The Palestinian NGO Project A Case Study of NGOs Role in ...

The Palestinian NGO Project

A Case Study of NGOs Role in Poverty Alleviation

Presented toThe World Bank Human Development Week Annual Meeting

Washington, D.C.

March 1999

The Palestinian NGO Project 2

Outline

A. IntroductionB. Background of the Palestinian NGO Project

1st. Rationale2nd. Objective3rd. Guiding Principals4th. Target Groups

C. Institutional Design of the PNGO Project1st. Consortium of NGOs as Manager (The PMO)2nd. Role of the Palestinian National Authority3rd. The Role of the PNGOs and the PNGO Networks: The Consultative

MechanismD. Mechanisms of the Project

1st. Grant Awards1. Cycle Procedures2. Poverty and Marginality Indicators: The Driving Force behind theProject

2nd. Service Contracts: Capacity Building and Research1. Cycle Procedures2. Assessment of Technical Assistance and Capacity Building of

NGOsE. The First and Second Cycles: Sub-projects profile

A. General Profile of Proposals1. Atfaluna - Empowering Women2. Palestinian Farmers Union: Helping poor farmers' efforts towards self-

reliance - water catchment projects3. Social Youth Center/Nur Shams Refugee Camp: Upgrading Youth

ProgramsF. Issues of Concern and RisksG. Impact of the PNGO ProjectH. How does the PNGO Project model differ from Social Funds?I. Conclusion: Is the Model Replicable? What elements can be replicated?


A. Introduction

The Palestinian NGO Project is funded by the World Bank but does not exactly fallinto the mold of the Social Funds. Before discussing the strengths and weakness ofthe project, its goals, and its unique character, I would like to provide a littlecontextual background, which, I think, will help you evaluate the applicability of ourmodel in other environments.

The Palestinian social and political environment is admittedly unusual. In 1948,Palestinians lost 78 percent of what had been Palestine. What remained was two non-contiguous areas, the West Bank, representing 22 percent of the original area, and theGaza Strip, 1 percent of the original area.

The scale of the human tragedy was immense. Nearly one million Palestiniansbecame refugees overnight. Of those, 350,000 fled into the West Bank, and 250,000into the tiny Gaza Strip. The population of Gaza was tripled by this influx of destitutepeople. Most of the people who lost their homes, possessions, and lands wereilliterate peasants. Not only did they lose their source of livelihood, the land, theywere poorly equipped to support themselves and their families in any other way thanfarming.

In addition to assistance efforts by the international community, many Palestinianorganizations dedicated to the care of orphans and the destitute, education, training,and delivery of primary health care responded to the crisis.

The 1967 Arab Israeli War resulted in over a quarter of a century of militaryoccupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the absence of a government thatwould provide services to the population, the Palestinian community again rose to theoccasion. Palestinian NGOs that had been providing social services since 1948continued, and new NGOs appeared.

The Intifada, an uprising against the military occupation began in 1987. Its toll on theeconomic and human resources of the Palestinian community were dramatic. Onceagain, Palestinian NGOs responded to emergency and structural needs. As a result ofthis history of conflict, refugees, and occupation more than 500 Palestinian NGOstoday work in the West Bank and Gaza, providing vitally needed basic social services.

Following the signing of the Oslo Agreement between the Palestine LiberationOrganization and the Government of Israel in 1993, the Palestinian Authority wasestablished in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. The Authority has been therecipient of generous international donor aid - $2.5 billion dispersed in the last fouryears. However, much of this aid has been directed towards capital investments ininfrastructure.

The Authority's recurrent budget, from which services like education and health careare funded, while fairly well in balance, has little chance in the medium term ofexpanding. In the meantime, however, the Palestinian population is expanding.Palestinians have one of the highest fertility rates in the world. Nearly 2.7 millionpeople live in the West Bank and Gaza, 50 percent of whom are under the age of 15


years. Gaza, is one of the most densely populated places on earth with more than5000 people per square mile.

While, the recurrent budget is limited and the demand for services is exploding, thePalestinian economy is faltering. Our economy, wracked by nearly 30 years ofconflict and occupation, is still in a terribly weak position. The closure of ourborders, in place since March 1993, effectively isolates the economies of the WestBank and the Gaza Strip from each other and from the world.

