Palestine refugees – Announcement of pledges to UNRWA – Press release

Ad Hoc Committee for Voluntary          

 Contributions to UNRWA              

1st Meeting (AM)                

ABOUT $126 MILLION PLEDGED FOR UNRWA'S 1998 PROGRAMMES

IN SUPPORT OF PALESTINIAN REFUGEES

Pledges totalling  $125,677,700 were announced this  morning for the  1998 programmes  of the  United Nations Relief  and  Works Agency  for Palestine Refugees in  the Near East  (UNRWA), which  provides educational  services, food aid,  medical services, relief and  social services  to the Palestinian people.  That amount is less than 40 per cent of what UNRWA will  need to maintain  its  regular education, health, relief and social services programmes in 1998.

At a meeting  of the  Ad Hoc  Committee of the General Assembly for the Announcement of Voluntary  Contributions to UNRWA, announcements of  pledges were made by 23 countries.  The largest pledges were made by the United States ($70 million), Sweden ($19 million),  Norway ($14.2 million) and  the Netherlands and Switzerland ($5.5 million).

Also  making pledges were Austria, Belgium, China, Chile, Cyprus, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey.   Countries announcing their intention to pledge at a later date were Canada, Denmark,  France, Japan, Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom.  Written pledges were submitted  by the Czech Republic and Egypt.

The General Assembly President, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said that the austerity measures that the UNRWA management had  been forced to impose over the past four years  had begun  seriously  to affect  the level and quality  of the Agency's services.  Its schools, health  centres and other installations — some of them 25 or 30  years old — were critically in need of repair.  It was not enough merely  to salute the work  of UNRWA  without giving its  staff the necessary resources and tools to carry out the work entrusted to them, he stressed.

The Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Peter Hansen, said if UNRWA received the same amount for its General Fund in 1998 as it had in 1997, it would still face a deficit of over $50 million.   The UNRWA had prepared  a needs-based budget, linking programme outputs to funding required.  For decades, the international community had financed services  to refugees at a  certain level.  It was important to  maintain those levels,  so that  the Palestine refugee communities, which had maintained their identity and educated  their children and instilled in them a sense of survival and enterprise, would be enabled to continue doing so until there was a resolution to their problem.

In  closing remarks, Mr.  Hansen emphasized that the prospects for peace in the Middle  East would be dim if the Palestinians could not maintain hope for the future.

Also addressing the meeting, the observer for Palestine thanked the donor governments,  saying   that  their  contributions were  of even  greater importance in  light of the difficult financial situation facing UNRWA and the deteriorating living  conditions  of the  Palestinian refugees.  The representative  of Lebanon also made a statement.

The  UNRWA is one of  many United  Nations activities  which is  financed mainly by  voluntary contributions outside the  regular budget.   The Agency was created by General  Assembly resolution 302 (IV)  on 8 December 1949 and began operations on 1  May 1950.  It initially provided emergency relief  to some 750,000  Palestinian refugees who had  lost their  homes and livelihood as a  result of  the Arab-Israeli  conflict.   The Agency's  five fields  of operation are in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Statement by Assembly President

HENNADIY UDOVENKO (Ukraine), President of the General Assembly, said that UNRWA had  become an  indispensable factor in the daily lives of the 3.5 million Palestinian refugees.  From  the early days  of providing the essentials  of life — food, shelter, clothing, as  well as schooling and emergency medical care  -UNRWA had evolved into a provider of  educational, health, relief and social services,  setting  a standard  of  excellence that  was  a tribute to the dedication of the  Agency's staff and to  the determination of the  refugees to make a better life for themselves.

He said that UNRWA had been introducing management reforms and innovations to enhance  the efficiency of  programme delivery and make the best use of the resources made available by the international  community.  But the  Agency's budget was  based  not on  a  notional  conception of an ideal level of programme delivery, but on the needs of the refugee community.

The austerity measures the Agency's management had been forced to impose over the past  four  years had  begun seriously  to  affect the  level  and quality  of the  services delivered  by UNRWA, he said.  Its schools and health centres and other installations — some of them 25 or 30 years old — were  critically in need of  repair.  It was not enough  merely to salute the work of UNRWA without giving the Agency the resources, and its staff the tools, needed to carry out the work entrusted to them.

He said that, despite the ups and downs  of the political  negotiations, the  Palestinian  refugees  remained a population in need of assistance.  Their living  conditions continued to worsen and their lives were  filled with uncertainty and  apprehension.  They continued to look  to the  United Nations for  the assistance they  needed to carry on with their day-to-day lives in  dignity, to  realize their right to the best possible education, health care and other social services, even as their longer-term prospects were determined as part of the political process.

Statement by UNRWA Commissioner-General

PETER HANSEN, UNRWA Commissioner-General, said  that the Agency  provided education, health and relief and social  services to  3.4 million Palestine refugees  in  Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  Through those programmes, the  international community had looked after third and fourth generation Palestine refugees and developed a  relationship with them.

The Palestine refugees  saw tha  relationship as  inviolable until  their problem had been resolved,  he said.  UNRWA services were the most tangible form of  the international community's support.  Any reduction in services was perceived by the refugees as a  lessening of that support and commitment.

With its voluntary funds, UNRWA could operate  only with the  monies made available by  donors, since  the Agency did not have access to any other sources of cash, he  said.  That partnership included the host  governments, on whose soil the  Palestine refugees  found themselves, and who bore the biggest share of the financial burden through the provision  of public services and public goods to the refugees.

That decades-long relationship had come under increasing threat over the past five years, as UNRWA's financial crisis had spiralled downwards into a series of chronic deficit figures, he said.  By mid-1997, the deficit, as calculated between  expenditures and  estimated  income, stood  at some  $70 million.  Of that figure,  about $20 million  represented that core  amount which, if not covered, would lead to the Agency's "technical bankruptcy".

He said that in August he had had no choice but to announce certain cuts and  reductions, many of which had provoked an outcry from the refugees.  He had been able to revoke some of those measures with the receipt of about  $20 million for the General Fund.   Deep appreciation was expressed to the donors who had contributed those additional funds, enabling UNRWA to survive 1997.

If UNRWA  received the same amount for  the General Fund in 1998 as it had in 1997, it  would still face a  deficit of over $50  million, he said.  It was, therefore,  hoped that all States  present would  respond with generous pledges.  The UNRWA  had prepared  a needs-based  budget, linking  programme outputs to funding required.  For  decades, the international community  had financed services  to refugees at a  certain level.   It  was important  to maintain those levels, so that the  Palestine refugee communities which  had

maintained  their  identity  and  had,  despite  the  odds, educated  their children and instilled in  them a sense of survival and enterprise, would be enabled to continue doing so until there was a resolution to their problem.

There was no  doubt that a small number  of  donors provided  a  large proportion of the  cash which UNRWA needed to run its operations, he  said.  The most  universally agreed  burden-sharing formula was the United Nations scale of  assessments.   Only nine donors measured  up against that.  A few contributions represented a manifold percentage  over and above.   But the majority of donors fell far below.  The latter were asked to review  their contributions and increase them.

It was imperative  that UNRWA  began to roll  back the austerity  measures introduced over the preceding years,  he said.  Adequate  controls to ensure proper monitoring  of UNRWA operations needed to be reinstituted.  Schools and clinics needed to be maintained at safety  levels.  Other  unmet needs, outside the  General  Fund, included those needed for the equipping and commissioning of the European Gaza Hospital, as well as for the creation  of a termination indemnity fund.

Pledges

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