UNRWA STAKEHOLDERS DEBATE PALESTINE REFUGEE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 AMMAN 009468 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/04/2014 TAGS: PREL PREF EAID IS SY LE JO SUBJECT: UNRWA STAKEHOLDERS DEBATE PALESTINE REFUGEE DEVELOPMENT PLAN AHEAD OF DISENGAGEMENT REF: A. AMMAN 9013 ¶B. TEL AVIV 5436 Classified By: ACTING DCM CHRISTOPHER HENZEL FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D ). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY. UNRWA,s stakeholders endorsed a controversial plan to strengthen the Agency,s governance bodies by 2006 at their fall major donors meeting. They also gave conditioned backing to the Agency,s decision to launch its own ambitious USD 1 Billion five-year Medium Term Plan (MTP). Responding to demands for information on this and other opaque Agency planning efforts, UNRWA broke its practice of showcasing projects at Major Donors, Meetings and devoted this meeting to explaining how it had formulated its five-year plan and a new emergency appeal for Gaza/WB. But it failed to convince donors its MTP is already in line with reforms that a high-level conference Switzerland hosted in June. USDEL head PRM A/S Dewey warned other donors they could not rely on the U.S. to continue funding almost 25 percent of UNRWA,s emergency appeals, but joined them in urging ComGen Peter Hansen to delay launching the MTP to incorporate the Geneva Conference,s key findings, arguing "buy-in" is crucial . Dewey visited UNRWA installations immediately after the MDM to examine the needs described in the MTP. Reftels report additional meetings he held to try to repair Israeli-UNRWA relations and to identify a successor to Hansen. END SUMMARY. -------------- NOT YOUR TYPICAL MAJOR DONORS MEETING -------------- ¶2. (SBU) UNRWA hosted its traditional informal fall meeting of donors and Palestinian refugee-hosting nations in Amman October 13-14, adopting an unusual agenda in response to donor concerns. Sensing that the so-called "Geneva Conference process" (a high level international meeting Switzerland hosted in June to evaluate UNRWA operations and foster cooperation among UN agencies providing services to Palestinian refugees) had created the first real opening to press for direct oversight of the Agency in years -- and alarmed by rumors that the ComGen was planning a December pledging event for a largely in-house drafted five-year plan -- UNRWA,s major donors had joined forces in the run-up to this MDM (with the quiet backing of Jordan, Syria and UNRWA,s own progressive Deputy ComGen and External Relations Director). Using five meetings UNRWA held in Amman and Jerusalem to finalize the conference report, they demanded that Hansen include two unprecedented items on the agenda: a debate on the need to revitalize UNRWA,s governance bodies and a substantive review of its current budget planning assumptions and methodologies. Two serious topical issues raised by delegates over the two-day meeting - the ramp up of IDF operations in north Gaza camps and a troubling interview the ComGen gave on the eve of the meeting in which he asserted that members of Hamas were on UNRWA,s payroll - failed to politicize the proceedings, due in part to the determination of key stakeholders to show a united front on their expectations to see changes in the way UNRWA operates. CONTROVERSIAL GOVERNANCE REFORM PROCESS ENDORSED -------------- --- ¶3. (SBU) The key outcome was secured in the governance session, which the majority of stakeholders used to endorse a controversial new "Working Group on Stakeholders Relations" (WGSR). Local Agency watchers created the WGSR in September through a process suggested by the Geneva Conference organizers and that progressive UNRWA officials pushed forward. In what most donors hope will be a first step towards establishing direct oversight, the new group has been charged with evaluating the Agency,s existing governance bodies (i.e., its UNGA-mandated Advisory Commission, NY-based Finance Committee and the informal MDM) and recommending a structure that "meets donor and host nations, needs" by the next MDM, which is scheduled for May. The deadline builds in time to table any UNGA resolutions that might be needed to modify the AdCom early in 2005. However, this hard-won workplan nearly unraveled when the EC discovered that UNRWA had made a last-minute change to the group,s terms of reference that would have limited its ability to look at other UN agencies, for potential models -- a change UNRWA claimed it had made to respond to strong Lebanese, Syrian and PLO opposition to the creation of new bodies that might change UNRWA,s mandate. Japan unexpectedly used the opening to oppose the creation of any group that might be empowered to remove it from the AdCom, but timely interventions by Jordan and Syria (which favor revitalizing the AdCom) supporting the original terms, and reminding delegates that any change to the AdCom would require