UNRWA Commissioner-General’s statement at UNRWA Advisory Commission meeting in Amman – UNRWA statement

STATEMENT OF THE COMMISSIONER-GENERAL TO THE UNRWA ADVISORY COMMISSION

15 June 2015

STATEMENT OF UNRWA COMMISSIONER-GENERAL PIERRE KRÄHENBÜHL AT THE UNRWA ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING HELD IN AMMAN, 15 JUNE 2015

Mr. Chairman; Mr. Vice Chairman; Distinguished Delegates; Colleagues:

It is an honor to be present at this advisory commission meeting here in Amman. I wish to thank Jordan for once again generously hosting us. Special appreciation is owed to H.E. H.E. Mr. Mohammed Al-Momani, State Minister for Media Affairs and Communication, and acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for his presence here and for his  support to UNRWA.

I wish also to seize this opportunity to thank H.E. Per Orneus for his remarkable engagement in recent months for the cause of Palestine refugees and UNRWA. At the end of this meeting Sweden will be handing the chair of the Advisory Commission over to Syria and I want to thank Sweden for its leadership over the past year. Syria will be supported by Switzerland as Vice-Chair; Switzerland continues to Chair the Sub-Committee with support from Jordan and the United States as Vice-Chairs. I also would like to welcome Brazil and the United Arab Emirates as new full members of the Advisory Commission.

Allow me also to bring to your attention a number of key personnel changes in my senior management team.  Sandra Mitchell in March assumed responsibilities as Deputy Commissioner-General, enriching the decision-making and implementation capacity of my office.  Uta Boelhoff has joined as the new Director of External Relations and Communications; Matthias Schmale as Director for Lebanon; Thierry Rajaobelina as Director of Internal Oversight; and Omar Rifai as head of the Arab Partnership unit.  

As we welcome them warmly, we also bid fond farewell to Bob Turner, who has been a tenacious and effective leader of our operations in Gaza for three years, and Bernard Laufenberg, who as Director of Finance has done much to upgrade the quality and transparency of UNRWA’s financial management and reporting.

Ladies and gentlemen, we meet at a most challenging time and my statement will focus on describing what UNRWA sees as the greatest challenges and opportunities at present and in months to come. Before doing so, allow me to link this session with one that took place two weeks ago in New York, specifically in the Trusteeship Council Chamber at UNHQ. On 2 June, a conference was held marking 65 years since UNRWA began its operations.

It was a privilege to see Palestine refugees and UNRWA honored on that day in the presence of Member States of the General Assembly of the United Nations which created us under Resolution  302 (IV) of December 1949.  Six months later, in May 1950, we were delivering services to more than 700,000 Palestine refugees in what remain our five areas of operation – Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Most of us were not yet born then and those who were just going through their first years in school.

I asked participants and ask you today: If you were given 30 seconds to describe landmarks of human history since 1950, what would they list? The Korean War and the start of the Cold War, desegregation in the United States, uprisings in Europe in the 1960s and in the Arab world in the 2010s, the end of colonialism and apartheid, the rise and fall of dictatorships in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, the Berlin Wall built and brought down and the destruction of the towers. Genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda. Olympic Games in 15 cities and Football World Cups in 17 countries. And throughout this entire period, Palestine refugees have remained refugees.

UNRWA @65 requires a necessary moment of reflection. On three main fronts:

Palestine refugees today face an existential crisis on many fronts. In Palestine, they are approaching 50 years of occupation.

Being a Palestine refugee in Gaza today, means being a victim of a blockade that affects every aspect of one’s life and being dependent on food aid while being educated and wishing to be self–sufficient.

Being a Palestine refugee in Aida camp near Bethlehem today, means living under the fear of daily incursions and detentions by the Israeli Army and the anguish of denied access to opportunities.

Being a Palestine refugee in Yarmouk today, means being a resident trapped by a merciless siege and bombardments and violence, deprived of regular access to water, food, electricity and basic health. When I visited Yarmouk in March, you could see the suffering and hunger etched into the people's faces.

Being a Palestine refugee in Nahr El Bared in Lebanon today means trying to cope with the frustration of still living in miserable temporary shelter eight years after the destruction of the camp.

We speak today of over 5 million registered Palestine refugees in the region. That equates to the population of Norway or Singapore.

Their isolation, exclusion and dispossession represent a time-bomb for the region, a denial of dignity and rights that must be addressed.

Reflecting on UNRWA @65 also means reviewing some of the outstanding achievements made over the decades with the support of hosts and donors and with the refugees themselves.

