Evaluation of 2016/2017 PEGASE Direct Financial Support to the Palestinian Authority – European Commission Press Release

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The EU commissioned an independent evaluation to review PEGASE achievements over the period 2016-2017.

PEGASE Direct Financial Support consists of 3 main components: EU contributions to Palestinian Authority salaries and pensions under the ‘Civil Servants and Pensioners – CSP’, EU contributions to social allowances paid by the Palestinian Authority under ‘the Cash Transfer Programme (CTP)’, and EU contribution towards the costs of Palestinian Authority health referrals to the ‘East Jerusalem hospitals (EJH)’ with respectively €200 million, €100 million and €26 million for the period 2016-2017.  During the same period, nine EU Member States (Austria, Finland, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom) contributed some additional €74 million.

In summary, the evaluation highlights that ‘PEGASE Direct Financial Support is much appreciated by the Palestinian Authority, the EU and Development Partners  as a robust, trusted, effective and efficient assistance delivery tool’. The report issued in October 2018 emphasises that PEGASE was conducive for enhanced partnership between the European Development Partners and the Palestinian Authority under the framework of the European Joint Strategy in Support of Palestine 2017-2020. It confirms that PEGASE supports the Palestinian Authority as a duty bearer in  its responsibility to pay regular salaries to the civil servants, provide regular social allowances to the poorest and refer some specific health cases for treatment at the six East Jerusalem Hospitals. PEGASE is complemented by accompanying measures, such as capacity development of institutions, technical assistance to support key reforms, including improvement of social services, that are necessary for sustainability. Overall, the evaluation recommends to further link PEGASE to the European Result Oriented Framework 2018-2020 for policy dialogue and monitoring of the achievements of the European Joint Strategy.

Full Report