What is the result? The Palestinian population is growing measurably and rapidlypoorer and the percentage of the government budget to provide services is shrinking.Today, 16 percent of people in the West Bank and 38 percent in Gaza are consideredto be below the poverty line. Of those, 26 percent of the poor in Gaza and 9 percentin the West Bank are in absolute poverty - unable to obtain the basic needs of food,clothing, and shelter.1 Poverty in the Palestinian case happens to be closely correlatedwith geography - people living in rural areas of Gaza and the West Bank tend to bepoorer than those in or near urban areas. Palestinian poverty also correlates tosociological status. Refugees, women, the elderly, the disabled, and the uneducatedare more likely to be poor.

The Palestinian NGOs have played a very important and central role in the delivery ofa myriad of social services, education, health care, mental health care, services to thedisabled and handicapped, agricultural extension, economic development, services towomen, and legal aid. There are historical reasons why the Palestinian NGOmovement is strong and vibrant. Probably the most important one is that thePalestinians were without a government of their own to provide important services formost of the twentieth century. Palestinian NGOs, because of their historic focus onmeeting the needs of the grassroots and reaching out to the poor and the marginalized,have a strong institutional capacity to deliver social services in areas and to segmentsof the population that the central authority has simply been unable to reach.

1 National Commission for Poverty Alleviation, Palestine Poverty Report 1998: Executive Summary,pp 6-7.


B. Background of the Palestinian NGO Project

1st. Rationale

The development debate has swung between themes over the past decades, and at lastin the 1990’s, poverty reduction is center stage again. In response to the WorldSummit on Social Development, many UN organizations have made povertyeradication their top priority, guided by the paradigm of Sustainable HumanDevelopment, with a combined emphasis on job creation, the advancement of women,protection and regeneration of environment.

After all these years of debate, there is now consensus as to what constitutes aneffective poverty alleviation strategy, reflected in development research and donorpolicy documents, given special focus in the Bank’s 1990 World Development Report(WDR) on Poverty, and in UNDP’s Human Development Report (HDR of 1996).

The World Bank in the 90’s has again renewed its commitment further to povertyalleviation through its country-focused programs, and established the PalestinianNGO Project as a Poverty Alleviation scheme. The Project is also committed to thestrengthening both the NGO sector, and the coordination between the NGO sector andthe Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and clearly defines these as objectives ofthe Project.

Research in development has proven over the years that poverty alleviation schemesare more successful when the following is promoted:

1. A Pro-poor Pattern of Growth: through efforts to promote household incomes,or sustainable livelihoods, by increasing and sustaining the use andproductivity of the poor’s greatest assets, especially labor

2. Investment in People : through efforts to improve access by the poor to basicservices (health, education, water, etc), to allow the poor to takebetteradvantage of economic opportunities

3. Decentralized and Participatory Planning is conducted at the community level,whereby the target beneficiaries themselves are empowered through theprocess of needs assessment, planning and managing their own services.

On the other hand, there is also the recognition:

1. That the importance and impact of civil society institutions in povertyalleviation is increasing

2. That responsibilities of planning and management of basic services requiredfor poverty reduction should be delegated to local structures and communityinstitutions whose sphere of authority is closest to the people.

3. That incentives should be provided for these institutions to mobilize localresources and community support

4. That participation of the local communities should be strengthened throughthese institutions with special focus on marginalized social groups, like


women, people with special needs, orphans, elderly, refugees, and ruralpopulation.

5. That central/local dialogue can only be enhanced through a system ofinformation flow, clear division of labor, and devising a system wherebyincorporation of local priorities and planning within the central planningsystem is possible and encouraged.

With this in mind, the Palestinian NGO (PNGO) Project was established in 1997, witha Trust Fund of about $14.8 Million from the World Bank, the Government of Italyand Saudi Arabia, all managed by the World Bank. It is worth mentioning that theproject concept came about as early as 1996 and was widely discussed withPalestinian NGOs locally as well as with representatives of the PNA, especiallyrepresentatives of line ministries.

It is not incidental that the World Bank elected the West Bank and Gaza as a place ofchoice to set up such an innovative project. Indeed, the recognition of the PalestinianNGOs’ crucial and historical role in delivering services and fostering the existence ofa civil society greatly informed the Bank’s decision. The establishment of the PNA in1994 translated in a severe decrease of funding for the NGO sector as donors directedtheir support to the emerging Palestinian government. It is estimated that funding tothe non-governmental sector fell by 50% between 1992 (the peak year for externalfunding) and 1995. The PNA neither has the capacity to take over all NGO services,nor will it be the most cost-effective option in light of the NGOs technical experiencein delivering services to the Palestinian population, accumulated over a period ofmore than four decades. So far, Ministries such as the Ministry of Health (MOH) andthe Ministry of Education (MOE) soon came to the realization that division of labor isneeded to be put in place with the NGOs and, to a lesser extent, the private sector.Areas in which NGOs have demonstrated a comparative advantage at service deliverywere hence left to the sector to manage (e.g. handicapped care, pre-school education,women’s activities and catering to the poor and marginalized population in general).With the PA in place, NGOs also had to rethink their contribution to the Palestiniansociety as they were no longer the sole agents of development.