Since I joined UNRWA a little over a year ago, I have found deeply impressive the performance of the Agency  in times of crisis and emergencies, for example in Gaza or Syria.

The entire Palestine refugee population in Syria has been exposed to the relentless violence.  Of the estimated 560,000 refugees living there before the conflict erupted, over half have been displaced; 60,000 have fled to Lebanon and Jordan.  

With little space to improve conditions on the ground in this grim landscape, UNRWA is making remarkable efforts to deliver assistance to almost all Palestine refugees in the country. Against all odds, our colleagues have been delivering assistance to displaced from Yarmouk, to refugees in camps in Aleppo, Deraa, Homs and rif Damascus.

This year attendance in our schools is up slightly, an exceptional development that we will attempt to encourage further where conditions permit.  Where schools are not accessible, we continue to resort to alternative means to sustain education including self-learning materials.  Moreover, through health points we are increasing the accessibility of health care.

These achievements have come at a profound cost, with 14 staff lost since 2011 and another 25 detained or missing.

In the Gaza Strip, the entire population of 1.8 million – among them 1.2 million refugees – has endured three major conflicts in the last 5 years in addition to the long-term blockade.

During the 2014 conflict in Gaza, we sheltered 300,000 displaced persons in 90 of our school buildings. We provided life-saving aid to them under the extreme circumstances of war.

Land and air bombardment destroyed 9,000 homes and severely damaged another 5,000.  

This also came at a considerable cost for UNRWA as we lost 11 staff members

Almost one year after the start of last summer’s conflict, not a single entirely destroyed home has been rebuilt in Gaza Reconstruction must be initiated at scale, as a humanitarian and political priority.  UNRWA has shown that concrete change is possible.   Thanks to donor support some 60,000 households have been able to repair light damage sustained in the conflict.

As difficult as the situations are in our various fields, we continue to make progress in different areas. Our Family Health Team medical reform is a success story, rolled out to every health centre in Lebanon, and in the West Bank 90% of our clinics have implemented the approach, which has been received positively by beneficiaries.  

Our commitment to human rights education remains firm, and in the West Bank all of our 97 schools have completed the human rights and conflict resolution toolkit.  And in Marka camp in Jordan, in partnership with UNICEF we are pursuing an innovative community driven project to instill resilience among some of the most marginalized communities in the country.

Our Field Directors will of course provide more detailed updates about developments in their respective areas.

Taking into account all that UNRWA continues to achieve, I would like to under-score again the great significance of something that even our closest partners underestimate: the fact that with their support, UNRWA has contributed to one of the most remarkable dynamics of human capital development in the Middle East. Our health and education standards remain among the highest in the region.

700 schools run by UNRWA with 22,000 education staff for 500,000 boys and girls. An astonishing achievement. This is the equivalent of running the education services of the city of San Francisco but in areas experiencing war, occupation and blockade. 131 clinics run by UNRWA with 4,000 health staff for an annual average of 3 M people served.

These services are made possible by the dedication, resolve and courage of UNRWA staff, often carrying out their activities under dangerous – or very dangerous- conditions. They deserve the highest respect.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I noted at the outset of my statement that these are challenging times. I underlined the existential nature of the crisis facing Palestine refugees.

This crisis is the result of the political failure and lack of will to politically resolve the occupation, blockade and the conflict opposing Israel and Palestine. This has caused the extreme duration of the plight of Palestine refugees. This crisis is compounded by the massive and growing instability in the Near and Middle East.

This is a time when UNRWA is facing its most serious financial crisis ever. It is a crisis that affects not only our core activities in education and health but our emergency appeals and projects as well. Currently, we face a funding shortfall for core activities to cover the year 2015 of $101 million. In other words we can pay salaries and cover activities only into September.

But things are indeed not better in terms of emergency funding.  At present, funding for our Syria appeal for 2015 is only 27%.  As a result we have had to scale back the frequency and amount of cash assistance that is distributed to refugees in Syria in situations of extreme vulnerability.

In Lebanon, this means Palestine refugees from Syria are not receiving assistance towards housing, gravely affecting families without the means to secure shelter.  Allow me to be perfectly honest here: I find this deeply disturbing. It is not that we do not have access or the ability to implement. We simply do not have the money. Our Gaza reconstruction appeal for $720 million Dollars has received approximately $216 million Dollars in pledges – we are urgently appealing for funds to enable reconstruction to move forward.  

