportation, the Agency immediately provided medical care and relief assistance, including water, food, tents, blankets, heating oil, medical supplies and other essential items.

E. Expanded programme of assistance

56. In response to deteriorating socio-economic conditions and increased unemployment, UNRWA introduced an expanded programme of assistance in 1988 in the occupied territory of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The objectives of the programme were to improve living conditions in refugee camps and upgrade the infrastructure through which Agency services were delivered. The expanded programme of assistance also included specific objectives such as promoting sustainable employment, upgrading Agency installations, rehabilitating infrastructure, and improving environmental sanitation in the camps. Since the introduction of the expanded programme of assistance, various UNRWA installations have been improved and new ones constructed, including schools, additional classrooms, health centres and women's programme centres. Approximately US$ 54 million were received or pledged by mid-1993, against a target figure of US$ 65 million.

57. In the aftermath of the Gulf war and in an effort to assist the local Palestinian economy, create sustainable jobs and encourage self-reliance, UNRWA set up a revolving loan fund in 1991, initially in the Gaza Strip, followed by the West Bank and to a lesser extent Jordan and Lebanon. A key objective of the income-generation programme was to help stimulate employment by providing finance capital in the form of a loan for the establishment or expansion of Palestinian enterprises in the occupied territory. In the Gaza Strip, 105 loans, amounting to over US$ 2 million had been disbursed by the end of the reporting period. That amount included some US$ 250,000 which had been repaid by borrowers and disbursed as new loans. In Jordan, 28 loans totalling US$ 180,000 and in Lebanon, 13 loans totalling US$ 82,000, had been disbursed. In the West Bank, 37 projects had received loans amounting to US$ 1.3 million. By the end of the reporting period, donors had contributed or pledged US$ 4.2 million specifically for the Agency's revolving loan funds. Enterprises supported by the programme covered a range of economic sectors. In agriculture, for example, UNRWA loans supported a new plant nursery and the expansion of an agricultural equipment factory which manufactured bladed ploughs and other agricultural equipment. Commercial projects included several pharmacies and film-developing laboratories, while in the food sector, loans were approved to several manufacturers of biscuits and sweets. Projects in industrial services included workshops for rebuilding clutches as well as reconstructing brake shoes and drums. And in small industry, UNRWA supported manufacturers of industrial moulds for the production of plastic components and rubber automobile spare parts.

58. Within its three main programmes in education, health, and relief and social services, UNRWA completed 33 projects to improve installations rendering services to Palestine refugees. In addition, 7 schools and 33 classrooms and specialized rooms such as libraries, science laboratories and multi-purpose rooms at various schools were undergoing construction or upgrading at the end of the reporting period. Kalandia Training Centre in the West Bank, one of UNRWA's oldest training centres, was also being upgraded and renovated through a special contribution of US$ 2 million. In addition, US$ 0.5 million had been allocated for improvement of sanitation facilities in elementary and preparatory schools.

59. Approximately US$ 10.7 million was allocated to address poor environmental conditions in the refugee camps through sewerage schemes, water supply projects and improved refuse disposal systems. Eight health centres, four maternity clinics, one mother and child health subcentre and four women's programme centres were under construction at the end of June 1993. Approximately US$ 3.6 million was allocated for housing improvement in refugee camps in the occupied territory and Jordan.

60. At the end of the reporting period, 45 projects with a value of US$ 27.7 million were under negotiation with potential donors and 142 projects amounting to US$ 46.1 million were under implementation. In the West Bank, coordination with the Israeli authorities did not result in any projects being delayed, but in the Gaza Strip five projects and three sub-projects for which funds were available were unable to proceed with implementation owing to delays by the authorities.

III. FINANCIAL MATTERS

A. Fund structure

61. During the reporting period, UNRWA received contributions and incurred expenditure under the following main headings:

(a) Regular programme;

(b) Extraordinary measures for Lebanon and the occupied territory (EMLOT);

(d) Gaza General Hospital project.

The regular programme was budgeted and accounted for under the following sections:

(a) General Fund;

(b) Funded ongoing activities;

62. The budgets under the General Fund and funded ongoing activities covered all recurrent costs incurred in the implementation of the Agency's regular main programmes, namely its regular education, health, and relief and social services programmes, as well as those activities required to support services, such as the technical and supply and transport functions, data processing, and administration and management.

63. Funded ongoing activities, while just as much a part of the Agency's regular programme as those funded under the General Fund, were financed separately by donors who took the responsibility of funding a number of defined Agency activities.

64. Capital projects represented investments required to improve the Agency's capital facilities such as schools, health clinics and various relief and social services centres, and to bring those up to an acceptable level. For those projects, special contributions were sought from donors in addition to their regular contributions to UNRWA.

65. The special projects were all funded separately from contributions received specifically for those projects. They were usually of an ongoing nature and in that respect and with regard to the way in which they were funded they resembled the Agency's funded ongoing activities. There was, however, an important difference. Although the special projects formed part of the UNRWA regular programme, they were by definition not a part of its core activities. The implication was that if special contributions for such projects ceased, those projects would not automatically revert to the General Fund for financing but might have to be discontinued.

66. The fund for extraordinary measures for Lebanon and the occupied territory was created in 1990 through the amalgamation of the Lebanon emergency fund established in 1982, and a similar fund for the occupied territory which was established shortly after the beginning of the intifadah and Israeli countermeasures. The aim of that fund was to alleviate the problems faced by the refugees in Lebanon and the occupied territory arising from the particularly difficult prevailing circumstances.

67. The expanded programme of assistance was also created in 1988 following the outbreak of the intifadah and Israeli response. Its aim was to help to improve the living conditions and deteriorated infrastructure in the occupied territory.

68. The Gaza General Hospital project had been launched in 1990 in recognition of the fact that the refugee population in Gaza was in serious need of more hospital beds and adequate medical care. The total number of beds available was clearly insufficient. Preparatory work was carried out, which included the design work and the initial tendering process for the construction of the hospital. While funding for construction had been secured, the Agency continued to seek the additional amounts required to equip the hospital and to cover running costs once it became operational.

B. Budgets and sources of income

69. Until the end of 1991, UNRWA budgets were prepared on an annual basis. Beginning with the biennium 1992-1993, the budget now covered two years. The total biennial budget for 1992-1993 amounted to US$ 572 million.

70. Only about 3.5 per cent of UNRWA's regular budget was funded by the United Nations. For the funding of the remaining part of the budget, UNRWA continued to depend on voluntary contributions and in-kind donations.

71. The biennial budget estimates for 1994-1995 are provided in an addendum to the present report.

C. Current financial situation

72. There was an overall excess of expenditure over income for the year 1992 of US$ 10.2 million. That figure, which is reflected in the income and expenditure statements of the Agency's interim accounts for 1992, was made up as follows:

		Millions of dollars
General Fund		(2.6)
Project funds:
	Funded ongoing activities	2.2
	Capital and special projects	(0.2)
Subtotal: Regular programme funds		(0.6)
Extraordinary measures in Lebanon and the occupied territory (EMLOT)		(7.1)
Expanded programme of assistance (EPA)		(6.7)
Gaza Hospital project		4.2
Total		(10.2)

An analysis of the Agency's balance sheet gave rise to the following observations:

73. The deficit in the General Fund of US$ 2.6 million reduced the Agency's working capital by the same amount down to the level of US$ 37.6 million, which included a reserve of US$ 6.5 million for emergencies and other contingencies.

74. By the end of 1992, there was an accumulated deficit of US$ 6.4 million in the funding of two major ongoing activities. Furthermore, UNRWA's base EMLOT programme showed a negative balance of US$ 1.2 million. That figure did not contain a further negative balance of US$ 0.2 million for one-time EMLOT projects which were funded from specially designated contributions. To the extent that funding could not be secured for those accumulated deficits, they would ultimately be charged to the General Fund.

75. With the level of contributions projected to decline in 1993, in combination with the continuous pressure on the Agency to increase its expenditure to cope with the natural growth in the number of its beneficiaries and worsening socio-economic conditions, the unsatisfactory financial situation tended to deteriorate further.

76. Owing to factors outside the Agency's control, including reduced donor aid budgets, competing demands from new emergencies in other parts of the world, inflation and demographic growth among Palestine refugees, the Agency projected at the beginning of 1993 a further deficit of US$ 28.5 million for that year for the General Fund and EMLOT. That projected funding shortfall threatened to cause a reduction in the services provided to Palestine refugees in a situation where socio-economic conditions continued to deteriorate.

77. UNRWA's appeal to donors in February 1993 met with a positive response from some donors. Significant efforts were made by the Agency to broaden its donor base and encourage countries in the region to contribute more to UNRWA. Although many Governments expressed their appreciation of UNRWA's work and recognized the serious nature of its financial difficulties, those additional funds received led to only a minor improvement in the Agency's financial situation.

IV. LEGAL MATTERS

A. Agency staff

78. During the reporting period, there was a substantial increase, as compared with the preceding year, in the number of staff members in the occupied territory arrested and held in detention without trial. The number of staff arrested and detained in Jordan and Lebanon decreased, while the number in the Syrian Arab Republic increased from zero to three. The total number of staff detained during the reporting period was 71, of whom 40 were arrested and released without charge or trial, 3 were charged, tried and sentenced, and 28 remained in detention at the end of the reporting period (see annex I, table 11). Sixteen UNRWA staff, 11 from the Gaza Strip and 5 from the West Bank, were among more than 400 Palestinians deported to Lebanon in December 1992. That was the largest number of UNRWA staff members deported from the occupied territory in a single year since the Israeli occupation began in 1967. None of the UNRWA staff was among the deportees who returned with Israeli permission in subsequent months. UNRWA's protests to the Israeli authorities on those deportations were to no avail.

79. In spite of the Agency's frequent approaches to the relevant authorities during the reporting period, UNRWA was not provided with adequate and timely information on the reasons for the arrest and detention of its staff members. In the absence of such information, the Agency could not determine whether their arrest and detention arose out of official duties of the staff members. Thus, in regard to the arrest and detention as well as to the deportation of its staff, UNRWA was unable to ensure that their rights and duties flowing from the Charter of the United Nations, the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations of 1946 and the relevant Staff Regulations and Rules of UNRWA were duly respected.

80. The Agency had access to 11 staff members from the West Bank and 18 from the Gaza Strip detained in prisons and detention centres in the occupied territory and Israel. The treatment of staff members in detention in the occupied territory and Israel was a major cause of concern to the Agency, with staff members upon their release complaining of ill-treatment, including beatings and psychological abuse. Despite efforts on the part of the Agency, it was unable to visit staff in detention elsewhere.

81. Two UNRWA staff members were killed by members of the Israeli security forces in the Gaza Strip during the period under review. In February 1993, a 28-year-old male nurse was shot in the back of the head while rendering assistance to a wounded youth in Rafah. In March 1993, a 47-year-old male UNRWA teacher was shot and killed while standing outside a wake house in Rafah. No clashes or disturbances had been reported in the area at the time. Those were the first killings of Agency staff members by the security forces since the outbreak of the intifadah in December 1987. One locally recruited staff member was killed by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for alleged collaboration with the Israeli authorities.

82. In the performance of their duties, staff members, both international and locally recruited, continued to be subjected to various forms of mistreatment by the Israeli security forces, including beatings, threats, insults, intimidation and temporary detention. Thirty-nine such cases of mistreatment of staff were recorded during the reporting period in the Gaza Strip and 64 in the West Bank. For example, in April 1993, an international refugee affairs officer and his assistant were pulled out of a United Nations vehicle by Israeli soldiers near Jalazone camp in the West Bank. The refugee affairs officer had a rifle pointed at his throat while his assistant was punched on the head and body.