Consequently, the PNGO project seeks to: (1) to support the NGO sector incontinuing to deliver essential service with a focus on the poor and the marginalized;(2) help NGOs to move towards developmental work and accordingly build up theirdelivery capacity,(3) foster a productive relation between the PA and the NGO sector to encourage aclear division of labor, avoid duplication of services, and facilitate a concerted andconsensual strategy of development. In pursue of these goals, the project isconsultative in nature, and has created a dialogue, partnerships and mechanismsthrough which information and support can flow from the NGOs to and from thePalestinian National Authority, and where responsibilities and accomplishments canbe shared.

The project is a three-year project that awards grants for NGOs for service delivery,coupled with capacity building and policy research support, as a supplementarycomponent to empower and inform the service sector. The Project aims at promotingbest NGO practices, and thus is gearing its capacity building program in thatdirection.


B. Aims and Objectives of the PNGO Project

Aims of the Palestinian NGO Project

To alleviate poverty by providing services to the poor anddisadvantaged

The Project will help NGOs continue to provide essential economic andsocial services to the most disadvantaged communities.

To Build NGO skills and capabilitiesGood professional practice will be the key to improving and sustaining

Palestinian NGO services in the coming years.

To strengthen professional relations between NGOs and PNAWith the emergence of the PNA, there is a need for careful and

harmonious coordination between the public sector and NGOs, in order tomeet the goal of social and economic advancement in the Palestinian

Territories.


C. Guiding Principles of the Project

PovertyAlleviation

The principal beneficiaries of the Project are thepoorest and most marginalized Palestiniancommunities in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.Not all the activities undertaken by Palestinian NGOsare covered by this Project and not all NGOs can beeligible to receive Grant Awards.

Consultation Throughout the Project, the PMO will consult on aregular basis with many different parties.Consultations will take place with local communities,specialist resource people, NGOs, NGO associationsand networks, inteNGOs, line ministries, donors andthe World Bank.

CommunityParticipation

The PMO believes that it is not enough just to provideservices to the poor. Poor communities must have amajor say in the type and quality of the services theyreceive and in who delivers the services.

Responsiveness

Strengtheningthe NGO Sector

The Project is “demand driven.” While the PMOcoordinates the identification of needs - that is,particular sectors and geographic areas where servicesare deficient – there is plenty of scope for NGOs (andthrough them, beneficiaries) to be creative in theirthinking about the type of project proposals they wishto submit.

The Project strengthens the NGO sector in three keyareas:First, the Project represents new funding to the NGOsector.Second, key components of the project aim tostrengthen NGOs directly through technicalassistance and capacity-building components.Third, the Project contains a research component.This aims to provide information to the NGOs tostrengthen their operations, and the linkages betweenNGOs, and local communities in the delivery ofservices.


D. Target Groups

The project has three target groups.

1. The most important target group is, of course, poor and marginalized Palestinianswho rely upon services provided to them by NGOs.

2. The NGOs are also a target group of the project since the project aims to buildtheir institutional capacity for service delivery, and encourage and support theiradjustment to a new legal, logistical, and funding environment. The projectemploys them as a vehicle of outreach to the remotest corners of the community.

3. The Palestinian Authority is also a project target. The project seeks to strengthena productive, mutually supportive work relationship between the government andthe NGOs. In addition, the project is participating in the ongoing effort to create apositive legal framework for the NGO community.


C. Institutional Design of the PNGO Project?

A. Consortium of NGOs as manager (The PMO)

The Palestinian NGO project is run by a project management organization that wascreated for and is dedicated to this task alone. At the executive level, the field officeis comprised of a small staff of nationals selected for their expertise in design,management, and implementation of development projects.

At the management level, in this particular case, there is a Steering Committeecomprised of representatives of the Consortium to which the World Bank awarded theproject. The Consortium is comprised of the Welfare Association, a large PalestinianNGO with a strong trecord in both economic development and social service projects,the British Council, and Charities Aid Foundation, a British-based charity that focuseson support and technical assistance to NGOs and charities around the globe.

