MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF PRM'S COOPERATIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 08 AMMAN 006832

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR PRM/ANE FROM REGIONAL REFUGEE COORDINATOR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/24/2015
TAGS: PREF PREL KPAL EAID IS JO
SUBJECT: MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF PRM'S COOPERATIVE
AGREEMENT WITH SEEDS OF PEACE

REF: A. KRANTZ-KANESHIRO E-MAIL 06/18/05


B. KANESHIRO-WARD E-MAIL 01/27/05

C. KIRBY-KANESHIRO E-MAIL 12/17/04

D. 04 AMMAN 1721

E. 03 AMMAN 1477

Classified By: CDA Christopher Henzel for Reason 1.4 (d)


1. (U) Following is a monitoring and evaluation
report for PRM's $100,000 cooperative agreement
(SPRMCO04GR131) with the non-profit organization
Seeds of Peace, which is designed to extend that
NGO's conflict resolution program to Palestinian
refugee youth residing in the West Bank,
Jerusalem and Gaza. Seeds of Peace (SOP) has
been implementing similar agreements for PRM
since 2002.

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SOURCES
--------------


2. (U) Per refs A-B, Amman-based regional
refcoord met Seeds of Peace's Jerusalem- and
Ramallah-based program managers and staff at
their East Jerusalem offices (i.e., Seeds'
"Jerusalem Center for Co-Existence") three times
between September 2004 and July 2005 to monitor
SOP's three PRM-funded sub-programs:

-- On January 26-27, refcoord reviewed the
management turnover SOP is undergoing in its
Jerusalem office and its related decision to
alter the year-round activities it organizes for
former summer camp participants from its
Jerusalem Center with partial PRM funding (see
paras. 5-7 for details) with interim Jerusalem
Co-Existence Center Director Timothy Wilson and
former Co-Existence Center Administrative
Director Dr. Reuven Barneis, whom Wilson has
retained as his private consultant. (NOTE: SOP
has also retained Wilson in his former position
as Director of SOP's summer camp facility in
Otisfield, Maine. As explained in para. 8,
Wilson has been absent from Jerusalem since March
due to health problems. Senior Program Officer
Ariel Huler was appointed Deputy Center Director
in February and has been acting as Center
Director in Wilson's absence. END NOTE.) She
also reviewed SOP's three PRM-funded sub-programs
with the following staff responsible for day-to-
day implementation: Center Supervisor Sami Al
Jundi, who recruits Arab and Israeli youth to
participate in the summer camps SOP operates in
Maine, SOP's "Olive Branch" Magazine Editor Seth
Wilkis, who has overseen this NGO's two-year-old
effort to create an Arabic-language publication,
senior program officer Ariel Huler, who has
retained responsibility for implementing the
traditional follow-up seminars SOP organizes for
former Israeli and Palestinian campers, and new
staff members Lena Yehia and Zaqloub Said, whom
Wilson hired in late 2004 to develop a new
community service/outreach program for Jerusalem
and West Bank refugee camps using current PRM
funding (see para. 7).

-- Refcoord reviewed PRM-funded activities again
with Huler, Al Jundi, Wilkis, Yehia and Said
again on May 12.

-- Refcoord carried out a final monitoring visit
on July 21, meeting with Huler, Al Jundi and
Wilkis to focus on SOP's unexpected request for a
no-cost grant extension (para. 4).


3. (U) In addition to these visits, refcoord met
William Millsap, a consultant with the Reston-
based firm Social Impact who is conducting for
USAID the first systematic survey of attitudinal
change among Seeds participants, on January 27 to
review his findings on SOP targeting/management
in Jerusalem. She also met UNRWA Education
Department Director Kabir Shaikh and West Bank
Field Director Anders Fange at UNRWA's Amman HQ
on June 14 to review SOP's coordination and the
potential overlap between SOP's PRM-funded
programs and the new PRM-funded phase II
"tolerance project" UNRWA is implementing in its
West Bank and Gaza schools. Due to limited
security escort availability, refcoord failed to
carry out a planned site visit to evaluate the
new SOP community service activities in or near
refugee camps in Jenin, Ramallah and Shufat Camp
in East Jerusalem.