83. Difficulties related to the movement of locally recruited staff members in and out of the West Bank increased substantially. As reported in previous years, there were lengthy delays in clearance by the Israeli authorities of staff members for travel on official duty. The Agency continued to experience difficulties in obtaining entry for its locally recruited drivers to Ben Gurion international airport in Israel, despite assurances from the Israeli authorities that such entry would be facilitated. The freedom of movement of staff members was further impeded by the frequent imposition of curfews and the continued insistence of the Israeli authorities that locally recruited staff members be in possession of curfew permits. The Agency's efforts to obtain curfew permits for locally recruited staff members in the Gaza Strip continued to be subjected to lengthy bureaucratic delays by the Israeli authorities and the number made available consistently fell short of that requested by the Agency. The arbitrary designation of closed military areas also constituted an impediment to the legitimate movement of staff members, including international staff.

84. At the end of March 1993, the Israeli authorities announced the closure of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from Israel and East Jerusalem. This affected approximately 400 staff members who were required to travel regularly from their homes in the West Bank to East Jerusalem where the UNRWA Field Office was located. Some practical measures were agreed upon with the Israeli authorities to reduce the impact of the closure on Agency operations. However, those measures resolved only partly the problems encountered.

B. Agency services and premises

85. In providing essential services to the population in the occupied territory, the Agency worked in an atmosphere which remained characterized by ongoing violence. The Agency recorded a total of 200 persons killed and 5,198, including a substantial number of women and children, injured in clashes with the Israeli security forces during the period (see annex I, table 12). Gunshot injuries sustained by children accounted for 35 per cent of all gunshot injuries recorded between 1 January and 30 June 1993. Rising violence was of particular concern towards the end of the reporting period in the Gaza Strip, where 29 fatalities were recorded in May 1993. That represented the largest number of deaths in a single month since the outbreak of the intifadah in December 1987.

86. Agency staff, in particular refugee affairs officers and legal officers, continued their efforts to provide for the safety and security of the Palestinian population in the occupied territory and to safeguard their legal and human rights by providing a level of protection and humanitarian assistance in a variety of situations. Approaches to the local military authorities by Agency staff present in potentially violent situations were at times successful in helping to defuse tensions and hence to lower casualties. Refugee affairs officers assisted in the evacuation of the wounded and otherwise facilitated the provision of medical services, often in tense and difficult circumstances. They also facilitated Agency operations by, for example, ensuring that clinics and schools remained operational, that food distribution was carried out successfully, and that the privileges and immunities attaching to both UNRWA staff members and UNRWA installations were respected. Their approaches to the local military authorities often assisted in solving a variety of day-to-day problems experienced by Palestinians, including problems associated with arrests and detentions, the confiscation of identity cards, the holding of funerals, imposition of curfews and restrictions on movement. UNRWA continued to provide legal advice and a measure of financial assistance in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to refugees seeking redress through available legal mechanisms.

87. Measures adopted by the Israeli military forces in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip became harsher in certain respects during the reporting period, and the Agency had reason to protest against a variety of those measures taken, including the increased use of live ammunition during civil disturbances, the punitive demolition and sealing of homes and interference with the provision of medical services, especially the stopping and searching of ambulances and harassment of their crews and emergency teams. A new feature of the reporting period which UNRWA protested was the firing of rockets and use of explosive charges against Palestinian homes during search operations which the authorities stated were for the purpose of apprehending wanted persons. The Agency also protested incidents of sniper fire from observation posts which in several instances resulted in death and injury in situations where there appeared to be no immediate danger to the soldiers involved. On those occasions when the Israeli authorities responded to Agency protests, they cited security considerations as justification for their actions.

88. During the reporting period, there were 77 incursions into UNRWA installations by the Israeli security forces in the West Bank and 186 such incursions in the Gaza Strip. At times, those resulted in threats against, and injury to, Agency staff and damage to Agency property. The Agency recorded 78 incidents in which UNRWA clinic and hospital premises were entered. Agency premises were on occasion used by the Israeli security forces in the course of military operations. In the Gaza Strip in particular, UNRWA schools were at times used as temporary interrogation centres. The Agency protested such actions as violations of its privileges and immunities. On those occasions where replies were received from the Israeli authorities, their explanations invoked considerations of security. Two long-standing incursions into UNRWA premises mentioned in the annual reports of preceding years continued, despite repeated protests by the Agency. Those were the presence of a military observation post on the roof of an Agency school in Aqabat Jabr camp in the West Bank, which had been virtually continuous since November 1989, and the fencing-off by the Israeli military authorities of the UNRWA women's programme centre in Jabalia camp in the Gaza Strip since May 1990.

89. During the reporting period, interference by the security forces with UNRWA ambulance and medical services became more frequent. In the Gaza Strip, 61 incidents were recorded during the reporting period during which ambulances were stopped, searched and on occasion shot at, and ambulance drivers and accompanying medical personnel were at times beaten and had their identity documents confiscated. There were 11 such incidents in the West Bank. By way of example, on 9 October 1992, an UNRWA ambulance was stopped in Bureij camp by Israeli soldiers who dragged two injured youths out of the vehicle, and then beat them with rifle butts and bricks. On 22 March 1993, an UNRWA ambulance was stopped by Israeli soldiers, again in Bureij camp. The driver was forcibly removed from the vehicle, pushed to the ground and kicked by the soldiers.

90. The demolition of houses and camp shelters for punitive reasons continued in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. There were no demolitions within refugee camps in the West Bank, but the Israeli authorities sealed 9 shelters consisting of 32 rooms, affecting 9 families totalling 64 persons. Outside the camps, some 109 dwellings were destroyed and 21 dwellings partially or completely sealed, affecting 130 families totalling 814 persons. Inside refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli authorities demolished six rooms in one shelter, affecting 3 families totalling 15 persons, and sealed a further 34 rooms, affecting 19 families totalling 134 persons. In addition, 130 dwellings in the Gaza Strip and 3 in the West Bank were completely or partially destroyed by the unopposed use of rockets and explosive charges by the military or security forces in circumstances described above, affecting some 1,300 persons. The Agency protested those actions as being contrary to articles 33 and 53 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. The Israeli authorities continued to object to the reconstruction of demolished shelters in camps, despite earlier assurances by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs that no such objection would be raised. In addition, at least 105 homes in the West Bank and 38 in the Gaza Strip were demolished by the Israeli authorities on the grounds that proper building permits had not been obtained by the owners.

91. As described in annual reports from 1988/89 onwards, the Government of Israel in August 1988, citing temporary budgetary constraints, suspended payment of clearance, warehousing and transport charges, for which it was responsible in respect of UNRWA supplies under the terms of the Comay-Michelmore agreement of 1967. The Agency advanced sums to cover those payments during the period of their suspension from 1988 to 1991, on the understanding that the sums so advanced would be reimbursed by the Israeli authorities. As from 1 January 1992, the Government of Israel resumed payment of current charges and subsequently agreed to reimburse the Agency US$ 4.2 million in three equal instalments, the first of which was paid in April 1993.

C. Claims against Governments

92. The Agency regretted that no progress was made with regard to its various claims against Governments.

V. JORDAN

A. Education

93. The 201 UNRWA schools in Jordan operated normally throughout the reporting period, providing basic education at the elementary and preparatory levels to 152,350 pupils, an increase of more than 12,350 pupils over the previous year; 10,870 of those additional pupils were in the tenth grade, which was introduced into the education system at the beginning of the 1992/93 school year as part of an education reform policy adopted by the host Government. To accommodate the increased school population, UNRWA employed more than 450 additional teachers and constructed over 60 new classrooms. In addition, the Agency built three new schools in Baqa'a, Marka and Souf camps to replace dilapidated prefabricated premises, and five other schools were under construction at the end of the reporting period. Over 180 Palestine refugee students received scholarships awarded by UNRWA for study at Jordanian universities.

94. In May 1993, the Jordanian National Centre for Educational Research and Development issued a report on the results of a study conducted by the Centre in April and May 1992 which used international standardized tests in mathematics and science for eighth grade students. In the mathematics test, students at all schools in Jordan ranked 18th among the 21 education systems tested world wide, while in science they ranked 15th. UNRWA students in Jordan scored somewhat higher than government school students in mathematics, but lower in science. The Agency was analysing the results of the components of the two tests to develop a plan of action to effect improvement in Agency schools.

95. One of the major developments in the education programme in Jordan was the decision to upgrade the teacher training section at the Amman Training Centre to a four-year educational sciences faculty offering a first-level university degree. Once established, that faculty would provide pre-service teacher training in addition to upgrading the qualifications of some 2,300 Agency teachers to the first university degree level. Arrangements were under way for the preparation of the study plan, curricula, admission and graduation requirements and recruitment of faculty staff to obtain accreditation from the Jordanian Ministry of Higher Education. The new educational sciences faculty was scheduled to open in September 1993.

96. The Amman and Wadi Seer Training Centres operated normally throughout the reporting period, with training places for 1,417 students, of whom 1,192 were trainees in the trades and semi-professional training courses and 225 in the pre-service teacher training programme. Enrolment in the teacher training programme at the Amman Training Centre for 1992/93 was reduced by 50 per cent in conformity with the Agency's decision to phase out the two-year programme by 1993. An exceptionally high percentage of students at both centres continued to achieve pass rates in the general comprehensive examination organized for all community colleges in Jordan. For the examination held in mid-1992, trainees from the Wadi Seer Training Centre achieved a pass rate of 96.6 per cent, while those from the Amman Training Centre achieved 95.3 per cent, compared with a national average of 83 per cent in teacher training and 67 per cent in vocational training.

97. The Amman Training Centre offered post-secondary semi-professional training for assistant pharmacists, assistant laboratory technicians and business administrators. A new course in banking and financial management was introduced for 24 trainees. A hairdressing course for female trainees was offered at the post-preparatory level. At the Wadi Seer Training Centre, courses were offered in the mechanical, electrical and building trades, as well as in semi-professional vocations such as civil engineering, architectural draughting and land surveying. Construction was under way in two workshops in preparation for a new industrial electronics course to be introduced in the 1993/94 training year. To meet accreditation requirements for courses in the building trades, UNRWA provided special equipment and was preparing a handicrafts unit, a sanitary systems laboratory and a statics and materials testing laboratory.

98. The in-service teacher training programme continued to be offered to teachers, head teachers and instructors to upgrade their qualifications, meet curricular changes, update teaching methodologies and enhance administrative skills. A total of 281 education staff members enrolled in those training courses.

B. Health

99. UNRWA provided health services to over 1 million refugees in Jordan through a network of 21 health centres and mother and child health clinics, 16 dental clinics, 18 laboratories, 12 specialist clinics for dermatology, obstetrics and gynaecology, ophthalmology and for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and ear, nose and throat illnesses, as well as 17 special care clinics for diabetes mellitus and 14 for hypertension. The increase in demand created by the influx of over 300,000 Palestinians into Jordan as a result of the Gulf crisis continued to be felt. The number of medical, dental and other consultations exceeded 1.5 million, a 10 per cent increase over 1991.

100. UNRWA made marked progress in the construction of new health facilities and the expansion of existing ones. A new centre was established in Awajan in the Zarqa area, where a large number of returnees from the Gulf resided; construction to replace dilapidated premises was completed at health centres in Amman New Camp and Souf Camp. Work was completed on an extension of Husn and Jabal el-Husein health centres and on the construction of a mother and child health centre in Irbid. Additional measures were taken to improve accessibility to services and reduce overcrowding at camp health centres by providing the full range of general clinic services to children and women of child-bearing age from existing mother and child care centres.

101. An outbreak of measles in Amman New Camp between late 1992 and early 1993 affected mainly schoolchildren between 5 and 14 years of age. A similar epidemiological trend was reported to the Ministry of Health from areas adjacent to the camp. About 185 refugee children became ill, of whom more than two thirds had been vaccinated during infancy. The Agency responded with a mass immunization campaign in Jordan, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the introduction of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine Agency-wide for infants at the age of 15 months and for children at school entry in order to reinforce immunity.

102. The scheme for reimbursement of hospitalization costs was revised to ensure better control over expenditure, which continued to escalate owing to rising costs of care, high demand on UNRWA for hospital services and the large number of Palestinian returnees from the Gulf. When the approved budget provisions for that purpose proved inadequate to meet needs, additional funds were allotted. Effective January 1993, reimbursement for treatment at government hospitals was authorized up to a fixed cost ceiling, while treatment at private hospitals was authorized on an emergency basis only, provided that charges did not exceed reimbursement levels approved by UNRWA for patients treated at government hospitals.