During the November Advisory Commission meeting and in the context of our discussions on the MTS, I described what our strategy would be to address some of the structural dimensions of UNRWA’s financial situation:

As we meet here today and tomorrow, we need to have a sincere exchange on the parameters of these challenges.

Let me begin with the internal steps we are considering.

First we need to be extremely honest about our financial situation. Inside UNRWA there exists a sense of “déjà vu”, including at times among senior staff. There is a sense that UNRWA every year speaks about a deficit and in the end somehow manages to cover it. I have told staff and repeat here today that the situation is far more serious than that, that this is the biggest deficit we have ever faced and that doing nothing about it internally is not an option.

So, I have instructed the Deputy Commissioner-General to lead an exercise to work on concrete ways to reduce some of our costs, without affecting services. The measures decided are in three main areas:

These are big steps and they hurt. But we believe they are necessary as part of our responsible approach to our financial situation. Following the announcement of these measures there have been reactions, from staff, camp committees, parties, hosts and media. In some cases with very understandable and legitimate points of concerns. In others on the basis or erroneous interpretations or misunderstandings.

Last week management and unions had very robust exchanges on these issues. These were constructive sessions but they were sensitive and emotional for all involved. We have asked one of the Union representatives to address the Advisory Commission today to convey to this gathering how these steps are being seen by Unions.

To all concerned, I wish to say this:

Palestine refugees represent the essence of what UNRWA stands for, and the measures we are pursuing are designed to strengthen our ability to assist and protect the refugees, by improving further our cost effectiveness, and our credibility in the eyes of all stakeholders on whom UNRWA relies for support.  

The management team of UNRWA takes this financial deficit extremely seriously and we must take painful steps to bring down the running costs for the Agency.  Increasing class sizes, ending international consultancies and imposing a hiring freeze are difficult steps but, and I want to insist on this, they do not amount to a reduction of services to refugees.  

We are also considering an exceptional voluntary separation opportunity to our staff.  This is exceptional because we will need special resources to provide such an offer and it is a direct result of the financial situation of the Agency.  I want to stress it is a voluntary measure and one which staff and Unions have been requesting for some time.  We are not, and I want to insist on this, dismissing staff although we may not replace those who choose to voluntarily separate.

To hosts I wish to say:

To member states and donors I wish to say:

The issue of Palestine refugees is not going away. We can close our eyes on the matter now but should beware of what the landscape will look like when we reopen them.

And to Palestine refugees I wish to say:

You may hear people telling you that UNRWA is about to close or be forced to close. You may hear that UNRWA intends to cut services. This is simply not true. Every single staff member of UNRWA, Palestinian or international, male or female, young or experienced, is determined to ensure that you receive the support, services and respect you should. We are facing tough times but we are engaged in every possible way to get the funds and diplomatic support we need to help.

We will also show determination in speaking out about the need to protect and promote your rights and dignity.  Humanitarian aid is not a substitute for the denial of dignity or rights. Palestine refugees need more than assistance. You need to enjoy the human rights that international law guarantees to all people and you need a just and lasting solution.

Allow me to conclude with something in short supply but terribly needed for Palestine refugees: hope. In August 2014, during the war in Gaza, I visited a damaged UNRWA school and found this school book in the middle of the rubble. It belonged to Rua Khdeih, a young student aged 11. In it she had written a poem and expressed an understanding beyond her young years when she said “hope does not betray”.  When we reinaugurated the school in April, Rua read the poem. It sent a powerful message to us all. Hope will never die but it needs a serious boost.

Let us hear this from her directly.

 [A short video of Rua is shown]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I call on all of us here to rise to the occasion and to have an honest, open and far-reaching debate. I wish to hear your views and suggestions and in particular I would call on all to look for solutions together to move UNRWA into a place where it can assume in full the mandate given to it. Palestine refugees are not statistics nor are they victims only. They are, like we all wish to be, actors of their own destinies and we must consider them as such. I want UNRWA@65 to stand not for misery and poverty alleviation but for hope and dignity.

Thank you.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and is mandated to provide assistance and protection to a population of some 5 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight. UNRWA’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, and microfinance.

Financial support to UNRWA has not kept pace with an increased demand for services caused by growing numbers of registered refugees, expanding need, and deepening poverty. As a result, the Agency's General Fund (GF), supporting UNRWA’s core activities and 97 per cent reliant on voluntary contributions, has begun each year with a large projected deficit. Currently the deficit stands at more than US$ 106  million.

For more information, please contact:

Christopher Gunness

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+972 (0)54 240 2659

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Sami Mshasha

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http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/statement-commissioner-general-unrwa-advisory-commission