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OVERALL OPERATING ENVIRONMENT AND PERFORMANCE
--------------


4. (SBU) As was the case with its previous two
PRM agreements, SPRMCO04GR131 calls for Seeds of
Peace to increase the number of Palestinian
refugees attending the three-week summer camp
sessions it started organizing in the U.S. in
1993 to teach tolerance and conflict resolution
techniques to youth from the Middle East, and to
secure their participation in the year-round
follow-up activities its Jerusalem Center for Co-
Existence organizes for former campers' until
they reach age 24, through a joint-funding
arrangement (currently 125,000 from PRM and
$25,000 from private donors). SOP's camp
recruitment access problems eased as a result of
the improvement in the political situation that
followed the February 2005 meeting between
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Abbas and
Israeli Prime Minister Sharon and the subsequent
cease-fire. The PA lifted its three-year-old
boycott of Seeds of Peace shortly after the Sharm
el Sheikh meeting, enabling SOP to resume working
with the PA Education Ministry to recruit
campers. As a result, SOP was able to recruit
refugee youth from Gaza for the first time in its
history -- a long-time program goal. (COMMENT:
In 2001, when PRM first started funding SOP's
refugee recruitment efforts, SOP was only able to
identify and secure travel permits for refugees
who held Jerusalem IDs. In refcoord's view, SOP
could overcome its access problem and improve
targeting of refugees further if it included
UNRWA officials in its selection committees. END
COMMENT.)


5. (SBU) However, the extensive permit system and
network of road blocks and checkpoints that
limits the movement of Palestinians -- combined
with former Palestinian campers' continued
reluctance to participate in activities held at
SOP's Co-Existence Center in the French Hill area
of Jerusalem -- has perpetuated the access issues
that have made it difficult for SOP to
effectively implement follow-on activities over
the past two years (refs. D-E). As it did in 2004,
SOP responded by supplementing the four joint
Israeli-Palestinian seminars it was able to schedule
(as of July 30) with additional "uni-national"
activities in Ramallah. However, its new management
team decided in late 2004 to shift the majority of
the $34,870 PRM has provided to secure the
participation of 80 refugees in SOP follow-up courses
into a new refugee camp service/community outreach
program in February (ref. B).


6. (C) SOP has left the design of new programming
based in refugee camps to new local staff who
have no prior experience working with Palestinian
refugees due to the unexpected absence of the
Jerusalem Center Director for the past five
months. Their reliance on local NGOs and UNRWA
community-based organizations for access has
diluted the co-existence content of PRM-funded
follow-up programming. While SOP's new refugee
camp-based activities could facilitate SOP's
summer camp recruitment by providing supplemental
English language training to refugee youth (a key
SOP selection criteria) and by overcoming
community distrust of SOP as a U.S.-based
organization, its approach could potentially
duplicate services that UNRWA and other NGOs
provide. Lack of managerial oversight (combined
with inadequate Arabic language capacity among
its editorial staff) also appears to account for
the problem SOP continues to have finalizing its
third PRM-funded subprogram: publishing an
Arabic-language youth magazine. Nine months into
its second year of funding, SOP has limited its
production goals to one edition. Although it has
entered into discussions with UNRWA to introduce
the magazine in its schools, it has yet to secure
a distribution agreement.

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SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
--------------


7. (C) SUMMARY: As of July 21, SOP had fully met
one out of the three objectives contained in its
current agreement: it increased the number of
refugees in its summer camp program in Maine from
12 to 17. On May 28 (ref. A) Jerusalem-based SOP
staff informed refcoord that SOP would need a
no-cost extension through September 2005 to meet
its second objective of producing/distributing a
youth magazine in Arabic. In late 2004, SOP
significantly altered the content of its
follow-up program (its original proposal was to
include 80 refugee youth in year-round co-
existence courses). In addition, SOP maintains
no database that can identify whether participants
hold refugee status, making it difficult to confirm
whether SOP has met its final, original objective.
Since February 2005, SOP has provided remedial
English-language courses and communication workshops
to at least 80 refugee youth, but these courses are
aimed at facilitating SOP's recruitment for its
summer camp program and have no direct
tolerance/co-existence focus. A summary of the
specific activities SOP performed between
September 2004 and July 2005 follows:

OBJECTIVE A - 17 REFUGEES ATTEND SOP'S MAINE CAMP
============================================= ====

As it originally planned, SOP has used partial
PRM funding (i.e., $49,300 to finance the
selection process and the participation of
campers in a three-day pre-departure seminar) to
help it expand the number of refugees attending
its Maine camp from 12 in 2004 to 17 in 2005. Of
the 80 Palestinians SOP recruited this year, 17
appear to hold refugee status (two are from
UNRWA's Shufat Camp in East Jerusalem, three are
from Jenin Camp, one is from Bethlehem's
Deheisheh Camp, and 11 are from Rafah Camp in
southern Gaza). (NOTE: SOP does not use UNRWA
registration to verify the refugee status of its
participants. Instead it uses residency in UNRWA
camps as its working definition of a refugee. Al
Jundi estimated that an additional 15-17
Palestinian participants living outside UNRWA
camps could be registered refugees. END NOTE.)
All 17 received Israeli travel permits and
participated in the sessions that ended August 9.
In addition to meeting its numerical target, SOP
met its long-standing goal to recruit refugees from
Gaza this year. Center Supervisor Al Jundi
attributed this to the PA's agreement to lift its
boycott of SOP, and the particular support of PA
Minister Dahlan, who served on SOP's Gaza selection
committee along with the PA Education Ministry
representatives. Para. 13 describes SOP's
selection criteria/process.

OBJECTIVE B - PRODUCTION OF ARABIC MAGAZINE
===========================================

PRODUCTION DELAYS: SOP's current agreement
provides an additional $8,000 to assist SOP in
finalizing production of its first Arabic-
language youth magazine. Under its FY 03
agreement, SOP received $20,000 in PRM funding to
produce Arabic translations of SOP's quarterly
English-language "Olive Branch" magazine for one
year. During her January monitoring visit (ref
B),refcoord learned that SOP Editor Wilkis had
been forced to halt production in late 2004 after
Palestinian staff at the Co-Existence Center
objected to the poor quality of the Arabic-
language translation, which Wilkis (a non-Arabic
speaker) had reportedly out-sourced to an Israeli
firm using the full $20,000. Given limited
remaining funding, Wilkis told refcoord in
January that he had abandoned SOP's original plan
to produce quarterly Arabic translations in favor
of producing one "best of" edition, aimed at a
ninth-grade audience, by March 2005, with the aid
of four volunteer former campers. On May 28, SOP
Jerusalem informed refcoord that it would seek a
no-cost extension through September 2005 to finalize
production. Huler explained during refcoord's July
monitoring visit that some original contributors had
voiced objections to re-printing their articles.
However, Wilkis informed refcoord on August 14
that the "best of" edition had been finalized and
would be sent to the printers on August 18.
(NOTE: A copy has been pouched to PRM/ANE. END NOTE.)

DISTRIBUTION STATUS: Ref D reported that SOP
planned to distribute its Arabic language
magazine to schools in the West Bank and Gaza
through UNRWA and UNDP. However, SOP has not yet
pursued distribution with UNDP and is still in
the process of securing the cooperation of UNRWA.
UNRWA HQ Education Program Director Kabir Shaikh
told refcoord June 14 that UNRWA continues to
have concerns about its content. On August 14,
Wilkis informed refcoord that he had secured the
provisional agreement of the UNRWA West Bank
Field Education Director to distribute the
magazine in its schools. However, Wilkis is
planning to leave SOP in September, and has
indicated that he is turning over responsibility
for finalizing SOP's distribution plan to his
successor. Huler told refcoord July 21 that it
was unlikely SOP would start recruitment for a
new magazine editor before September, when Wilson
is scheduled to return to the region.

OBJECTIVE C - 80 REFUGEES ATTEND ONGOING COURSES
============================================= ===

TRADITIONAL CO-EXISTENCE ACTIVITIES: SOP's
original proposal was to include 80 refugees in
the follow-up co-existence courses it organizes
through its Jerusalem Center. SOP is facing
increasing difficulty securing travel permits,
but it has managed to maintain the joint Israeli-
Palestinian seminar program it restored in 2003,
scheduling three ongoing discussion groups for
Jerusalem residents focused on film, language and
culture and media out of its Jerusalem Center.
It also scheduled an intensive dialogue session
for its former 2003-2004 year campers in Nevit
Shalom in December 2004, two seminars on civil
rights and education issues in Tanteu in February
and June 2005, and one lecture on the current
political situation with a panel of Palestinian
and Israeli officials and journalists that
included Saeb Erakat. As was the case in 2004,
SOP supplemented these joint meetings with two
"uni-national" seminars for Palestinians on the
PA elections and co-existence issues in Ramallah
this year. However, SOP has not used PRM funding
to deliberately target the participation of
former campers' with refugee status, and thought
the numbers of refugee participants were likely
to be low during refcoord's three monitoring
visits. (NOTE: SOP's current database does not
permit it to track its summer camp and/or seminar
participants by refugee status. SOP's past
calculation that 50 percent of participants in
its follow-up courses have been refugees was
based on the fact that roughly half the
population of the West Bank are registered
refugees. END NOTE)