103. In preparation for the introduction of family planning services in all health centres during 1993, UNRWA, in coordination with UNICEF, conducted nine workshops to train 130 medical and nursing staff in planned parenthood education and family planning. In cooperation with the Jordan University of Science and Technology, UNRWA held an inter-field workshop for UNRWA staff from all fields. Conducted in Irbid, Jordan in January 1993, the workshop's main objectives were to assess the knowledge and skills of staff who possessed post-graduate qualifications in public health and to assess future needs for post-graduate and in-service training with special emphasis on applied epidemiology, statistics and computer skills. An additional goal was to explore the feasibility of undertaking such training at institutions in the region, which would have the advantage of directing training towards identified needs in the actual work environment. Such a move would also allow for the participation of a larger number of staff as the cost would be lower than that for fellowships abroad.

C. Relief and social services

104. Over the reporting period, the number of Palestine refugees registered in Jordan rose from 1.01 million in 1992 to 1.07 million, an increase of 6 per cent. That unusually large increase was attributable to the return of Palestinians from the Gulf States and the desire of the refugees to ensure that their records with the United Nations were up to date. The introduction of the new registration cards in Jordan encouraged extended families to identify the individual nuclear units separately. The number of "families" consequently increased by 8.5 per cent, from 145,188 to 157,659. Relative economic stability helped to maintain the special hardship population at a constant level which, at 2.9 per cent of the total registered refugees, remained the lowest percentage Agency-wide. A particular problem was faced by families of young men who at the age of 18 would have undertaken compulsory military service in the past, a requirement which had now been suspended. Because the special hardship programme only covered families in which there was no employable adult male, the families of those young men could no longer qualify for assistance. Under the regular shelter rehabilitation programme, 108 special hardship families had shelters repaired or upgraded to an acceptable standard over the year. In addition, repairs were completed in mid-1992 to 723 shelters damaged in the unusually heavy storms of the previous winter.

105. UNRWA contributed to small enterprise development and employment creation through several initiatives, including the Palestinian Women's Initiative Fund and low-interest loans to the private sector. Over the year, 200 women followed a course on how to establish small businesses; 6 were granted loans and another 35 submitted viable proposals for funding. Other loans, averaging US$ 5,200, were made to 20 entrepreneurs – men and women, able-bodied and disabled, individually or in groups – who were supported with training in business and production skills. Lack of adequate funds prevented assistance of that type on a much larger scale. Additionally, 18 families enrolled in the special hardship programme received grants for projects providing income support. There were 149 active projects in Jordan; 133 families had become independent of special hardship assistance through the self-support programme.

106. In the 20 women's programme centres, skill training and production to promote income conservation and generation were the dominant activities, attracting 5,300 women from refugee camps and surrounding areas. Four new facilities were opened during the year. In Marka and Zarqa, extensions were added to existing centres; in Husn, a disused supplementary feeding centre and in Talbiyeh, a former handicrafts unit, were converted for use as women's programme centres. The Talbiyeh Centre was the first in Jordan to be managed entirely by the community. Initiated by local women, it opened in February 1993 following the formation of a committee and the completion of a needs assessment in the camp. A training programme for the committee in administrative skills and basic developmental strategies was coordinated between UNRWA and a local non-governmental organization. In the Amman New Camp, the legal literacy course offered by UNRWA prompted a group of participants to seek assistance in forming a paralegal community support group for women and their families in need of informal access to legal information and advice.

107. The community-based rehabilitation programme for the disabled advanced during the year, with local committees achieving official recognition and financial management being transferred from UNRWA to the committees. Training was provided for committee members and volunteer rehabilitation workers. Cooperation between community rehabilitation centres and local non-governmental organizations was also further strengthened. Prospects for the continuation of the programme improved, although, as in other fields, financial support from or through UNRWA remained necessary.

VI. LEBANON

A. Education

108. Owing to improvement in the political and security situation in Lebanon, the 33,172 pupils attending 76 elementary and preparatory Agency schools enjoyed an almost normal school year. The school population in 1992/93 was 1,228 pupils less than in the previous year because of the exceptionally high drop-out rate which followed the government-mandated implementation of strict measures regarding repeaters and reinstatement of the Brevet examination in 1991.

109. The results of the official Brevet examination for fourth preparatory grade pupils conducted in July 1992 reflected a reasonable improvement in student achievement compared with the results of the examination held in July 1991. Progress could be directly related to improvement in the security situation, provision of extra class periods, awareness among the pupils and the community of the importance of the Brevet examination and the implementation of remedial plans following an analysis of the July 1991 results. Those measures, which were expanded during the reporting period, included extra teaching hours, individual sessions with all pupils, and special lessons for groups of pupils based on identified needs. Nevertheless, the generally low academic achievement among Palestine refugees in Lebanon remained a matter of great concern to UNRWA. An internal evaluation of the management of the education programme in Lebanon was conducted in March 1993 with the aim of improving the educational process. Based on the study, the necessary remedial activities would be implemented. A separate assessment of student achievement in Lebanon was conducted in May 1993 using international standardized tests in mathematics and science for eighth grade pupils. The results were expected to be issued before the end of 1993.

110. The Siblin Training Centre operated normally during the 1992/93 academic year. Training places were provided to 644 students, of whom 537 were male and 107 female; 340 students were full-time boarders. Two new courses, in auto-electronics and hairdressing, were introduced in September 1992, raising the total number of vocational and technical courses offered at the Centre to 19. Despite additional funds having been made available, the Centre was still in need of extensive improvements such as updating equipment, constructing additional workshops and renovating old ones.

111. The in-service teacher training programme ran smoothly. Twenty-four trade instructors enrolled in the three-year vocational training instructors course completed their second year, while 213 schoolteachers and head teachers enrolled in seven in-service training courses. UNRWA provided 42 university scholarships to Palestine refugee students in Lebanon.

112. Funds were secured to reconstruct two school premises in the Saida area, one in Ein el-Hilweh and the other in Mieh Mieh camp, which had suffered substantial damage from shelling in mid-1991. However, owing to problems in securing a site in Mieh Mieh camp, those funds were reprogrammed to house families that had received eviction notices. In addition, sufficient funds were secured to build a school in Sabra/Mar Elias to replace the existing unsatisfactory school premises. Again, as a result of problems related to obtaining a suitable location, those funds were reprogrammed to allow the construction of a school in el-Buss camp and provide additional funds for the new school in Ein el-Hilweh. Two new learning resource centres were built during the reporting period. In the Saida area, a new school building was rented in lieu of a dilapidated building which used to accommodate two preparatory schools. In Na'ima, situated along the coastal road south of Beirut, the Agency rented premises which would be used for both primary and preparatory classes for students from displaced families who had previously been required to travel daily to schools near Siblin.

B. Health

113. UNRWA remained the main provider of health care to approximately 330,000 Palestine refugees in Lebanon. Health services were delivered through an expanded infrastructure of 26 health centres or points and mother and child health clinics, 15 dental clinics, 19 family planning clinics, 12 laboratories, 15 specialist clinics for cardiology, obstetrics and gynaecology, ophthalmology, paediatrics and for the treatment of ear, nose and throat illnesses, as well as 24 special care clinics each for the management of diabetes mellitus and hypertension. The Agency conducted a special study of Wavel camp, where residents suffered from poor housing conditions and high unemployment, which examined the relationship between overcrowding in camp shelters and both acute and chronic respiratory problems. The study found that most of the shelters in the camp were poorly ventilated and, with no more than 3 metres of living space per person, very cramped. Over 80 per cent of overcrowded houses had individuals suffering from recent acute respiratory problems and nearly 90 per cent of overcrowded shelters housed individuals with chronic respiratory problems.

114. The Agency continued to implement its plan to reduce reliance on contractual services by improving its own primary health care infrastructure. Construction of new health centres to replace unsatisfactory premises in el-Buss camp in the Tyre area, Mieh Mieh camp in the Saida area, and Burj el-Barajneh camp in the central Lebanon area was completed. The Ein el-Hilweh health centre was expanded to accommodate a clinical laboratory and a radiology unit, and the Naher el-Bared health centre was extended to house a new radiology unit. Three additional dental clinics and three clinical laboratories were established in Burj el-Barajneh, Burj el-Shemali and Mieh Mieh camps as well as in Thalabaya, located between Beirut and Baalbek.

115. As part of UNRWA's strategy to integrate family planning into mother and child health services, a comprehensive training programme was conducted in coordination with the Lebanese Family Planning Association. All medical officers and nurses received training in counselling and safe use of contraceptive techniques. The Association also provided contraceptive supplies to 19 Agency clinics.

116. Lebanon was not exempt from the problem of the steady escalation of hospitalization costs encountered in other fields. For UNRWA, the problem was compounded by the fact that most Palestinians were unable to pay for the high cost of hospitalization on their own, owing to high unemployment rates and widespread socio-economic hardship. Rising costs forced UNRWA to reduce the number of beds reserved for refugee patients at private contracted hospitals and thus hold expenditure within approved budget limits. Further measures to contain costs were introduced, including restricting to emergency life-saving treatment any referral to tertiary-level hospitals.

117. The Agency continued its attempts to raise funds to implement its provisional 1991 master plan to improve the water supply, and sewerage and solid waste management infrastructure in the camps. The estimated cost of those improvements was approximately US$ 12 million. In order to address urgent environmental health problems, UNRWA reprogrammed funds to cover the cost of certain immediate remedial measures, including the construction of a new water network and an internal sewerage system in Burjel-Shemali camp, the installation of a new water pump in Dbayeh camp and the completion of the first phase of an internal sewerage system in Nahr el-Bared camp. In addition, a cleaning campaign was carried out at the site of the old Gaza hospital building in Shatila camp, where some families displaced during the fighting continued to live in extremely poor environmental conditions. In the Beqa'a area, a water pipeline was extended to another group of displaced families.

C. Relief and social services

118. With the highest percentage Agency-wide of refugees on the special hardship rolls, the socio-economic situation of Palestinians in Lebanon was one of the most difficult in UNRWA's area of operations. Unfortunately, UNRWA's efforts to address the main problems facing Palestine refugees in Lebanon met with only limited donor response. Over the reporting period, the number of registered refugees rose to 328,176, an increase of 2.7 per cent, which was smaller than that in other fields. This was in part because during the years of instability in the country, Palestine refugees had kept their family records with UNRWA up to date. Most Palestinians were unable to secure official work permits owing to restrictive labour laws. One consequence of the resultant widespread unemployment was the inability of extended families to care for the poorest members, shifting responsibility to UNRWA. Enrolment in the special hardship programme represented 11.8 per cent of the registered refugee population. In some camps, where there was still a marked absence of working-age men, the proportion exceeded one quarter of the refugee residents. The shelters of 134 special hardship families were rehabilitated over the year, in addition to emergency repairs to a further 33 shelters. Emergency assistance to displaced and other Palestinians continued to be provided through the EMLOT programme, described earlier in the present report.

119. Encouraged by the relative stability in the country, many Palestinians actively endeavoured to rebuild their lives. The Lebanon field continued to lead the Agency's programme of self-support projects for the poorest, with 170 active enterprises at the end of the reporting period and 135 families successful enough to have become independent of special hardship assistance. The income-generation programme supported 13 enterprises through the revolving loan fund established in 1992. By the end of the reporting period, 9 out of the 10 women's programme centres had production units which were assisted with business management training for more effective monitoring and control. The knitting cooperative at Nahr el-Bared was developed under the Palestinian Women's Initiative Fund, with training in production and business skills and capital for expansion. The demand for income-conservation courses, such as in minor electrical repairs, increased. Some 80 women participated in literacy courses to compensate for loss of schooling over 16 years. In Burj el-Barajneh camp, a new centre was completed in February, to be run by a committee of women from the local community.