Our Steering Committee also includes a representative of the private sector, a banker,as it happens.

The Steering Committee performs three roles. One of these is supervisory. TheCommittee also provides technical assistance to the project as it is needed and theylend a range of views and experience to the project.

The Palestinian NGO Project also has a Supervisory Board composed of Boardmembers of the lead organization, The Welfare Association, and the SteeringCommittee members. The Supervisory Board is the ultimate decision making bodyfor grants disbursed by the project.


B. Role of the Palestinian National Authority

The Palestinian Project has been designed and is being implemented to draw centralgovernment, the Palestinian National Authority, and Palestinian NGOs together in aharmonious, mutually supportive, working relationship. Officials from relevant andministries provide a consultative function to the project and participate in meetingsand workshops with their counterparts in the NGO community. The focal ministry forthe Project is the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC), whohas formed an inter-ministerial Sectoral Committee, made up of members of thedifferent sector Ministries to liaise with the Project.

C. The Role of the PNGOs and PNGO Networks: The Consultative Mechanism

Very important to the project design and viability is its highly consultative character.The PMO holds regular meetings with NGO network representatives to discuss issuesand elicit feedback. Indeed, there is a formal mechanism to ensure NGOrepresentation in the decision making processes of the PMO.

The Palestinian NGO project is participatory in three primary ways:

1. Management of the project is drawn from the NGO community itself,building on established experience and relationships.

2. Throughout the project cycle, different parties are consulted to ensurethat local and central priorities and mechanisms are aligned. So theNGOs themselves have a say in what priority sectors would beadvertised, through a participatory process of needs assessment, whereMOPIC is informed and endorses, to ensure that priorities lie within, ordo not conflict with, those identified by the central government. Moreimportant is the participation of communities in the planning,management and maintenance of these services and utilities, to ensurelong term sustainability. These components are looked at in theappraisal of the project itself.

3. The Project Management Organization is mandated, as a project task,to set up a consultative body. This body is to be comprised of thePalestinian NGO networks that represent the NGO community at largeand representatives of civil society, MOPIC, and other Ministryrepresentatives. The consultative body, which is being“institutionalized” within the PMO structure at present, will have a'Terms of Reference" assigning it responsibilities and authorities inproject implementation and it will work alongside the PMO.

The ultimate goals of the consultative body are: ? Encourage and maintain close community and grassroots integration in project

implementation.? Create an environment of transparency and trust.


? Build capacity within the Palestinian NGO community to assume fullownership and direction of the project.

? Encourage long-term sustainability of the project as both a funding mechanismand a “utility” for capacity building

? Maintain and enhance relations between the NGO sector and the PalestinianNational Authority (PNA).

? Enhance a dialogue on policy issues, pertaining to eligibility criteria and othergrant-related issues.

? Create continuous channels of communication between stakeholders to allowthem to effectively monitor and evaluate the Project.

Why is participation valuable?

? Assures relevancy and value of project work through input of expertise andabilities on many levels and from many actors and stakeholders.

? Creates a sense of ownership of project assets and activities, which translatesto attitudes of trust and responsibility.

? Makes use of and creates an avenue for transfer of indigenous skills, abilities,and capacities and is more effective in building consensus.

? Many hands make light work. Wide participation means many people joiningthe work effort. This means, in the end, a project that is able to cast its netvery wide in an effective fashion.

Thus, the project has a very large number of stakeholders. The positive side of this isthat there is a great deal of input, energy, and creativity lent to the project. Thenegative side is that it is difficult to move things along when there are a large numberof actors.


IV. Mechanisms of the Project

The Palestinian NGO Project funds two broad categories of activities, Grants andServices.

1. Grant Awards include:

Recovery Grants are designed to assist viable NGOs delivering priority servicesto the poor. Assistance in the form of financial aid to ameliorate temporaryfinancial difficulties combined with highly targeted technical assistance andcapacity building to the recipient NGO.

Development Grants which enable NGOs to carry out projects that provideservices to the poor and marginalized

Italian/Palestinian Partnership Grants that build relationships betweenPalestinian and international NGOs and provide capacity building to thePalestinian NGOs while implementing a project that provides services to poor andmarginalized communities.