UNGA approval, prevented the discussion from deteriorating further. To help ensure the WGSR looks beyond UNRWA for effective structures, Switzerland is offering to fund two consultants to assist the group with its study. US URGES DONORS TO RESPOND TO 2005 GAZA/WB APPEAL -------------- -------------- ¶4. (SBU) As the intifada drags on into its fifth year, coping mechanisms are being exhausted, poverty and unemployment are soaring, and emergency needs are increasing. UNRWA Gaza and West Bank field directors briefed donors on the 2005 emergency appeal the Agency intends to launch in late November to maintain food, cash assistance, job creation and re-housing programs, as well as mobile HEALTH clinics, to the 1.6 million refugees in Gaza and West Bank hardest hit by the ongoing conflict. The session confirmed that UNRWA is responding to donor suggestions that it move its longer-term interventions, such as its psychosocial programs, from its emergency appeal to its regular budget. UNRWA also reported that it is starting to adopt a needs-based approach to plan its emergency programs, rather than budgeting based on what UNRWA thinks donors will contribute. A needs-based budget would likely result in a larger emergency appeal, since UNRWA has not budgeted to meet the full food and other emergency needs of the refugees in West Bank and Gaza. However, the 2003 emergency appeal was only 50 percent funded, while the 2004 appeal has not yet attained even that level of response. There were no indications at the MDM that donors will be more forthcoming to UNRWA,s 2005 appeal. A/S Dewey called on donors to share the burden of funding UNRWA,s emergency appeals, noting that the U.S. is doing far more than its share and cannot be expected to keep doing so. MTP: UNRWA AGREES TO DELAY LAUNCH -------------- ¶5. (C) Donors cautiously supported UNRWA,s proposed plan to launch an ambitious 2005-2009 "Medium Term Plan" -- a USD ONE billion development strategy for Palestinian refugees in the region designed to support Roadmap provisions by ensuring the Agency hands over "assets, not liabilities" when a peace agreement is reached. Most donors acknowledged that UNRWA,s plan to build needed schools, medical clinics, housing, and to fund other programs to keep pace with the significant education and HEALTH sector investments that host nations like Jordan and Syria are now making -- is overdue, but urged ComGen Peter Hansen to delay his plan to launch the MTP as early as December. A/S Dewey had privately told Hansen at a breakfast October 14 that the U.S. and other donors would not buy into the MTP until we were satisfied with the product. According to UNRWA External Affairs Director Andrew Whitley, the EC also held out the possibility of a five-year commitment to the MTP provided UNRWA assured donors that the Agency was undertaking the process of implementing the critical operational reforms recommended at the Geneva Conference. ¶6. (SBU) Most donors also made it clear during the meeting that they wanted to see a commitment to adopt the most critical operational changes the Geneva meeting had recommended before they fully committed to large new programs. Noting that UNRWA had canceled a pre-MDM briefing on the formulation of the MTP, and had only unveiled the revised plan the day before the MDM, donors universally urged the Agency to revise the plan after a systematic effort to identify and to cost the most critical, actionable reforms had been finalized. The Agency failed to allay those concerns by sharing an in-house assessment of the conference recommendations it was already implementing because follow-up activities for many of those recommendations had not yet been identified/costed. ¶7. (SBU) Syria appealed for any harmonization effort to be completed quickly, reminding donors that some of the more ambitious development efforts described in the MTP are based on ongoing pilot projects, such as the re-housing projects in the Neirab and Ein el Tal camps near Aleppo (currently being funded by Canada, the U.S. and Switzerland),that had required six years of intensive negotiation with camp leaders who initially opposed the project on grounds it would jeopardize the right of return. At an ad hoc meeting of donors held immediately after the MDM, Sweden, Switzerland and the EC agreed to offer consultants to ensure the process of melding the Geneva Conference recommendations and the MTP into ONE document no later than March, when UNRWA starts preparing its 2006-2007 biennium budget. Deputy ComGen Karen AbuZayd confirmed in a separate post-MDM meeting with Switzerland, the EC, Sweden and the U.S. that Hansen had agreed to delay the MTP rollout until spring. -------------- -------------- A/S DEWEY EXAMINES APPEAL AND MTP DURING FIELD VISITS -------------- -------------- ¶8. (U) A/S Dewey visited UNRWA installations in the West Bank and Jordan immediately after the meeting to examine the critical needs described in UNRWA,s