120. The community-based rehabilitation programme for disabled refugees at Nahr el-Bared initiated a home support programme for disabled children and their families. Other projects run by the refugee community were initiated in Beddawi and el-Buss camps, and a skill-training centre for disabled young men was opened at el-Buss camp. Arrangements were made with a non-governmental organization for the referral of persons in need of prosthetic devices. Efforts to integrate partially disabled children into mainstream schools continued. In August 1992, a summer camp for 35 disabled children was run with the help of a Palestinian scout group. Interdepartmental coordination on strategies for the prevention of disabilities and rehabilitation of the disabled as well as equalization of opportunities received new impetus with the publication of the Agency's policy on disability. In the refugee camps, teams comprising a social worker, a nurse and a teacher-counsellor began working with disabled persons and their families. The Agency's disability programme officer in Lebanon was awarded a post-graduate fellowship in community-based rehabilitation, the first in the Agency.

VII. SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC

A. Education

121. Enrolment in UNRWA's 111 schools in the Syrian Arab Republic increased by 1,427 students to 60,216. Agency premises remained inadequate, insufficient and severely overcrowded, with 97.3 per cent of elementary classes and 90.5 per cent of preparatory classes operating on a double shift. That meant that neither the morning nor the afternoon shift could have an opportunity for extracurricular activities. Furthermore, 24.3 per cent of schools were accommodated in unsatisfactory rented premises lacking proper facilities conducive to learning, such as adequate light and space, laboratories, libraries and playgrounds. The Agency did not have sufficient funds to carry out its planned construction programme to alleviate overcrowding and replace rented premises. Nevertheless, some progress was made, including the building of two new schools to replace dilapidated rented premises, two specialized rooms and 26 classrooms to avoid triple shifting.

122. In 1992, the education programme faced an unusually difficult situation arising from the early voluntary retirement of 295 education staff members such as teachers, head teachers, school supervisors, area education officers and instructors. Their decision to retire was connected with an opportunity for a more favourable exchange rate related to their separation benefits at that time. To address this unexpected turnover, new education staff were recruited prior to the commencement of the 1992/93 school year. School supervisors provided special guidance on methodology and related issues, and intensive training courses for the newly appointed staff were organized. As a result, there was no significant disruption in the education programme, as evidenced by the fact that pupils from UNRWA schools achieved a success rate of 87 per cent in the general preparatory examination held in mid-1992 as compared with a national average of 48 per cent. A Palestine refugee student from an UNRWA school scored 100 per cent in the examination, ranking first among all pupils in the Syrian Arab Republic. UNRWA awarded 156 university scholarships to outstanding students for study at universities in Syria.

123. To assess the quality of education in UNRWA schools, international standardized tests in mathematics and science for eighth grade pupils were administered in May 1993. Test results would enable the Agency to evaluate its education programme against international standards and the other four fields of operation where the same test was administered.

124. The Damascus Training Centre operated normally during the reporting period. The actual number of trainees enrolled in the 20 courses was 857, exceeding the 776 training places for which the Agency had budgeted. Of those students, 117 were women and 200 were full boarders. Courses covered a wide spectrum of mechanical, electrical and building trades. In addition, semi-professional courses were offered, including paramedical and technical areas, business and office practice and electronics. Similar to the situation of elementary and preparatory schools, the Centre, established in 1961, had never been upgraded or comprehensively maintained, for lack of funds. Buildings were in poor condition and much of the equipment was in need of replacement. The demand for vocational education in the Syrian Arab Republic remained high, exceeding the existing capacity of the Damascus Training Centre.

125. The in-service training programme continued to be offered to teachers, head teachers, supervisors and instructors to upgrade qualifications, meet curricular changes, update teaching methodologies and develop skills in administration. A total of 202 education staff members enrolled in in-service training courses during the reporting year.

B. Health

126. Approximately 315,000 Palestine refugees benefited from Agency health care services in the Syrian Arab Republic. Those services were provided through 21 health centres or points and mother and child health clinics, 8 dental clinics, 11 laboratories, 3 specialist clinics for cardiovascular diseases, obstetrics, paediatrics and gynaecology, as well as 21 special care clinics for the management of diabetes mellitus and 20 for hypertension.

127. During the period under review, marked progress was achieved in the construction of new health facilities and the expansion of existing clinics. A new health centre in Douma was completed, the Dera'a health centre was remodelled and the Qabr Essit health centre was expanded and upgraded. Additional space was built to accommodate four dental clinics at Alliance, Khan Dannoun, Khan Eshieh and Sbeineh health centres and six additional clinical laboratories at Aleppo Town, Alliance, Ein el-Tal, Hama, Jouber and Muzereib health centres.

128. The Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and UNRWA joined efforts to prepare a national work plan for health education in the Syrian Arab Republic. UNRWA also coordinated efforts and exchanged information with the Ministry of Health regarding programmes for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, surveillance of the expanded programme of immunization (EPI) target diseases and family planning services. A nutrition survey was conducted on a representative sample of schoolchildren in UNRWA schools. The survey did not reveal any significant anthropometric variations from international standards, but did confirm the findings of previous studies that iron-deficiency anaemia and intestinal parasitosis were highly prevalent among schoolchildren.

129. The Ministry of Health continued to assist in staff training and provision of contraceptive supplies used in the Agency's family planning programme. Family planning services were fully integrated into mother and child health clinics with success, as evidenced by the increase in the number of women choosing contraception from less than 4,000 in 1991 to more than 6,600 in 1992.

130. The cost to UNRWA of in-patient medical care at contracted private and non-governmental organization hospitals, which was based on official government rates, increased owing to the promulgation of new charges by the Ministry of Health. To keep expenditure within budget limitations, referral of patients to those hospitals was limited to emergency conditions requiring surgery.

C. Relief and social services

131. There were 314,039 Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA in the Syrian Arab Republic, an increase of 5 per cent over the previous reporting period. Enrolment in the special hardship programme rose to 21,736, representing 6.9 per cent of the registered population. The shelters of about a quarter of those families were in need of rehabilitation, but funding constraints permitted repairs or reconstruction to only 140 shelters during the reporting period. Refugees were encouraged to participate in shelter repair through the provision of labour, materials, or assistance from relatives and friends, while UNRWA contributed mostly cash grants, construction material and technical guidance. By the end of the period under review, there were 76 active self-support projects providing special hardship families with income support, and 28 had developed sufficiently for their owners to come off the ration rolls. In the remote Moallaqa village near the Golan Heights, the community's need for basic services was addressed through projects to provide sanitation, public latrines and an improved water supply system. In February 1993, 40 men and women from the village attended literacy classes.

132. Income-generation activities based in women's programme centres expanded significantly over the year. In addition, five independent production units and cooperatives were run by women in Dera'a, Neirab and Qabr Essit, supported by UNRWA through training in production, quality control, costing and marketing. A third project, a food-processing unit in Dera'a employing 10 women, was added under the Palestinian Women's Initiative Fund. At the Yarmouk "B" women's programme centre in Damascus, a marketing outlet was established to link small enterprises in the area with local retailers and customers.

133. New premises for women's programmes opened at Dera'a and Khan Dannoun. In Ein el Tal, a centre grew out of an initiative presented to UNRWA by local women, whereby the Agency funded construction and provided technical support and equipment while management of the centre was undertaken by the women themselves. Pre-school facilities, demanded by women attending courses as well as those engaged in work outside the home, were well established at four of the 12 women's centres. The pre-schools were run by volunteers who had been trained in early learning activities, constructive play and the management of early childhood development projects. In all centres, the role of the women's committees was strengthened through training as well as UNRWA's delegation of additional responsibility to them. Those developments resulted in a visible difference in the level of confidence among participating women and the programme itself became relevant to larger numbers.

134. The community-based rehabilitation programme for the disabled concentrated on building up programmes established during the previous reporting period in Dera'a and Neirab. Training in the care of disabled children was provided to volunteer rehabilitation workers and parents. Community awareness campaigns were conducted on such themes as prevention of childhood disability and disabling accidents. The quality of life of disabled refugees was improved through new arrangements such as a monthly distribution of Braille reading material to sight-impaired persons. In August 1992, a summer camp on a "Save the Earth" theme was organized in Damascus for 150 orphaned and disabled children from around the country and in October 1992, 170 disabled children participated in a sports festival. Projects in preparation included a joint pilot scheme with UNRWA's education programme to assist slow learners and a business services centre in central Damascus which would employ disabled secondary school and university graduates.

VIII. OCCUPIED TERRITORY

A. West Bank

1. Education

135. In the West Bank, UNRWA's 100 elementary and preparatory schools served a student population of 42,310 pupils, an increase of 1,220 over the preceding school year. Though less than in previous years, Agency schools continued to suffer from periodic disruption. By the end of June 1993, 14.8 per cent of school days had been lost owing to general strikes, military-ordered closures and curfews. Education services were hard hit by the closure of the occupied territory in late March 1993, especially schools located in the Jerusalem area. UNRWA temporarily reassigned teachers with West Bank identity cards to schools in their areas of residence to help minimize the loss of school time caused by the fact that such teachers were prevented from entering or passing through Jerusalem. To help compensate for lost teaching time and improve the level of academic achievement, which had deteriorated over the preceding five years, UNRWA continued to develop self-learning materials and work-sheets which were distributed to pupils, especially those in the most affected regions. The Agency also developed audio-visual materials based on a self-learning approach. Budgetary constraints prompted a decision to suspend the introduction of the tenth grade in the basic education cycle scheduled for September 1993. Some schools in the West Bank remained overcrowded as a result of natural population growth and lack of suitable sites available to UNRWA for the construction of additional classrooms or schools. Nearly one third of schools were accommodated in rented premises, many of which were dilapidated and lacked proper facilities, making replacement a necessity. Furthermore, some schools which had been built 30 to 40 years ago had deteriorated to the extent that they required immediate replacement for reasons of safety. During the reporting period, the Agency constructed 19 classrooms and 3 specialized rooms to avoid triple shifting and accommodate the anticipated tenth year. In addition, funding was secured to replace four unsatisfactory rented school buildings or those in a state of disrepair. School construction continued to be delayed because construction plans were held up in review procedures required by the occupation authorities. However, by the end of the reporting period, all education projects in the West Bank had been cleared by the Israeli authorities, including the construction of Aqrabaniyya school, which had been delayed for over two and a half years.

136. The results of a study conducted in April and May 1992 by the Jordanian National Centre for Educational Research and Development using international standardized tests in mathematics and science for eighth grade pupils were issued in May 1993. In the mathematics test, West Bank students from all schools ranked 19th among the 21 education systems tested, while in science they ranked 20th. The performance of UNRWA schools was lower than that of government and private schools in the West Bank. Results showed that the achievement of pupils in Agency schools had deteriorated greatly owing to frequent school closures since the beginning of the intifadah and Israeli countermeasures. Preparation of a detailed plan of action to begin implementation in September 1993 was initiated to strengthen remedial measures for all grades. Violence in and around schools continued to disrupt the education programme.

137. The three Agency training centres in the West Bank, two at Ramallah and one at Kalandia, provided 1,156 training places in vocational and technical courses, an increase of 84 over the 1991/92 training year. New courses in areas such as ceramic production, social work and marketing and financial management were introduced at the two Ramallah training centres. The Kalandia Training Centre received a special contribution of US$ 2 million to upgrade its facilities, update its workshops and equipment and introduce a new course in diesel and agricultural machinery mechanics in 1995/96 in addition to those offered in the building, electrical, electronic, mechanical and metal trades. At the Ramallah Women's Training Centre, courses in hairdressing and production of clothing were offered to female trainees. The three centres also offered post-secondary semi-professional courses in paramedical, construction, computer science, commercial, business administration as well as nutrition and home management occupations. Seven new short-term vocational training courses were introduced at the three centres to train assistant accountants, assistant social workers, builder-shutterers, entry-level finance and banking personnel and executive secretaries. The new courses also covered repair of electrical home appliances and use of computers for commercial purposes. The two Ramallah training centres provided 420 training places in the two-year pre-service teacher-training programme, 130 places less than in the preceding training year, in conformity with the Agency's decision to phase out this programme by 1994.