NEW CAMP-BASED COMMUNITY SERVICE ACTIVITIES:
Since February, SOP has used the bulk of the
$34,870 it requested to secure the participation
of refugees in its follow-on programming to
instead implement new community outreach
activities targeting refugee communities in East
Jerusalem, Ramallah and Jenin. Unlike its
aborted 2003-year program (ref D),SOP hired two
new full-time staff in October/November 2004
(using non-PRM funding) to develop separate trial
programs for Jerusalem and the West Bank focusing
on UNRWA's Shufat Camp in East Jerusalem and
refugee camps/communities in the Ramallah and
Jenin areas. Both programs have centered on
SOP's summer camp recruitment by promoting the
English language and communication skills that
remain SOP's core selection criteria. As of June
21, SOP had conducted 40 remedial English classes
for 25 Jenin refugee camp youth and two English
language classes for an unspecified number of
Shufat camp youth, hiring part-time instructors
(see para 15 for staff qualifications.) SOP has
left the design of other activities to its new
staff members. The staffer in charge of the West
Bank outreach program was formerly a head
counselor at SOP's Maine Camp, and has attempted
to retain a co-existence focus to his
programming, working with the Ramallah-based
Ta'awon Palestinian Conflict Resolution Institute to
schedule two workshops in Ramallah with PRM
funding designed to promote communication skills
and "self-confidence." SOP's Jerusalem program
staffer also conducted one three-day
communications workshop for refugee youth in
April, but has also agreed to provide adult
English language courses and summer
camp/lifeguard services suggested by the UNRWA
Women's Program Center in Shufat Camp, apparently
as part of an agreement she reached to run SOP's
camp outreach program from this women's center.

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ISSUES AFFECTING IMPLEMENTATION
--------------

8. (SBU) MANAGEMENT TURNOVER: SOP is undergoing a
protracted management turnover in its Jerusalem
offices that is affecting its PRM-funded
activities. When SOP dismissed Jerusalem Center
Director Jen Marlowe (the architect of SOP's
original grant proposal) in mid-2004, reportedly
to respond to allegations that Co-Existence
Center staff were introducing biased programming,
it brought in Tim Wilson (long-standing director
of SOP's summer camp facility in Otisfield,
Maine) in September to serve on an interim basis.
Wilson told refcoord in January that he had begun
to re-orient SOP's traditional regional
programming from joint dialogue sessions/academic
seminars to "Peace Corps-type" community based
service activities demanded by former campers,
arguing that this would help SOP address the
severe problem it faces in meeting its goal of
retaining the participation of former campers in
SOP activities until they reach age 24 (ref B).


9. (SBU) Wilson's subsequent five-month absence
from the region, however, has forced
comparatively inexperienced staff to design and
implement SOP's two PRM-funded ongoing
subprograms: the development of Arabic language
materials and courses designed to ensure refugees
participate in ongoing co-existence courses.
Acting Director Huler maintains regular contact
with SOP HQ and has been extremely responsive to
refcoord requests for updates on SOP's programs,
but has a "hands off" management style, meeting
with staff responsible for PRM-funded programming
once every two weeks. With only two years at
SOP, he appears reluctant to offer former
colleagues guidance on the content of their new
activities and has not met with UNRWA officials
to coordinate SOP's new camp-based programming,
despite repeated urging from refcoord. The new
local staff SOP has hired to develop its refugee
camp community service programs, particularly the
SOP staff member in charge of its Jerusalem
program, are turning to the UNRWA community-based
organizations and NGOs in Shufat and Ramallah
that have agreed to house their refugee camp
outreach programs for programming suggestions.
This has diluted the content of SOP's co-
existence content to date, and could result in
SOP duplicating services that other NGOs can
provide. It also increases the risk SOP will
inadvertently align itself with a politicized
group. (NOTE: SOP staff's lack of lack of
familiarity with the political factions operating
in camps in Bethlehem forced SOP to abandon its
community service program in 2003 (ref D). END
NOTE.)


