UNDP offers hope to Gaza’s farmers – Article

UNDP Offers Hope to Gaza’s Farmers

This month, the United Nations Development Programme/Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP) began the first phase of their project “Urgent Support to the Agriculture and Electricity Sectors in the Gaza Strip”.

The project’s aim is to enhance the resilience of the Gaza Strip residents through supporting agro-productivity and livelihoods-based interventions, rehabilitation of destroyed agriculture facilities, in addition to enhance access to basic services through rehabilitation of damaged electricity networks and enhancing the delivery of power supply in the Gaza Strip. Specifically, agriculture work will focus on restoring open fields and greenhouses, providing equipment for fishermen, assisting poultry farms through provision of inputs, and rehabilitating and reconstructing 39 ground water wells.

The project comes as a response to the urgent needs of the Palestinian population following the late Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip, which inflicted large scale damages on infrastructure including agriculture and electricity facilities. The project was designed to immediately restore damaged agriculture, and will also tackle employment and livelihoods where many of the activities will be carried out through labour intensive schemes and long-term job creation opportunities, particularly through the agriculture sector component.

Funded by the Islamic Development Bank, eight million USD will go towards the agriculture component, and another 5 million will help restore electricity facilities through the procurement and installation of new equipments and spare parts.

UNDP/PAPP is working closely with seven local NGOs on the ground in Gaza to implement the project, which is expected to complete August 2010.

For more information, contact Mr. Tamer Qarmout

or Mr. Jehad Al-Khatib.