138. The training process at the three centres was severely affected as a result of the closure of the occupied territory, curfews and strikes. Ramallah and Kalandia centres were closed from 30 March to 8 May 1993, as the closure order prevented trainees and instructors from the southern area of the West Bank from reaching the areas north of Jerusalem where the centres were located. Students from the Gaza Strip, were not allowed to leave the Strip and requests for permits resulted in lengthy delays. Trade courses were resumed in early May, while semi-professional and teacher training courses remained suspended owing to the large number of trainees from the Gaza Strip and the southern West Bank. Remedial plans to help compensate for the loss of training time would be implemented once instructors and trainees were allowed to return to the centres.

139. One of the major developments during the reporting year was the Agency's decision to replace the two-year teacher-training programme at the Ramallah training centres, due to be phased out, with four-year programmes leading to first-level university degrees through the establishment of an educational sciences faculty. Similar to the changes in Jordan, that faculty would provide pre-service teacher-training at the first university level and in-service training for Agency teachers to upgrade their qualifications to the first university degree level. The faculty was scheduled to commence operations in October 1993. To upgrade their qualifications, meet curricular changes and develop skills in administration, 154 teachers, head teachers and instructors enrolled in eight in-service training courses during the reporting period. UNRWA awarded scholarships to 158 students, 92 of them women, to attend universities in the region.

2. Health

140. UNRWA delivered primary health care services to some 480,000 Palestine refugees in the West Bank through a network of 34 health centres or points, 15 dental clinics, 17 laboratories, and 34 special care clinics each for the management of diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Six physiotherapy clinics, operated jointly with UNICEF, treated mainly disabilities arising from injuries. In addition, hospital care was provided by the Agency's 36-bed general hospital in Qalqilya as well as on a contractual basis by four NGO hospitals where 206 beds were reserved for the treatment of refugee patients. Progress was made in upgrading existing health centres and the construction of additional facilities, including a new centre in Doura as well as renovation and upgrading of the Aqabat Jabr, Balata, Bethlehem, Ein el-Sultan and Jerusalem centres.

141. In view of the projected shortfall of funds for UNRWA's budget for 1993, the agreement with Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem was revised so that effective 1 March 1993 the hospital would charge UNRWA in-patients an admission fee of NIS 60 (US$ 21). Out-patient fees for the first visit were increased from NIS 10 to NIS 15 (US$ 3.60 to US$ 5.35) and a new fee of NIS 10 (US$ 3.60) per visit was introduced for follow-up consultations. Other measures were taken to contain the exceptionally high share of expenditure on hospitalization, which continued to escalate at rates greater than available resources. For example, UNRWA set ceilings for the reimbursement of costs for life-saving tertiary treatment at Israeli hospitals and reduced the number of contracted beds at some NGO hospitals. In addition, measures were taken to improve the administration of UNRWA's Qalqilya Hospital and enhance operational efficiency, which resulted in a noticeable increase in average daily bed occupancy as well as in the number of surgical procedures performed. Further improvements were planned for implementation in view of the hospital's increased importance for the community.

142. Consistent with the strategy of integrating family planning within the Agency's mother and child health activities, a detailed plan of action was prepared to implement a programme of expanded maternal health and family planning in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Funding of approximately US$ 600,000 for two and a half years was pledged by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in July 1992. Project personnel were recruited, supplies were ordered and a training framework for medical and nursing staff was developed and implemented in coordination with the Jordan Family Planning and Protection Association, Jerusalem, supported by its parent organization, the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Two consultants from the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention visited the West Bank in March 1993 and completed the first phase of a mission aimed at assisting UNRWA in conducting a community-based survey on knowledge, attitudes and practices towards family planning and training of staff in improved progamme management.

143. Two WHO consultants on health insurance were recruited to assist Palestinians in the development of a national health insurance plan for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The mission began in November 1992, working closely with a team of experts from the Planning and Research Centre in Jerusalem. An interim report for consideration by the Centre was prepared with various options and analyses of the advantages and disadvantages of each option. The final report would be prepared once all necessary data were available and appropriate options selected. The report would represent a major contribution towards providing guidance on the modalities and cost of a Palestinian health care system in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

144. In the environmental health sector, progress was achieved in the construction of internal sewerage schemes in Aida, Am'ari, Askar, Beit Jibrin, Dheisheh, Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarm camps, which were ultimately to be connected to adjacent municipal systems. The Agency was considering possible options for improvement in the situation in five additional camps where proper disposal systems were urgently needed but whose isolated locations precluded connection to external sewerage systems.

3. Relief and social services

145. The registered refugee population in the West Bank rose by 4.3 per cent over the reporting period, to 479,023, an increase accounted for in part by the opportunity many families took to update their records in connection with the redesigned registration cards offered by the Agency. The number of refugees enrolled in the special hardship programme remained relatively stable at 32,283, or 6.7 per cent of the population, a figure slightly above the Agency-wide average of 6.5 per cent. Needy families that could not be attended to under the special hardship programme were assisted through the programme of emergency measures described earlier in the present report. In the West Bank, such assistance included the families of men who had been issued with special identity cards by the occupation authorities which prevented them from working in Israel or in government employment in the occupied territory. The closure of the occupied territory in late March 1993 resulted in the de facto division of the West Bank into three isolated regions. That had a disproportionately damaging impact on the West Bank, which had been relatively resilient to such measures in the past owing to a more developed local economic infrastructure than that in the Gaza Strip. Many families that had previously managed to cope with economic fluctuations were suddenly unable to support themselves. Ninety-nine special hardship families had shelters rehabilitated and work had commenced on a further 110 shelters. Additionally, 79 families whose homes had been damaged during confrontations or as a by-product of the demolition of neighbouring shelters by the authorities were assisted with reconstruction or repairs. Sixty-one of those families undertook the work themselves under a self-help project, with UNRWA providing the materials and technical advice.

146. The difficult socio-economic climate slowed efforts to develop small enterprise initiatives and employment opportunities among more vulnerable groups. Projects under the Palestinian Women's Initiative Fund, such as a cooperative in Aqabat Jabr and a women's business centre in Nablus, proceeded at a more cautious pace than had been expected. Nevertheless, the engagement of women in the process of creating a viable scheme under their own management was important to building confidence in their capacity and ability to take a leading role in their communities. That was also demonstrated in discussions held with women in four localities on the establishment of community-managed women's programme centres. Courses at the women's programme centres included one in Askar camp on establishing a small business, and a series of legal literacy workshops in Jenin which prompted demands for similar sessions in other areas. Over 140 women participated in literacy and numeracy classes, a critical step towards greater self-reliance. New premises for women's programmes were opened in Ama'ri camp and a local organization undertook to construct facilities in Fara'a camp. The number of women's programme centres in the West Bank increased by 3 over the reporting period to 14.

147. Community mobilization for development programmes was especially successful on behalf of disabled refugees. By the end of the reporting period, there were six community rehabilitation centres in the West Bank and an additional five committees sponsored by the Agency were also addressing issues of concern to disabled persons. Community rehabilitation centres, including new centres at Arrabeh, Balata, Shu'fat and Tulkarm camps, served as focal points for new outreach projects. In all areas, community rehabilitation centres placed particular emphasis on integrating disabled children into mainstream schools. In Dheisheh, Fawwar and Jenin camps, as well as in Jericho and Qabatieh, additional attention was given to home-based interventions. Training of volunteer rehabilitation workers proceeded with the help of local specialists and international non-governmental organizations. In January 1993, a winter camp for 110 disabled children was held in Jericho. Agency representatives continued to play an active role in supporting the Central National Committee for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled, including liaison with external partners such as ILO. In May, ILO fielded consultants through UNRWA to help develop vocational rehabilitation and community-based income-generation services for disabled Palestinians and integrate ongoing local efforts to construct databases on disability in the occupied territory.

148. Concerned over set-backs to early childhood development, UNRWA and UNESCO co-sponsored a workshop in December 1992 on the theme of enhancing access of disadvantaged Palestinian children in the occupied territory to primary and basic education through community-based approaches. Participants nominated a team of Palestinian professionals to work on action-oriented proposals for which the two United Nations organizations hoped to secure financing. To provide safe facilities for creative play in an area where children were deprived of stimulus, UNRWA obtained funds for a children's park in Ein el-Sultan, to be run by local representatives. Associated mini-enterprises were planned which would enable small sums to be raised to help finance other ventures. The reactivation of the youth activities programme continued, but progress was hampered by security and economic conditions. The Israeli authorities allowed the youth activities centre in Dheisheh camp to reopen in June 1993, 12 years after its closure by the authorities, but did not permit the centres at Ama'ri and Kalandia to reopen. UNRWA held discussions with older teenagers on the development of programmes for school-age children. Modelled on the success of a similar approach in the Gaza Strip, young adults would play an integral role in leading such activities after appropriate training by UNRWA. To address the problem of substance abuse among young people in particular, a workshop on the prevention of drug addiction was conducted with a local non-governmental organization in July 1992. In August 1992, summer camps were held for school-age children.

B. Gaza Strip

1. Education

149. UNRWA's 153 elementary and preparatory schools in the Gaza Strip served a student population of 104,709, an increase of more than 4,650 pupils over the preceding school year, including some 800 new returnee students from the Gulf States whose families had recently returned to the Gaza Strip. Disruption in education remained a serious problem during the reporting period. By the end of June 1993, 16.4 per cent of school days had been lost as a result of military-ordered closures, curfews, general strikes, and other factors. The heaviest loss of teaching time took place in October and December 1992, when extended curfews were imposed on most of the Gaza Strip. Two schools in the Strip were closed by military order for three years to end in June 1995. To compensate for the loss of teaching time, UNRWA continued to distribute self-learning materials, educational kits and work-sheets to the entire school population. Even during a period of relative calm, self-learning materials were used as remedial work to overcome accumulated weakness in achievement levels. In addition to those measures, extra classes were scheduled before and after school hours. Attendance at those classes was mandatory, while instruction was provided by teachers on a voluntary basis. Throughout the 1992/93 school year, military incursions into schools, confrontations and an alarming rise in the number of schoolchildren killed or injured also had a negative impact on student achievement. In order to participate in the final exams, children in Rafah camp broke the round-the-clock curfew on 7 June 1993 and walked to their schools in an adjacent area.

150. Evaluations were conducted to assess the impact of school closures on student achievement, including the administration of diagnostic tests to all pupils. Remedial plans were developed, but a shortage of the funds required to produce mass teaching materials hampered the implementation of those plans. The Agency cooperated with the Jordanian National Centre for Educational Research and Development in administering international standardized tests in mathematics and science for eighth grade pupils in May 1993. The results would be used to prepare remedial activities.

151. UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip suffered from overcrowding as a result of the rapidly growing student population. Many Agency schools, especially those built in the 1950s and 1960s, had deteriorated to the extent that some were unsafe and required immediate replacement. To cope with the high increase in enrolment, a new school in Rafah and 15 additional classrooms, including four handicraft units, were constructed. Other construction projects during the reporting period were delayed because of the time taken by the occupation authorities to review project plans. The construction of an urgently needed girls school in the Zeitoun area of Gaza town and five projects to build additional classrooms to avoid triple shifting were still under review by the Israeli authorities at the end of the reporting year. Two schools, 16 classrooms and one specialized room in the Khan Younis area were under construction.

152. During 1992/93, the Gaza Training Centre provided 728 training places to 692 males and 36 females. The Centre offered 13 two-year vocational training courses in the mechanical, electrical and building trades, and three two-year semi-professional courses in physiotherapy, industrial electronics and business and office practice. In addition, it was planned to introduce three paramedical courses in September 1993. However, plans to construct premises to accommodate those courses were rejected by the Israeli authorities. In the light of that decision and shrinking job opportunities in the paramedical field, UNRWA decided not to implement those courses. For the first time, UNRWA introduced short-term vocational training courses of 20 or 40 weeks duration in areas such as brick and block laying and plastering. Owing to lengthy military closure orders, curfews and general strikes, the Centre had lost 39.3 per cent of training days by the end of the reporting period, which would necessitate extending the training year by at least three months.

