Appraisal of the Palestinian NGO IV Project/Environmental Management Plan – World Bank (Part II)

Environmental Assessment

May 2010

INTRODUCTION

The Palestinian NGO Project (PNGO) is a major initiative of the World Bank, which began in 1997, when the Welfare Association Consortium (WAC) composed of the Welfare Association (WA) as the lead partner, the British Council and the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) won the World Bank’s competitive tender for the management of the Project. The consortium formed a management partnership, which oversees the work of the Project Management Organization (PMO). The PMO was the implementing agency for the three PNGO I and PNGO II, and PNGOIII projects.

The World Bank has been requested to support a fourth Palestinian NGOIV Project based on the successes of the first three. The Palestinian NGOs still need support and a reliable funding in supplementing their services to vulnerable communities, which the public service delivery system does not adequately reach. NGOs, particularly smaller community-based NGOs, need strengthening, especially in effective planning, managing and monitoring of their service delivery programs.

The project objective is as follows: “to provide social services to those who are poor, vulnerable or marginalized and strengthening the institutional capacity of Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs).

The project will support the development of a credible and sustainable professional agency (the NGO Development Center, NDC) which will effectively provide technical, policy and funding support to NGOs service delivery programs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. NDC will oversee the management of PNGO IV project.

The PNGO IV project will have three main components; Institutional Development of NDC, NGO Grant Facility and NGO Sector Development.

To proceed with the preparation of the project it is necessary to prepare an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) as part of the procurement requirements under the Project. These two environmental reports shall be in compliance with the World Bank policies and procedures.