Block Grants, an exciting and innovative funding scheme. Strong NGOs apply tothe PMO for a large grant, which they then disperse to smaller, less-experiencedNGOs.

a. Cycle Procedures

For grant awards, the project is designed in cycles. Each cycle starts with areview of the initial needs assessment. Obviously, the needs assessment andany review of it is intended to sharpen the focus on poverty alleviation as theultimate deliverable. The needs assessment is a highly consultative andparticipatory process where, through a series of professionally facilitatedworkshops, the NGO community, the Palestinian Authority, donors, and thePMO sift and distill until an agreed upon universe of target sectors for thecycle is formulated.

The targets clear, the PMO calls for proposals. Proposals are submitted on aform designed by the PMO and refined based on lessons of previous cycles.The form is intended to unify the application procedure, level the field interms of proposal design capabilities which may vary amongst the NGOs, andto provide the PMO with a body of information that can be analyzed in anobjective, transparent, and informed manner.

Since the proposal pack is complex and lengthy, the PMO, as part of itscapacity building mission, subcontracts Palestinian training organizations toprovide assistance to applicants in project design and planning, and proposalwriting. The PMO also holds a series of workshops at the launch of theapplication process to answer general questions about the project, the needsassessment, and the proposal, evaluation, and award process.


The proposals from Palestinian NGOs submitted, there is a desk appraisal,field appraisal, evaluation by a technical assessment committee using ascoring mechanism, and then recommendations for funding or rejection thatare presented to the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board makes thefinal decision, which is then presented to the Ministry of Planning andInternational Cooperation to ascertain that funded projects do not duplicate orare not made redundant by government efforts. The grants are then presentedto the World Bank for 'no objection'. Once the 'no objection' is obtained, theindividual grant implementation agreement for each project is negotiated bythe PMO and the NGO concerned and disbursement begins.

Two. Project Appraisal process in relation to Poverty and MarginalityIndicators: the Driving Force behind the Project

Palestinian NGOs have been for years vital services for the Palestinian society,especially in the absence of a national government. The NGOs in Palestinehave been offering a wide range of services that the governments undernormal circumstances do.

With the emergence of the Palestinian National Authority, and in adherence toits objectives, the PNGO Project is assisting and encouraging NGOs to shiftemphasis towards the poor and marginalized. The assumption is that NGOscan provide local services in a more cost-effective way compared with PNA.This will need consistent time, effort and technical assistance for the NGOsector to mobilize them in that direction.

Thus the PNGO Project has now developed Poverty and MarginalityIndicators (PAMIs), to assist NGOs in both targeting areas and communitiesthat are more impoverished and marginalized, and devising selection criteriato reach the poorer beneficiaries. These have been prepared as part of thesubmission package for Cycle 2, and nine (9) district workshops targetingroughly 400 NGOs have been held to train NGOs on how to fill the package,with special focus on how to collect and measure poverty indicators.

In this sense, the Project is unique and innovatively experimental. TheNational Commission on Poverty in Palestine has issued its first report inNovember 1998, the first ever to be issued in Palestine. The PNGO Project,guided by this report is developing social assessment indicators at the micro orproject level.

The establishment of indicators that would assist in targeting project proposalstowards the poor, appraisal of those proposals, and then monitoring andevaluation of projects against that particular markers continues to be a critical,and very difficult task of the PNGO Project.

The Project is working with local and international consultants to developpoverty and marginality indicators. Several workshops have been organizedby the PMO with NGOs to try to come up with a common definition of


poverty and marginality, and later indicators that can be used by the PMO toevaluate or appraise the projects submitted for funding.

The key challenges are:

? How can the PNGO project assist and provide incentives to NGOs indeveloping a poverty-focused policy and programme

? How can the Project Management Organization elicit information from theNGOs in their proposal format that will allow the PMO to objectively assess ifthe project addresses poverty and marginality?

? How can these indicators be applied in different geographic settings, urbanversus rural, and for different types of services/sectors and offer grounds forcomputability and equal measurement for the PNGO project?

? How will we measure whether a project has successfully alleviated poverty orreached out to the marginalized? What specific indicators do we use, at themacro/community level, and micro-project or beneficiary level?

The Project Management Organization has called upon local expertise andbuilt upon work already begun by a consortium of the United Nations, NGOs,and the Palestinian National Authority/Poverty Commission to take anobjective look at poverty in Palestine in order to formulate a draft of povertyalleviation indicators. This process is supported by the Department ofInternational development (DFID) of the British Government which isoffering long-term assistance for the project to develop these indicators andincorporate them in the appraisal system.

In the second cycle, a whole set of indicators has been prepared and integratedinto the proposal package. Given the fact that these have not been tested yet,it is premature to make a judgment of the quantitative value and relevance ofthese indicators. What is crucial here is the process facilitated by the PMO todevelop consensus on these indicators, involving the three key parties, theWorld Bank, the NGOs themselves, and the central government.