153. An in-service teacher-training programme was offered to teachers, head teachers, school supervisors and instructors to upgrade their qualifications, meet curricular changes, update teaching methodologies and develop skills in administration; 225 education staff benefited from the programme. UNRWA awarded scholarships in various disciplines to 203 students to attend universities in the region.

2. Health

154. UNRWA delivered primary health care services to approximately over 600,000 Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip through a network of nine health centres, eight mother and child health subcentres, eight dental clinics, seven laboratories, six specialist clinics for cardiology, cardiovascular diseases, obstetrics and gynaecology, ophthalmology and paediatrics and nine special care clinics each for the management of diabetes mellitus and hypertension. The joint UNRWA-UNICEF physiotherapy programme, mainly for the treatment of injuries sustained during confrontations, continued at the six clinics already established. In addition, UNRWA operated six maternity units with a total of 60 beds, where approximately one third of all refugee babies were delivered. Construction was completed on a new pharmacy, the old Deir el-Balah health centre was replaced, an additional mother and child health centre in Nuseirat camp was constructed and a major renovation and upgrading of Bureij, Jabalia, Maghazi and Nuseirat health centres took place. Delay in obtaining clearance from the authorities continued to obstruct implementation of funded projects for the construction of additional health centres in Beach camp, Beit Hanoun and Tel el-Sultan.

155. In order to reduce overcrowding and improve the quality of care, UNRWA expanded afternoon shift clinics to provide a full range of preventive and curative medical services. Afternoon clinics were established in areas with the greatest demand, namely Beach, Jabalia, Khan Younis, Nuseirat and Rafah camps and Gaza town. Coupled with an appointment system and improved management of health centres, those measures resulted in a reduction in the workload and improvement in the quality of care. Nevertheless, owing to the increased demand on UNRWA services and the Agency's inability to construct sufficient additional facilities, because of either lack of funds or delay in official clearance, the average daily workload at general clinics remained unacceptably high. In 1992, the average patient load per doctor was 118, rising to more than 200 in several clinics. More than 2 million patient visits for medical consultation, dental treatment and other services were reported from the Gaza Strip. This represented one third of total patient visits reported Agency-wide. To improve access of Gaza Strip patients to ophthalmic services, UNRWA co-financed a project to establish an outreach ophthalmology unit in the Gaza Strip which would provide ophthalmic examinations, treatment and minor surgery. Thus the services at St. John's ophthalmic hospital in Jerusalem were made readily available to patients from the Strip who had previously had to travel to the West Bank for that purpose.

156. Following the signing of an agreement between the Commission of the European Communities and UNRWA to establish a 232-bed general hospital in Gaza, 21 international and local contractors submitted pre-qualification papers to the Agency. Four of the five companies considered capable of implementing the project submitted bids, all of which were in excess of the original cost estimates. In consultation with the Commission, UNRWA considered all possible options to reduce construction costs, including negotiations with the contractors. It was expected that a contract would be signed in 1993, with construction to begin soon thereafter. Parallel to that activity, the Agency carried out a general survey to assess future needs for specialists and other trained personnel. As a result, a special programme for post-graduate training of doctors in anaesthesiology, general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology and paediatrics was started at Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem. The Agency also agreed to assume responsibility for running the Baptist School of Nursing in the Gaza Strip to meet future needs for graduate and practical nurses, and took steps to maintain and develop the two-year basic midwifery course, run in coordination with an international NGO.

157. In view of the serious risk of environmental degradation further affecting the health of the population of the Gaza Strip, UNRWA undertook a series of planning initiatives to address the immediate, intermediate and long-term needs in the environmental health sector. A new department of environmental affairs was established, and international consultants carried out a detailed study to identify strategic options for improvement in water supply, sewerage, drainage and related works in the eight camps and adjacent municipalities. UNRWA concluded an agreement with a major donor to conduct a detailed feasibility study in Beach camp to be carried out by the end of 1993. In addition, a project was begun to develop a database and an appropriate information system for the management of project design and implementation in coordination with WHO. The European Community agreed to fund detailed feasibility studies to improve sewerage and drainage in the refugee camps and adjacent municipalities. The Agency also assisted a technical team to conduct a pre-feasibility study for the improvement of solid waste management.

3. Relief and social services

158. Further deterioration in the economy caused by the repeated closures of the Gaza Strip during the reporting period pushed large numbers of Palestinians into marginal survival-oriented economic ventures and augmented demand for a substantial increase in emergency relief for the refugee population and other needy Palestinians. Produce was sold locally at prices below cost during periods of closure owing to the severing of access to external markets. The problem therefore was not a shortage of food but the means to purchase it. However, while income support to families through a combination of cash grants and the distribution of imported staples such as flour and rice would have been the optimal short-term response, the limited resources available to UNRWA permitted only the latter. In December 1992, the Agency made a large-scale food distribution and began another one in May 1993. Over the year, the registered refugee population increased by 7.7 per cent to 603,382 persons. The increase was attributable to natural population growth and the reporting of new births to ensure that family records were up to date. Because financial constraints obliged the Agency to limit the number of families that could be enrolled in the special hardship programme, neither population growth nor increased need were fully reflected in the number of hardship cases, which nevertheless rose to 57,064 persons, or 9.5 per cent of the population. An additional 6,000 families in distress were assisted through an emergency programme offering food assistance and/or cash grants, described earlier in the present report.

159. Together with environmental sanitation, the housing of many refugees in the Gaza Strip fell far short of the minimum acceptable standard. Agency resources, however, permitted the rehabilitation of only 151 shelters of special hardship cases over the year. An additional 394 shelters received only essential roofing repairs. Roofing assistance was notable for its experimental self-help character: UNRWA supplied materials and technical guidance to family members who undertook the work themselves with the help of relatives and neighbours. According to the Agency's conservative estimate of one quarter of special hardship families being in need of shelter rehabilitation, up to 3,000 shelters were in need of major repair or reconstruction.

160. Another group of refugees that continued to depend on the Agency for direct relief were the 4,000 persons still living in "Canada camp" on the Egyptian side of the border area of Rafah. An agreement between the Governments of Egypt and Israel reached in the context of the Camp David accords allowed for those families to return to the Gaza Strip, with compensation from the Government of Egypt for the housing they would leave behind. Between 1982, when residents were first permitted to return, and 1992, only 1,317 refugees had been able to resettle in Gaza. Based on the experience of the past four years, completing the return of all remaining residents could take considerable time. The problem was understood to be a shortage of funds for compensation. Socio-economic conditions in Canada camp were poor as residents were unable to work legally in Egypt, leaving them dependent on special hardship assistance from UNRWA and, in a few cases, overseas remittances from relatives. The Agency provided education and health services and also sponsored a community-managed social services centre, opened in February 1993, which offered programmes for women, disabled refugees and youth. The rehabilitation programme for disabled children was assisted by a non-governmental organization based in Cairo.

161. Within the Gaza Strip, community-based rehabilitation of the disabled developed significantly. Local committees were supported by the willingness of both Palestinian and external donors to help finance projects, and new initiatives in Khan Younis, Maghazi and Nuseirat were begun during the year. Community rehabilitation centres in Jabalia and Rafah expanded activities to include home-based support and made important efforts to secure local employment for disabled adults. To promote employment and income-generating opportunities for the disabled in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, UNRWA secured expertise from ILO beginning in May 1993. A special effort was made to link the community rehabilitation centres and local specialist services for the disabled, which also provided training for volunteer rehabilitation workers. Multidisciplinary teams from the three Agency programmes were created in each refugee camp in February 1993 to coordinate support to disabled refugees and liaise with community rehabilitation committees. An important step was taken by the Agency's Gaza Training Centre for the Blind to integrate partially sighted children into UNRWA's mainstream elementary and preparatory schools.

162. Steps were taken in the 15 women's programme centres to foster the ability of women participants to select and administer activities based on their own needs assessment. Training in the formation of committees commenced in September 1992 and continued throughout the reporting period. In common with other development activities, the women's programmes suffered set-backs as a result of deteriorating socio-economic and security conditions. Nevertheless, two projects under the Palestinian Women's Initiative Fund, a community-run library and training in essential household maintenance, were implemented. Enthusiasm for those activities prompted a decision to seek funding for similar activities in other camps. A literacy campaign conducted with a local non-governmental organization enrolled a total of 198 women over the year. Other community programmes were reactivated after they had been dormant for several years after the outbreak of the intifadah and Israeli countermeasures. For example, all youth activities centres reopened during the reporting period, including the one in Rafah camp which had been closed by the authorities for 10 years. Local youth refurbished the facilities, assisted by Agency grants for materials and maintenance. Between July and August 1992, 15 different summer camps were held for nearly 1,650 boys and girls, both able-bodied and disabled.

ANNEXES

Annex I

STATISTICAL AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION

LIST OF TABLES

Page

1. Number of registered persons…………………………… 57

2. Distribution of registered population…………………… 58

3. Number and distribution of special hardship cases………… 58

4. Social services programme……………………………… 59

5. Distribution of refugee pupils receiving education

in UNRWA schools …………………………………….. 60

6. Training places in UNRWA training centres……………….. 61

7. University scholarship holders by faculty and

country of study …………………………………….. 62

8. Medical care services ………………………………… 63

9. Trends in utilization of out-patient clinics…………….. 64

10. Incidence trends of selected communicable diseases ………. 65

11. Staff members arrested and detained ……………………. 66

12. Casualties in the occupied territory …………………… 67

13. Contributions in cash and in kind by Governments

and by the European Community …………………………. 68

14. Expenditure in 1992, operational budget for 1993

and proposed biennial budget for 1994-1995 ……………… 71

15. UNRWA in figures …………………………………….. 72

1. Number of registered persons a/

(as at 30 June each year)

Field

1950

1960

1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1992

1993

Lebanon

Syrian

Arab

Republic

Jordan

West

Bank b/

Gaza Strip

127 600

82 194

506 200

–

198 227

136 561

115 043

613 743

–

255 542

159 810

135 971

688 089

–

296 953

175 958

158 717

506 038

272 692

311 814

196 855

184 042

625 858

292 922

333 031

226 554

209 362

716 372

324 035

367 995

263 599

244 626

799 724

357 704

427 892

302 049

280 731

929 097

414 298

496 339

319 427

299 207

1 010 719

459 147

560 207

328 176

314 039

1 072 561

479 023

603 380

Total

914 221 c/

1 120 889

1 280 823

1 425 219

1 632 707

1 844 318

2 093 545

2 422 514

2 648 707

2 797 179

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 1992/1993, 392,757 persons were enrolled in education or training programmes, approximately 2.8 million were eligible for health care and, as at 30 June 1993, 179, 171 persons were registered as special hardship cases and a further 26,326 persons were cared for through the social services.

b/ Until 1967, the West Bank of Jordan was administered as an integral part of the Jordan field.

c/ 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 1993)

Field

Registered

population

Number

of camps

Total camp

population a/

Registered

persons not

in camps

Percentage

population

not in camps

Lebanon

Syrian Arab

Republic

Jordan

West Bank

Gaza

328 176

314 039

1 072 561

479 023

603 380

13 b/

20 b/

170 850

89 636

240 472

125 752

330 397

157 326

224 403

832 089

353 271

272 983

Total

2 797 179

957 107

1 840 072

a/ It is estimated that a further 52,000 persons, who are not registered refugees, live in camps. About 37,000 of these are persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 hostilities.

b/ Of these, 12 are in Lebanon and 19 in the West Bank.