10. (SBU) TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS: SOP Jerusalem
staff report that they are having more difficulty
obtaining the Israeli travel permits Palestinian
youth need to travel to SOP's workshops and
seminars. SOP is aware that the completion of
the security barrier around Jerusalem will
exacerbate the problems it is having maintaining
its East Jerusalem Co-Existence Center as a
seminar site, and is considering opening a
satellite office in Ramallah in response. To
reduce staff travel, SOP has already provided
housing in Ramallah for its staff member
responsible for implementing its trial West Bank
refugee camp outreach program using non-PRM
funding.

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ACCESS AND COORDINATION ISSUES
--------------


11. (SBU) SOP has traditionally relied on
regional governments to help it identify its
summer camp participants. While SOP has restored
the PA's participation, UNRWA continues to have
no role in SOP selection processes. UNRWA's
absence from SOP selection committees probably
limits ability to identify program beneficiaries,
given that the majority of SOP's target
population attends UNRWA schools. (NOTE: SOP
claims to have invited local UNRWA West Bank
staff to participate in its selection committees
in the past, but it has not yet approached
education program mangers from UNRWA HQ, nor its
West Bank and Gaza Field offices. END NOTE.)


12. (SBU) Lack of coordination in the field, and
potential overlap with UNRWA's own tolerance
program, is a growing issue. SOP managers have
not met with officials from UNRWA's HQ or West
Bank Field to discuss their new refugee camp
service programs, despite the fact that SOP has
located its Jerusalem program in an UNRWA
community based organization in Shufat Camp (with
the approval of UNRWA's Shufat Camp Director)
and hopes to expand activities to other UNRWA-run
West Bank camps. UNRWA West Bank Field Director
Anders Fange told refcoord June 14 that this
coordination gap would not lead UNRWA to limit
SOP's access. However, SOP's strategy of aligning
itself with local NGOs/UNRWA community service
groups already working in or near UNRWA camps to gain
access/facilities puts it at risk of serving as
adjunct staff for those organizations. There is
also strong potential overlap between SOP's
effort to produce Arabic materials and the phase
II tolerance project UNRWA's Education Department
has just started to implement, which is partially
designed to expand the conflict-resolution
teaching materials it has already started
introducing in its West Bank and Gaza schools.

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SELECTION CRITERIA
--------------


13. (SBU) SOP continues to use English language
skills, academic excellence, and demonstrated
leadership and social skills as selection
criteria for its summer camp program. SOP staff
readily admit that their heavy reliance on
English language ability inadvertently led them
to target wealthy Palestinians during the PA
boycott of its program, relying on private
schools with strong English language programs,
such as Al Quds University to identify potential
participants for the past three years. However,
they are consciously working to target low-income
youth. SOP has done a good job establishing gender
balance in its summer camp caseload; 51 percent
of its past summer camp participants have been
male and 49 percent female. However, SOP's
ability to target refugees in its follow-on
programming is limited by its own record keeping:
SOP's database does not identify the refugee
status of its former summer campers. SOP
actively involves former campers its programming
decisions.

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SPHERE STANDARDS AND CODES OF CONDUCT
--------------


14. (U) Seeds of Peace does not use SPHERE
standards to design its programming, but is
willing to do so if requested. SOP has a Code of
Conduct and advises project staff of their
obligations to report any suspected sexual
exploitation and abuse of beneficiaries by its
facilitators and escorts. No such cases were
reported as of July 21.