An intriguing element of the experimental system is that the proposing NGO,in effect is required to conduct a needs assessment and perform a povertysurvey, the results of which are reported in the proposal package. Thus, theprocess is highly participatory and decentralized in its nature. The stepswithin the proposal pack are carefully laid out to guide the NGOs through theprocess and to ascertain that the appraisal process will be fair, and also tocreate a database for future reference and benchmarks to evaluate programprogress. The results should be fascinating, since, once again, each NGO willbe working in its own geographic and specialty area.

2. Service Contracts: Capacity Building and Research

Service Contracts include:

Capacity Building Service Contracts. The PMO subcontracts local individualsor institutions to help NGOs develop planning, managerial, and financial skills.


Research Service Contracts are awarded to local researchers and researchinstitutions to improve information, databases, and analyses of the NGO sector.

a. Service contracts, including capacity building activities for the PalestinianNGOs and Research Grants, intended to service the project and the NGO sector,obviously do not run on cycles, but rather in response to perceived needs. Capacitybuilding and research institutions, however, do go through a pre-qualifying process,which ultimately allows the PMO to access needed services in a speedy manner.

Two. Assessment of technical assistance and capacity building of NGOs

Assessment :

Within two to three months of signing the GIA with an NGO, the PMO will conduct aCapacity building Assessment. The purpose of the assessment is to evaluate the needof the NGO for technical assistance and training. The assessment is participatory andstaff and board members are expected to work along with PMO staff. ParticipatoryRapid Appraisal (PRA) tools are employed.

Capacity Building of NGOs

Qualified training institutions and consultants are contracted through a competitivebidding process to provide group training or tailored one-on-one counseling toindividual NGOs, as appropriate.


V The First and Second Cycles: Sub-projects profile

A. General Profile of Proposals

In the First Cycle of Development Grants, the PMO received 357 proposal packs intotal for Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. The World Bank granted “no objection”on 14 July 1998 to 39 projects distributed among regions as in the table below:

First Cycle, Development Grants(Distribution of Projects among Regions and Amounts per Region)

National Jerusalem West Bank Gaza TotalNumber ofProjects

2 6 22 9 39

Grant Amounts 188,700 336,279 836,349 467,361 1,828,689% of TotalAmount

10.32% 18.39% 45.74% 25.55% 100%

In the Second Cycle of Development Grants, the PMO received 231 proposals. Ofthose, 176 applications are from the West Bank and 55 from Gaza. Out of the 231proposals received, there are 32 proposals with positive recommendation to theSupervisory Board with a total budget of US$ 2,708,722.

Sample Projects under Implementation from Cycle One:

1)NGO:Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children andWorld Vision - Jerusalem

Project:Vocational Training for Deaf andHearing-Impaired women

Due to the lack of opportunities for hearing-impaired women to obtain propereducation and training, and the prevailing negative attitude and misconceptions in thecommunity towards them, Atfaluna Society in partnership with the World Visionestablished a vocational and training program for deaf and hearing-impaired women.The training course include sewing, knitting, embroidery, needle works, pottery andglazing. The project intends to empower these women to generate income forthemselves and their families through obtaining employment or running their ownbusiness. The program also contains a component to enhance opportunities forintegration within the community.

The project location is in Gaza City and several other locations in the Gaza Strip. Thetotal number of direct beneficiaries is estimated around 350 for a duration of one year.

The PNGO grant to this project is US$101,569 of a total budget of US$113,478allocated to the following components: staff and personnel, equipment and supplies,


furniture, oexpenses, supplies and materials. The project is going well underimplementation and the NGO already spent an amount of US$33,710 of the total grantamount. Expected date of completion is the end of September 1999.

2)NGO:Palestinian Farmers Union

Project:Water Catchment for Agriculture

The water harvesting project aims at increasing water harvesting in two remotevillages; Tammoun in Toubas District and Kufur Thulth in Tulkarem District. Thetargeted villages are very poor and marginalized and suffer a real crisis in wateravailability especially for agriculture. The project consists of two main componentswhich are wells construction for rain-fed cisterns coupled with training workshops forfarmers in water usage, home gardens and farming techniques.

The PNGO grant to this project is US$ 49,980 allocated to wells construction andextension services. The project is now is in its final stages under completion. TheNGO has already spent an amount of US$ 42,000.