Table 3. Number and distribution of special hardship cases

(as at 30 June 1993)

Number of persons

Field

Number of

families

Receiving

rations

Not

receiving

rations a/

Total

Percentage

of refugee

population

Lebanon

Syrian Arab

Republic

Jordan

West Bank

Gaza Strip

9 436

5 847

7 151

7 874

11 679

36 976

19 879

28 898

29 110

54 447

1 806

1 857

1 884

3 173

2 617

38 782

21 736

30 782

32 283

57 064

11.82

6.92

2.87

6.74

9.46

Total

41 987

169 310

11 337

180 647

6.46

a/ Including children under one year of age, students studying away from home, etc.

Table 4. Social services programme

(1 July 1992-30 June 1993)

Women's

programme

Youth

activities

Carpentry

centres

Support for

disabled persons

Income-generation

Sewing

and

embroi-

dery

Community-

based

rehabilitation

Specia-

lized

faci-

lities

Self-support grants

Production units

at women's

programme

centres

Field

Cen-

tres

Parti-

cipants

Gra-

duates

Cen-

tres

Parti-

cipants

Cen-

tres

Gra-

duates

Cen-

tres

Parti-

cipants

Refer-

rals

Up to

6/91

No. of

grants

7/91

6/92

No. of

grants

Active

projs.

Cen-

tres

Parti-

cipants

Lebanon

Syrian

Arab

Rep.

Jordan

West

Bank

Gaza

15 a/

554

3 473

5 000

1 044

15 a/

175

273

262

209

1 483

–

9 a/

–

8 500

3 600

–

215

105

108

185

162

521 838

166 718

497 497

62 355

342 345

–

92 026

52 105

81 326

–

118 250

170

149

139

–

Total

11 509

1 285

12 100

504

211

529

1 590 753

143

343 707

593

287

a/ Including one centre in Canada camp.

Table 5. Distribution of refugee pupils receiving

education in UNRWA schools a/

(as at October 1992)

Number of pupils in

elementary classes b/

Number of pupils in

preparatory classes b/

Field

Number of

UNRWA

schools

Number of

teachers

Boys

Girls

Total

Boys

Girls

Total

number of

pupils

Lebanon

Syrian Arab

Republic

Jordan

West

Bank

Gaza Strip

111

201

100

153

1 187

1 646

4 277

1 411

2 890

11 964

21 221

49 484

13 370

39 752

11 657

20 073

47 136

16 663

36 655

23 621

41 294

96 620

30 033

76 407

4 735

9 906

28 456

5 726

14 753

4 816

9 016

27 274

6 551

13 549

9 551

18 922

55 730

12 277

28 302

33 172

60 216

152 350

42 310

104 709

Total

641

11 411

135 791

132 184

267 975

63 576

61 206

124 782

392 757

a/ Excluding an estimated total of 150,421 refugee pupils attending elementary, preparatory and government and private schools.

b/ Includinq non-eligible children attending UNRWA schools, who now number 31,474.

Table 6. Training places in UNRWA training centres

(Academic year 1992/93)

Total

Lebanon

Syrian Arab

Republic

Jordan

West Bank

Gaza Strip

Total

Grand

Total

Siblin

Training

Centre

Damascus

Vocational

Training

Centre

Amman

Training

Centre

Wadi Seer

Training

Centre

Kalandia

Training

Centre

Ramallah

Women's

Training

Centre

Ramallah

Men's

Training

Centre

Gaza

Training

Centre

Vocational and

technical

education

Post-

prepartory

level a/

Post-

secondary

level b/

Total

368

169

537

====

–

107

====

520

137

657

====

–

119

====

–

===

252

330

====

560

195

755

===

–

====

400

144

544

====

–

====

–

====

124

328

452

====

–

160

====

–

===

608

692

====

–

====

2 456

963

3 419

======

202

875

1 077

======

2 658

1 838

4 496

======

Pre-service

teacher training

–

145

–

225

195

–

275

370

645

Total

537

===

107

====

657

====

119

====

154

===

475

====

755

===

====

544

====

–

====

–

====

677

====

355

====

–

===

692

====

3 694

======

1 447

======

5 141

=====

a/ Courses are offered to post-preparatory level students in the mechanical, metal, electrical and building trades.

b/ Courses are offered to post-secondary level students in the technical, commercial, electronics, computer science and paramedical fields.

Table 7.

University scholarship holders

by faculty and country of study

(Academic year 1992/1993)

Course of study	L e b a n o n	L e b a n o n	Sy- rian A- rab Re- pu- blic	Sy- rian A- rab Re- pu- blic	J o r d a n	J o r d a n	West Bank	West Bank	E g y p t	E g y p t	L i b y a	L i b y a	G a z a	G a z a	O t h e r s a/	O t h e r s a/	T o t a l	T o t a l	Grand total
	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F
Agriculture	–	–	–	–	1	2	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	–	–	–	2	2	4
Arts	–	2	1	2	7	14	4	21	–	–	–	–	–	2	–	–	12	41	53
Business adminis- tration	1	–	–	–	5	4	2	3	2	1	–	–	–	–	1	–	11	8	19
Computer	–	–	–	–	3	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	3	–	3
Dentistry	–	–	22	18	17	12	–	–	–	1	–	–	–	–	2	–	41	31	72
Education	–	–	–	–	4	4	3	2	2	4	1	–	3	2	–	–	13	12	25
Enginee- ring	15	–	15	11	61	31	31	23	5	1	11	–	–	–	7	–	145	66	211
Labora- tory technician	–	–	–	–	–	1	1	7	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	–	2	8	10
Law	–	–	–	–	1	1	–	–	–	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	2	3
Medicine	–	1	60	21	15	6	–	–	4	–	–	4	–	–	13	1	92	33	125
Nursing	–	–	–	–	2	2	2	3	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	4	5	9
Pharmacy	3	2	5	7	51	21	–	–	4	–	–	2	6	15	1	1	70	48	118
Political science	–	–	–	–	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	–	1
Physical education	–	–	–	–	2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	2	–	2
Science	8	6	–	–	12	14	20	14	4	1	3	–	2	4	2	–	51	39	90
Nutrition	–	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	1
Total	27	12	103	59	182	112	63	73	21	9	15	6	12	23	27	2	450	296	746

a/ ther countries were: Turkey (20 male students), Iraq (3 male and 1 female students), Yemen (1 male student and 1 female student), Algeria (1 male student), Sudan (1 male student) and Tunisia (1 male student).

Table 8. Medical care services

(1 July 1992-30 June 1993)

Type of service			Lebanon	Syrian Arab Republic	Jordan	West Bank	Gaza Strip	Total
Curative medical care
1.	Out-patient care
	Number of health units Number of laboratories Number of diabetes clinics Number of specialist clinics Number of dental clinics Number of patients Number of patient visits:		26 12 24 15 15 126 480	21 11 21 3 8 155 261	21 18 17 12 16 344 809	34 17 34 4 15 141 302	17 7 9 5 8 247 802	119 65 105 39 62 1 015 654
		Medical treatment a/ Dental treatment	741 108 75 453	806 248 50 113	1 378 629 153 855	896 712 46 359	1 873 753 73 705	5 696 450 399 485
2.	In-patient care
	Hospital beds
		available (general)	105	45	0	206	50	406
	Number of patients admitted		10 455	3 720	6 312	17 450	4 182	42 119
Preventive medical care
1.	Maternal and child health care Pregnant women under
		supervision	4 980	6 676	16 556	11 370	28 301	67 883
	Children below 3 years
		under supervision	14 869	19 925	59 429	32 332	72 740	199 295
2.	Expanded programme of immunization (number of full primary series)
	Triple (DPT) vaccine Polio vaccine BCG vaccine Measles vaccine		5 087 5 044 5 217 5 359	7 099 7 122 6 517 6 863	19 339 19 009 19 736 17 674	11 730 11 687 11 238 10 791	24 820 24 472 25 526 23 767	68 075 67 334 68 234 64 454
3.	School health

	Number of school
		entrants examined	4 319	5 597	11 999	3 900	15 120	40 935
	Number of booster
		vaccinations	13 037	26 802	47 808	15 581	39 564	142 792

a/ Including visits for medical consultations, injections, dressings and eye treatment.

Table 9.

Trends in utilization of out-patient clinics

Table 10. Incidence trends of selected communicable diseases

Table 11. Staff members arrested and detained

(1 July 1992-30 June 1993)

Gaza

Strip

West

Bank

Jordan

Syrian

Arab

Republic

Lebanon

Total

Arrested and released

without charge or trial

Charged, tried

and sentenced

Still in detention

Total

50 a/

17 b/

a/ In addition, 11 staff members who were in detention on 17 December 1992 were deported to Lebanon.

b/ In addition, five staff members who were in detention on 17 December 1992 were deported to Lebanon.

Table 12. Casualties in the occupied territory

(1 July 1992-30 June 1993) a/, b/

							Total
	Camp/Area	Shot	Beaten	Rubber bullet wounds	Tear gas	Other	All	Residents, status unknown	Registered refugees
I.	Gaza Strip Injuries
	Gaza	295	350	1	6	1	653	448	205
	Sheikh Radwan	222	80	3	1	0	306	6	300
	Beit Hanoun	28	27	0	0	0	55	8	47
	Jabalia	623	109	8	18	5	763	43	720
	Beach Camp	387	180	2	9	0	578	3	575
	Nuseirat	244	34	23	14	6	321	13	308
	Bureij	321	44	11	17	12	405	5	400
	Deir el-Balah	72	87	7	10	8	184	27	157
	Maghazi	84	8	1	8	4	105	4	101
	Khan Younis	510	221	52	19	5	807	244	563
	Rafah	346	66	72	50	5	539	34	505
	Total injuries	3 132	1 206	180	152	46	4 716	835	3 881

	Fatalities	115	0	0	1	4	120	20	100
	Total casualties	3 247	1 206	180	153	50	4 836	855	3 981

II.	West Bank Injuries
	Area unspecified	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Jericho	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Jerusalem	1	3	8	2	0	14	14	0
	Hebron	3	4	0	1	0	8	4	4
	Nablus	194	192	12	4	58	460	434	26
	Total injuries	198	199	20	7	58	482	452	30

	Fatalities	73	0	0	0	7	80	74	6
	Total casualties	271	199	20	7	65	562	526	36

a/ The figures are those reported to or made known to UNRWA, and should not be treated as exhaustive.

b/ The figures given for fatalities do not include killings of alleged collaborators.

Table 13. Contributions in cash and in kind by Governments and by the European Community

(1 January 1991-31 December 1992)

(United States dollars)

1992

Contributor

Total contributions

1991

Regular budget

and projects a/

Emergencies b/

Total c/

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Bahrain

Barbados

Belgium

Brazil

Brunei Darussalam

Canada

Chile

China

Colombia

Cyprus

Denmark

Egypt

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Holy See

Iceland

India

Indonesia

Iran (Islamic

Republic of)

