Ramallah, March 9th, 2023 – The ILO facilitated a three-day workshop addressing issues relating to coordination and collaboration within the social protection sector in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). The workshop was organized by an ILO development cooperation project supported by the European Commission. The project, titled Strengthening nexus coherence and responsiveness in the Palestinian Social Protection sector is implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Development, OXFAM, and UNICEF.
The historical context and on-going conflict have obliged the international community to play a significant role in ensuring the well-being of Palestinians, including Palestinian refugees. However, more efforts are needed to better align what are de facto social safety net programmes by international actors with the wider social protection system in OPT, and to work towards strengthening the national system overall. Similar efforts are also needed to ensure that the Palestinian Authority can coordinate and scale-up social protection activities in response to shocks, assessing emerging needs and prioritizing resources and response efforts quickly, where and when needed. The overall objective of the project is to assist in the achievement of SDG 1.3, for countries to “implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including [social protection] floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and vulnerable”. Specifically, the project works to enhance rights-based and nexus programmatic coherence of the Palestinian social protection sector and increase the responsiveness of the social protection system in times of crisis to support OPT’s progress on SDG 1.3.
The workshop welcomed participants representing Palestinian ministries, UN development agencies, and humanitarian partners from CRS, CWG, ECHO, EU, FCDO, Food Security Cluster, GPC, IPK, Mercy Corps, OCHA, SDC, Shelter Cluster, UNICEF, UNRWA, WFP, and Zakat. The participation of the various agencies working in one sector reflects the complexity of the joint effort present in the Palestinian Social Protection sector.
The workshop was novel in the context of the OPT as it offered an open platform for frank exchanges among actors, including a module to jointly deconstruct and reconstruct the problems standing in the way of better coordination and collaboration towards more impactful coherence and responsiveness. The workshop was underpinned by training elements on how to respond to complex situations through agile, adaptive management approaches and tools. A representative from the Ministry of Social Development stated: “we dissolved some obstacles between us. Everyone seems to have the will to work together and to coordinate together”.
With shrinking external financing and volatile government allocations, the Social Protection system in the OPT seeks to achieve greater effectiveness and efficiency through an increase in coherence and responsiveness by diminishing fragmentation and increasing alignment of its different actors. While there is no lack of analysis, strategies, and instruments, the complexity of the system prevents simple implementational solutions or measures to gain traction and lead to the projected impact. As such, the workshop offered a joint learning journey to create the grounds for a shared, inclusive, and aggregate understanding of social protection environment and its complex interdependencies and dynamics.
A representative from the UN expressed that “we started understanding each other more and unpacking issues together. This is the first time in Palestine we have had such an open discussion with humanitarian organizations and as development agencies on social protection”.
The workshop’s outcomes were presented to the Social Protection Sector Working Group (SPSWG), the coordination body responsible for overseeing the government-led social protection sector, and the roadmap for the way forward was endorsed by SPSWG members. The next steps will include prototyping coordination models in technical work streams, leading to the development of a shared vision and framework for coordination in 2023, to be taken forward by the Social Protection Cash and Voucher Assistance Thematic Working Group (SPCVA TWG) in the OPT.
This initiative is a crucial step towards improving the coordination and effectiveness of social protection programmes in OPT, which are essential for reducing poverty and vulnerability, promoting inclusive economic growth, and achieving social justice. Open dialogue, collaboration, and coordination among stakeholders are vital for building a resilient and sustainable social protection system in OPT.
For media inquiries, please contact: Salwa Kanaana, Regional Communication & Public Information Officer at the International Labour Organization Regional Office of Arab States, via [email protected]