3)NGO:Social Youth Center /Nur Shams

Project:Upgrading of Youth Programs

The project aims at expanding the activities offered to the youth and the localcommunity, and to include women and children in their programs. Nur Shams is arefugee camp in the Tulkarem District, which is a very impoverished area. The projectconsists of building a new floor to absorb the increasing social and youth activities atthe center. Activities are various and include cultural activities, health seminars, poemevenings, folklore dancing and plays.

The PNGO grant to this project is US$ 36,720 allocated to the new construction andexpansion of services.


VI. Issues of Concern and Risks

There are a number of issues of concern for the Palestinian NGO Project.

1. Sustainability is a problem shared by many of the regional social funds, butparticularly for one that is as autonomous and as reliant on international donor aidas is the PNGO Project. In the medium-term, we see two important areas of focusin this.One. Fundraising at the PMO levels to support contented fundingTwo. Capacity building in the Palestinian NGO community to enable NGOs

to effectively access funding sources and rationally plan and budget.

2. Another issue of concern in the Palestinian context is the overall uncertaintyinherent in the current political arrangements and the undefined legal status of theNGO community in Palestine.

3. A third concern, which I am sure is a concern to every development effort in theworld, is ascertaining that we have identified, and are effectively implementingmechanisms help us reach our target - the poor.

4. A challenge particular to our project is to remain in the position of being a magnetfor consultation and participation and not to transform into just anotherbureaucratic layer in an international aid process.

Risks

? The balance of the consultative and participatory mechanisms is delicate. Theprocess of building consensus is very time-consuming, cumbersome, needscontinuous dialogue and facilitation skills that vary in such a diversifiedgroup.

? The project is new and pioneering and therefore, the implementation is highlyexperimental. There is no similar model worldwide that can shed light on thePNGO Project.

? The Palestinian political environment is highly unstable and the competitionbetween NGOs and the Palestinian National Authority continues. Both partiesneed to define further complementarity.

? The regulatory environment of the NGOs is, as yet, uncertain, given that theNGO Law has not yet been passed and endorsed by the Legislative Council.

? The project is highly dependent, at this stage, on donor support and PalestinianNational Authority goodwill. It is, therefore, vulnerable to shifts in donorinterest and commitment and understanding of the PNA to the role of theNGOs.


VII. Impact of the PNGO Project

It is early yet to assess the impact of the Palestinian NGO Project. However, weanticipate both direct and indirect outcomes. Amongst the direct outcomes wouldbe:

1. Service delivery of poverty alleviation programs that will reach directly andindirectly over 100,000 people.

2. Empowerment through capacity building and technical assistance to over 200NGOs.

3. Mobilization of NGO sector to participate in poverty alleviation programs. 4. Enhance the development of Palestinian civil society through a higher level ofparticipation in civic and public issues.

Indirect impact is:

1. Reduce extremism and the potential escalation in violence. 2. Contribute to political and social stability. 3. Contribute significantly to the development of dynamic Palestinian civilsociety.


VIII. How is the Palestinian NGO Project different from Social Funds?

We feel that the Palestinian NGO Project, as a model, has particular strengths incomparison to some familiar social fund models.

1. The Project is highly consultative and mechanisms for beneficiary participation inthe needs assessment and project identification are built into the process and thecycles. I have already discussed the needs assessment process, and would like totalk a little about the setting of poverty and marginality indicators as anotherexample of beneficiary participation.

This project has a central mission - to deliver needed social services to the poor.Obviously, it is important that we do that effectively, and that we are able todemonstrate that we have done so. Thus, the PMO, which the assistance of localand international consultants is engaged in a process of setting poverty andmarginality indicators which are part of the proposal package, the appraisalsystem, and then the monitoring and evaluation of the various projects. Settingindicators has been no simple matter. Poverty, as you know, is highly contextual.The effort to determine that a project is going to serve the poor and serve themeffectively, is very delicate.

Our effort to identify indicators and find ways to objectively weigh them involvedall the stakeholders in the project. In a day-long workshop, NGO representatives,experts, donors, and government representatives worked together in facilitatedsmall groups to hone down a system. The system was refined and is being testedin this grant round. Feedback from the beneficiaries in terms of this critical toolfor orienting the project is a central, indispensable element.

Block grant managers will also be extending the system to sub-grantees.

2. The project works solely on the basis of grants, not a mix of loans and grants.

3. The project is entirely autonomous. The fact that the PMO was created solely forthe purpose of running the project has meant that the project can be very flexibleto environmental changes and responsive to lessons learned as we go along. Italso permits quick response in a project which is highly demand driven.