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STAFFING, WORKPLACE CONDITIONS AND CONTROLS
--------------


15. (SBU) STAFFING: Seeds of Peace currently has
four full-time employees working on its three
PRM-funded sub-programs on a part-time basis.
(NOTE: SOP does not use PRM funding to support
its full-time staff, but has hired two part-time
English teachers with BA-level credentials and
has compensated several workshop leaders to
implement its refugee camp outreach program. END
NOTE.) Staff work five days per week. Center
Supervisor/camp recruitment program manager Al
Jundi and Olive Branch Editor Wilkis are based at
the Jerusalem Center full-time. SOP's two
refugee camp outreach program staff spend one day
per week at the Jerusalem Center and the
remaining four days working out of the Shufat
Camp Women's Program Center or the apartment SOP
rents in Ramallah. Al Jundi appeared fully and
gainfully employed during refcoord's monitoring
visits. Wilkis was absent on two occasions.
Refcoord was unable to conduct site visits to
SOP's Shufat and Ramallah programs. The
qualifications of SOP staff are mixed. Al Jundi
is a long-time Jerusalem Center staffer who has
conducted summer camp recruitment for SOP for
over five years. SOP's new Ramallah-based staff
member, a former head counselor at SOP's Maine
Camp who holds a BA degree from Earlham College,
appears cognizant of the political dynamics of
refugee camps. However, SOP's new Jerusalem
program officer has no prior experience working
with Palestinian refugees. Olive Branch Editor
Seth Wilkis, who has been responsible for
implementing SOP's PRM-funded Arabic translations
since October 2003, is not fluent in Arabic,
forcing SOP to rely on out-sourcing or volunteer
former campers.


16. (U) OFFICES AND EQUIPMENT: SOP established
its Jerusalem Center for Co-Existence in 1999 to
provide office space and a meeting site for the
follow-up activities it organizes for
Palestinian-Israeli camp graduates. The Center
is located in a clean and spacious private four-
floor house in the French Hill area of East
Jerusalem and was being used both as office space
and a workshop/seminar site for former campers
resident in Jerusalem during refcoord's
monitoring visits. Office equipment appeared in
good working condition, but was not purchased
with PRM funding. SOP has not used any PRM
funding to equip the Ramallah apartment its West
Bank refugee camp community service program
director works out of four days per week.


17. (SBU) FINANCIAL CONTROLS: SOP's finances are
handled by its Maine offices, but it employs a
part-time accountant in Jerusalem and appears to
have appropriate financial reporting and
inventory controls.

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PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY
--------------


18. (SBU) SOP's Jerusalem Center currently has
the technical capacity to maintain Palestinian
refugee youth targeting in its summer camp
recruitment efforts, although it would probably
need to establish a working relationship with
UNRWA to improve its access and ensure refugee
status remains one of its program criteria. It
is unlikely that SOP would be capable of
targeting refugees in its follow-on programming
without external assistance, particularly if SOP
continues to maintain a database that fails to
track the refugee status of its former campers.
SOP does not currently have the capacity to carry
out in-house Arabic translation activities: it
lacks editorial staff fluent in Arabic.

--------------
RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS
--------------


19. (C) Refcoord has reviewed the new $100,000
project proposal SOP submitted to the Department
on July 22 which asks PRM to continue supporting
the same three activities it implemented this
year (i.e., recruiting refugees for its summer
camp, implementing community service programs in
UNRWA refugee camps, and producing Arabic
language tolerance materials). Given that
funding for NGOs is limited and that SOP has
struggled to fully implement the two year-round
components in its current agreement, refcoord
recommends that PRM consider scaling back future
agreements to support SOP's effort to recruit
more refugees to participate in its summer camp
in Maine. The new refugee camp-based activities
that are now the focus of SOP's attempt to
include refugees in its year-round programming
may facilitate SOP's summer camp recruitment
efforts, but its reliance on UNRWA and other
local NGOs to secure access has diluted the
conflict-resolution focus of its year-round
program. In some instances, the activities SOP
is undertaking in UNRWA refugee camps appear to
primarily serve to rehabilitate SOP's reputation
as an "American NGO." In addition, PRM has
recently agreed to fund a phase II tolerance
project that may make SOP's publishing activities
redundant. That said, UNRWA wants to introduce
new activities under its phase II tolerance
project, such as establishing summer camps in its
West Bank schools, that could probably be
implemented effectively by SOP. If SOP were
willing to revise its proposal/approach to year-
round refugee programming, UNRWA Education
Program Director Kabir Shaikh has indicated that
he would be willing to work with SOP as an
implementing partner. This partnership would
provide SOP with the strong managerial oversight
and broad access to refugee camps that it
currently lacks, and would maintain its tolerance
and co-existence focus. Refcoord does not
support funding SOP's Arabic language program for
a third year. Apart from duplicating texts UNRWA
has in production, SOP has done little work to
distribute its publications outside UNRWA
schools, and has no current plan to hire Arabic-
speaking editors or translators that would reduce
its dependence on expensive out-sourcing.
HENZEL