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Japan

Jordan

Kuwait

Lebanon

Libyan Arab

Jamahiriya

Luxembourg

Malaysia

Maldives

Malta

Mauritius

Mexico

Monaco

Morocco

Myanmar

Namibia

Netherlands

New Zealand

Nigeria

Norway

Oman

Pakistan

Panama

Philippines

Portugal

Qatar

Republic of Korea

Saudi Arabia

Senegal

Singapore

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Syrian Arab Republic

Thailand

Trinidad and Tobago

Tunisia

Turkey

United Arab Emirates

United Kingdom of

Great Britain and

Northern Ireland

United States of

America

Uruguay

Venezuela

25 538

2 349 050

1 500 000

15 000

1 000

4 238 685

10 000

12 776 308

–

60 000

1 828

–

2 841 290

–

5 785 378

2 978 730

12 288 552

80 000

20 000

9 500

22 820

52 505

–

142 896

112 141

19 975 805

27 296 755

98 429

1 515 209

331

99 750

38 991

10 000

1 000

1 305

1 110

2 999

5 556

1 176 861

–

7 590 785

117 060

24 223

11 044 981

4 000

14 591

500

404

50 000

–

10 000

1 200 000

4 078

3 000

2 268 310

26 195 478

5 570 444

71 489

14 005

–

26 230

43 460

–

10 672 888

75 600 000

–

12 136

19 462

1 936 048

2 479 156

15 000

–

896 108

–

9 229 169

–

60 533

2 072

7 163

9 933 404

3 021

2 203 614

2 067 547

8 535 165

80 000

20 000

39 252

9 988

8 000

120 000

132 920

182 337

2 174 678

16 267 956

–

223

–

10 000

1 000

1 332

–

3 000

5 185

–

1 000

500

7 289 476

107 910

–

10 484 422

25 000

13 847

500

2 272

–

10 000

2 400 000

–

2 606 614

26 314 228

7 731 011

25 286

14 115

2 107

13 187

134 430

500 000

10 431 379

68 168 000

–

10 000

–

228 540

272 450

–

2 850 000

–

415 958

–

594 126

–

165 194

–

1 412 220

–

326 179

–

576 633

–

832 000

–

19 462

2 164 588

2 751 606

15 000

–

3 746 108

–

9 645 127

–

654 659

2 072

7 163

10 098 598

3 021

3 615 834

2 067 547

8 535 165

80 000

20 000

39 252

9 988

8 000

120 000

132 920

182 337

2 174 678

16 267 956

–

223

–

10 000

1 000

1 332

–

3 000

5 185

326 179

1 000

500

7 289 476

107 910

–

10 484 422

25 000

13 847

500

2 272

–

10 000

2 400 000

–

2 606 614

26 314 228

8 307 644

25 286

14 115

2 107

13 187

134 430

500 000

10 431 379

69 000 000

–

10 000

Subtotal

236 083 384

192 728 617

7 673 300

200 401 917

European Community

74 316 793

64 769 483

2 327 161

67 096 644

Grand total

310 400 177

==========

257 498 100

==========

10 000 461

=========

267 498 561

==========

a/ Actual receipts for regular budget and projects.

b/ Actual receipts for the emergency operations in Lebanon and the occupied territory and for the Gulf crisis.

c/ Actual receipts, all funds.

Table 14. Expenditure in 1992, operational budget for 1993 and proposed biennial budget for 1994-1995

(Millions of United States dollars)

Description

Actual

expenditure

1992 b/

Operational

budget

1993

Proposed biennial

budget

for 1994-1995

1994

1995

Education

Health

Relief and social services

Operational services

Common costs a/

Other

Total

137.5

53.7

29.3

22.6

31.3

0.5

274.9

=====

141.3

53.7

33.6

21.2

48.9

_____

298.7

=====

150.4

57.6

35.3

23.8

42.0

_____

309.1

=====

156.3

60.4

36.5

25.3

44.7

_____

323.2

=====

a/ 1993 common costs contain various reserves, including austerity measures from the Agency's three programmes, not to be returned to the programmes for expenditure in 1993 unless the Agency's financial situation improves.

b/ Total expenditure figures include USS 3.8 million in expenditure made in 1992 against regular budget projects originating in previous years' budgets.

Table 15. UNRWA in figures a/, b/

Lebanon

Syrian

Arab

Republic

Jordan

Gaza

West

Bank

Head-

quarters

Total

Average

Country area (sq km)

Country population

Registered refugees (RR)

RR average annual growth (%) c/

RR as % of country population

RR as % of total RR

Existing camps

RR in camps (RRCs)

RRCs as % of RR

Schools

Pupils (1992/93 (enrolment)

Female pupils (%)

Training centres

Training places

Teacher training places

In-service teacher training

University scholarships (1992/93)

Health centres/units

Dental clinics

Laboratories

Annual patient visits

Indoor water supply in camps (%)

Sewered shelters in camps (%)

Special hardship cases (SHCs)

SHCs as % of RR

Women's programme centres

Community rehabilitation

centres (CRCS)

Self-support projects

Income-generation loans (number)

Income-generation loans (dollars)

10 452

3 200 000

28 176

2.9

10.3

11.7

170 850

52.1

33 172

0.0

644

213

741 108

38 782

11.8

170

82 000

185 180

12 900 000

314 039

3.0

2.4

11.2

89 636

28.5

111

60 216

0.0

776

202

156

806 248

21 736

6.9

91 860

3 800 000

1 072 561

3.6

28.2

38.3

240 472

22.4

201

152 350

0.0

1 192

281

187

1 378 629

30 782

2.9

149

179 500

360

775 000

603 380

4.7

77.9

21.6

330 397

54.8

153

104 709

0.0

728

225

203

1 873 753

100

57 064

9.5

139

105

2 000 000

5 500

1 200 000

479 023

5.0

39.9

17.1

125 752

26.3

100

42 310

0.0

1 156

420

154

158

896 712

32 283

6.7

1 365 591

293 352

21 875 000

2 797 179

3.7

12.8

100.0

957 107

34.2

641

392 757

0.0

4 496

645

1 075

746

119

5 696 450

180 647

6.5

593

183

3 627 091

Area staff (posts)

International staff (posts)

2 461

2 704

6 100

4 892

3 125

323

19 605

181

Regular budget (General Fund)

1993 d/

Education

Health

Relief and social services

Operational services

Common services

Total General Fund 1993 d/

EMLOT 1993 budget d/

12 118

7 369

6 658

2 586

2 809

31 540

1 954

20 778

6 402

3 349

3 529

2 479

36 537

39 619

9 614

5 885

2 786

3 279

61 183

35 393

12 693

8 924

3 216

3 670

63 896

8 988

21 557

11 956

5 244

4 845

4 244

47 846

7 874

17 768

4 572

1 923

6 389

25 531

56 183

860

147 233

52 606

31 983

23 351

42 012

297 185

19 761

Unemployment % (estimates)

Illiteracy %:

15 years + (estimates) e/

Infant mortality/1,000 (estimates)

M12 F27

M22 F49

M11 F30

35-40

M10 F27

30-40

M11 F30

M12 F31

a/ All figures as at June 1993.

b/ All references to installations are to those operated by UNRWA.

c/ These figures represent the average annual growth rate in registration from January 1988 to December 1992 inclusive.

d/ Thousands of dollars.

e/ M = male; F = female.

Annex II

PERTINENT RECORDS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND OTHER

UNITED NATIONS BODIES a/

1. General Assembly resolutions

Resolution	Date of adoption	Resolution	Date of adoption
194 (III) 212 (III) 302 (IV) 393 (V) 513 (VI) 614 (VII) 720 (VIII) 818 (IX) 916 (X) 1018 (XI) 1191 (XII) 1315 (XIII) 1456 (XIV) 1604 (XV) 1725 (XVI) 1856 (XVII) 1912 (XVIII) 2002 (XIX) 2052 (XX) 2154 (XXI) 2252 (ES-V) 2341 (XXII) 2452 (XXIII) 2535 (XXIV) 2656 (XXV) 2672 (XXV) 2728 (XXV)	11 December 1948 19 November 1948 8 December 1949 2 December 1950 26 January 1952 6 November 1952 27 November 1953 4 December 1954 3 December 1955 28 February 1957 12 December 1957 12 December 1958 9 December 1959 21 April 1961 20 December 1961 20 December 1962 3 December 1963 10 February 1965 15 December 1965 17 November 1966 4 July 1967 19 December 1967 19 December 1968 10 December 1969 7 December 1970 8 December 1970 15 December 1970	2791 (XXVI) 2792 A to E (XXVI) 2963 A to E (XXVII) 2964 (XXVII) 3089 A to E (XXVIII) 3090 (XXVIII) 3330 (XXIX) 3331 (XXIX) 3410 (XXX) 31/15 A to E 32/90 A to F 33/112 A to F 34/52 A to F 35/13 A to F 36/146 A to H 37/120 A to K 38/83 A to K 39/99 A to K 40/165 A to K 41/69 A to K 42/69 A to K 43/57 A to J 44/47 A to K 45/73 A to K 46/46 A to K 47/69 A to K	6 December 1971 6 December 1971 13 December 1972 13 December 1972 7 December 1972 7 December 1973 17 December 1974 17 December 1974 8 December 1975 23 November 1976 13 December 1977 18 December 1978 23 November 1979 3 November 1980 16 December 1981 16 December 1982 15 December 1983 14 December 1984 16 December 1985 3 December 1986 2 December 1987 6 December 1988 8 December 1989 11 December 1990 9 December 1991 14 December 1992
2. General Assembly decision
Decision	Date of adoption
36/462	16 March 1982

3.	Reports of the Commissioner-General of UNRWA
	1991:	Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth session, Supplement No. 13 (A/46/13 and Add.1)
	1992:	Ibid., Forty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 13 (A/47/13).
4.	Audited financial statements
	1991:	Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 5C (A/46/5/Add.3).
	1992:	Ibid., Forty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 5C (A/47/5/Add.3).
5.	Reports of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine
	1991:	Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth Session, Annexes, agenda item 72, document A/46/373.
	1992:	Ibid., Forty-seventh Session, Annexes, agenda item 73, document A/47/413.
6.	Reports of the Working Group on the Financing of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
	1991:	Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth Session, Annexes, agenda item 72, document A/46/622.
	1992:	Ibid., Forty-seventh Session, Annexes, agenda item 73, document A/47/576.
7.	Reports of the Secretary-General
	1991:	Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 45/73 D of 11 December 1990 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth Session, Annexes, agenda item 72, document A/46/535 (Offers by Member States of grants and scholarships for higher education, including vocational training for Palestine refugees)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 45/73 E of 11 December 1990 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth Session, Annexes, agenda item 72, document A/46/536 (Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 45/73 F of 11 December 1990 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth Session, Annexes, agenda item 72, document A/46/537 (Resumption of the ration distribution to Palestine refugees)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 45/73 G of 11 December 1990 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth Session, Annexes, agenda item 72, document A/46/538 (Population and refugees displaced since 1967)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 45/73 H of 11 December 1990 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth Session, Annexes, agenda item 72, document A/46/399 (Revenues derived from Palestine refugee properties)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 45/73 I of 11 December 1990 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth Session, Annexes, agenda item 72, document A/46/539 (Protection of Palestine refugees)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 45/73 J of 11 December 1990 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth Session, Annexes, agenda item 72, document A/46/540 (University of Jerusalem "Al-Quds" for Palestine refugees)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 45/73 K of 11 December 1990 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-sixth Session, annexes, agenda item 72, document A/46/541 (Protection of Palestinian students and educational institutions and safeguarding of the security of the facilities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in the occupied Palestinian territory)). Report submitted to the Security Council by the Secretary-General in accordance with Council resolution 681 (1990) of 9 April 1991.
	1992:	Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 46/46 D of 9 December 1991 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-seventh Session, Annexes, agenda item 73, document A/47/488 (Offers by Members States of grants and scholarships for higher education, including vocational training for Palestine refugees)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 46/46 E of 9 December 1991 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-seventh Session, Annexes, agenda item 73, document A/47/489 (Palestine refugees in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 46/46 F of 9 December 1991 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-seventh Session, Annexes, agenda item 73, document A/47/490 (Resumption of ration distribution to Palestine refugees)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 46/46 G of 9 December 1991 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-seventh Session, Annexes, agenda item 73, document A/47/491 (Return of population and refugees displaced since 1967)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 46/46 H of 9 December 1991 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-seventh Session, Annexes, agenda item 73, document A/47/438 (Revenues derived from Palestine refugees) properties)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 46/46 I of 9 December 1991 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-seventh Session, Annexes, agenda item 73, document A/47/492 (Protection of Palestine refugees)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 46/46 J of 9 December 1991 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-seventh Session, Annexes, agenda item 73, document A/47/601 (University of Jerusalem "Al-Quds" for Palestine refugees)). Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of resolution 46/46 K of 9 December 1991 (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-seventh Session, Annexes, agenda item 73, document A/47/493 (Protection of Palestinian students and educational institutions and safeguarding of the security of the facilities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in the occupied Palestinian territory)).

Notes

a/ A list of pertinent reports and other documents of the General Assembly and other United Nations bodies concerning UNRWA (notably those prior to 1987) can be found in the publication entitled UNRWA at the United Nations 1948-1986, which is available from the UNRWA Public Information Office.

—–

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