4. The Project is also wholly in realm of civil society. The project manager is aPalestinian NGO and the delivery mechanism is also NGOs. The role of thegovernment is purely consultative.

5. Unlike most of the social funds in the region, this project concentrates activity onthe delivery of social services through the NGOs. This is particularly appropriateto the Palestinian environment at present since donor funding covers one hundredpercent of the capital and infrastructure budget. The Palestinian NGO project,furthermore, does not seek to create temporary employment in response to shocksin the economy, but rather to build a sustainable institutional base for servicedelivery in the NGO community.


6. The Beneficiary Assessment of the World Bank Community DevelopmentProgram noted that while communities were generally happy with theinterventions, they sought more input for women, youth, and children, particularlyin the areas of education and health. This is exactly the fine detailing that thePalestinian NGO project is able to deliver.


IX. Conclusion: Is the model replicable? What elements can be replicated?Benefits.

We believe that this project model is viable, and could easily adapted and replicated.But some of its features are clearly context-specific. The project replication could bedifficult were none of the conditions that allowed for itset-up in Palestine prevail anygiven country. Not all countries have NGOs that are as experienced and organized astheir Palestinian equivalent. Palestinian NGOs have a history of communitydevelopment activism which stems from the absence of a centralized governmentuntil 1994 and culminated during the Intifada (1987-1993). The Palestinian politicaland economic situation is thus unique and has resulted in exceptional community self-reliance.

The legal environment in which NGOs operate is also a key factor in the goodfunctioning of the project. NGOs must be given a fair set of rights and duties in theirrelation to the government, as well as be able to play their role of catalysts of a vibrantcivil society. In the West Bank and Gaza, the PNA has tried to draft a legislationgoverning the NGO sector since 1995 but the proposed drafts were quite restrictiveand opposed by the NGO community. The latest attempt to develop an NGO law inthe West Bank and Gaza, which arose out of a joint effort between the political sub-committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council and a coalition of NGOs, seems verypromising. The resulting “Draft Law of Charitable Associations and CommunityOrganizations” offers a sound framework for establishing a modus operandi betweenthe PA and NGOs and should be enacted in the near future. Once the law ratified,several activities have been planned to discuss the significance and implications of thelaw, and will be administered by the PMO in agreement with the Bank. The Bank thusrecognizes the central importance of a good NGO legislation in enabling NGOoperations and, by extension, those of the PNGO project itself. The MENA region isknown for a generally more restrictive and prohibitive nature of the laws, whichregulate the non-governmental sector. This could hamper the establishment of asimilar project elsewhere.

However, many elements of the project are adaptable - be it with trade unions,charities, associations, professional organizations, or networks.

Most adaptable of these elements are:

? A specialized, purpose dedicated management organization? The participatory nature? Decentralization of management and creation of a consultative mechanism? The demand driven nature of project activities? The focus on poverty and marginalization and the methodologies being

developed to identify and quantify these characteristics for more refinedproject targeting.

Benefits of the Palestinian NGO Project Model


? A complex, democratic, far-reaching development project is managed by avery small staff, with a limited administrative budget.

? NGOs encouraged continuing and building the valuable services they provideto the community.

? NGOs strengthened by capacity building and skill transfer, and the institutionof participator approaches at the local level, thus enhancing the role of civilsociety.

? One project is able to work in many different sectors in the farthest reaches tothe country.

? The delivery mechanism of the projects, the local NGOs, is already in placeand working.

? A modus operandi between the NGOs and the government is being reached.

Palestinian NGO Project: Section 2Structure and Organization

Welfare Association Consortium 2-8 27/02/98

Figure 2.7. Palestinian NGO Project - Project Management Organisation

The Structure of the PMO Executive

Supervisory Board

PMO Director

Administrative AssistantPublic Relations Officer

Steering Committee

The PMO GovernanceStructure

The PMO ExecutiveStructure

Technical Assessment Committee (TAC)

Financial Controller Operations Manager

Receptionist/AdministrativeSecretary

AdministrationOfficer

OfficeCleaner

Driver &Messenger

Senior Accountant

Grants &Contracts Officer

Program Secretary

Projects Manager

RegionalField Officer

Southern Region


Gaza


Gaza

Secretary

Regional FieldOfficer

Central Region

Deputy ProjectsManager/Gaza

Deputy ProjectsManager/West Bank andRFO Northern District

Capacity Building Expert

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