draft 2005 emergency appeal and MTP. In Jerusalem, he toured the separation barrier, met the Director of the West Bank Field, and discussed access issues with USG-funded operation support officers who verify that UNRWA installations are not being used improperly and who facilitate the access of mobile health clinics, food distributions and other UNRWA services. He also met the West Bank Field Education, HEALTH and Relief and Social Services Department Directors who anecdotally reported that they were struggling to respond to requests from refugees who had been able to afford private HEALTH care and education as recently as 2003. The Education Director made a specific appeal to maintain funding for his field,s tolerance promotion program, arguing that it could be effective in the current environment but was undercut by the fact that it only had resources to target children under 10. ¶9. (U) In Jordan, A/S Dewey visited UNRWA,s Jerash, Baqa,a and Jabel Hussein camps, and also compared UNRWA schools in Amman neighborhoods with large populations of registered refugees to government schools in adjacent neighborhoods, to examine two endemic problems the MTP has identified as factors that could potentially undermine the future capacity of Palestinian communities in the region: the fact that basic infrastructure in many of the camps has not been improved nor repaired since they were established in 1948 and 1967, exposing residents to severe overcrowding and environmental health problems, and the fact that UNRWA education and HEALTH standards are falling. The Jerash camp, which is populated by Gazan refugees who do not hold Jordanian nationality and have consequently been neglected by Jordanian authorities until very recently, for example, still has open sewers, and many of its shelters are in need of repair. Touring schools in two areas of Amman with the UNRWA Jordan Field Director, A/S Dewey heard how the Agency is struggling to keep up with investments Jordan has started to make to create an IT-literate population. Jordan,s Education Ministry, for example, has started introducing computer science to grades 7-10, equipping schools with state of the art labs, as well as separate labs for other sciences. UNRWA has a policy of using host nation curricula but has been unable to expand or introduce computer science programs due to lack of funding for equipment and the basic space constraints that exist in most of the 177 schools it operates in Jordan. Ninety-two percent of the UNRWA schools are run on double shifts in Jordan (compared to 15% of government schools) and ONE in four are housed in rented premises (usually converted apartment buildings) that tend to be too cramped to establish libraries and suffer neglect as landlords hope to drive UNRWA out of long-term leases. ¶10. (C) COMMENT: The majority of delegates seemed to recognize that this MDM was being held at a critical period in the Agency,s history: for the first time in years, donors are making progress toward establishing a greater say in the way the Agency conducts business. UNRWA has also started a good-faith effort to look beyond its three-year mandate and come up with a strategy to reverse the deterioration in the standards of health, education, vocational training, housing and other services it provides 4.2 million Palestinian refugees in the region, recognizing that if they handed these communities over now they would represent a net liability. Twenty years ago donors provided $200 per registered refugee. Today they provide $70 per registered refugee. That under-funding is perpetuating, and in some cases creating, conditions that could undermine future development by forcing the Agency to cut back programs at a time when host nations have finally made inroads among refugee leaders who opposed development on the principle that it compromised the right of return. Our consultations with other major donors suggests there is real potential for MTP burden sharing. The EC, Sweden and Switzerland have already devoted resources to ensure the plan is harmonized with reforms that would be a prerequisite for them to fund a major new program by March, privately acknowledging that they fear fueling the suspicion and resentment that is already directed towards the humanitarian community in the region by failing to respond to a landmark appeal that UNRWA appears determined to launch in ¶2005. The MTP is estimated to cost ONE billion USD over five years, or USD 200 million/year on average. Contributing 25 percent of the MTP (the traditional U.S. share of UNRWA funding) would cost us $50M/year from FY 05 through FY 09 above our regular contribution to UNRWA. It is a significant amount, but strong USG support for UNRWA continues to meet two primary U.S. interests -- addressing the humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and laying the groundwork for a successful peace process. ¶11. (U) PRM PDAS Richard Greene cleared this message. HALE