Excellencies, distinguished members of the Advisory Commission,
I would like to thank Lebanon for hosting this meeting today and I would like to thank:
- Dr. Bassel el Hassan, Chairman of the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee for your excellent leadership as Chair of the Advisory Commission.
- Ms. Diane Corner, Consul-General of the United Kingdom in Jerusalem, for your role as Vice-Chair of the Advisory Commission.
- As your roles come to an end, I want to sincerely thank you for your steadfast support in this forum over the last two years.
- I would also like to thank Ms. Catherine Palmier, Head of Cooperation at the Canadian Representative Office in Ramallah, for assuming the role of Subcom Chair as of January 2023.
- Mr. Odoardo Como, Head of Cooperation of the Representative Office of the European Union in Jerusalem and Engineer Rafiq Khirfan, Director-General of the Department of Palestinian Affairs of Jordan, for continuing in your role as Vice-Chair of Subcom.
- Finally, thank you to Lebanon and the EU for your role as co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Group.
Dear friends of AdCom
Each time we meet, I always wish it would be under better circumstances.
However, each time the situation for millions of Palestine Refugees in the region continues to get worse.
In the West Bank, Palestinians are being killed in record numbers, as levels of violence remain high.
Refugee children have been particularly affected by daily armed confrontations.
We are only in June, and already this year more Palestine Refugee children were killed by live fire than any other year on record.
Yesterday, in Jenin, Ahmad, an UNRWA 15 years old schoolboy was killed and Sadeel, a 14-year-old schoolgirl remains in critical condition.
Armed groups are attracting increased numbers of disenfranchised youth in the camps.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestine Refugees are bearing a tremendous psychological toll.
They lived through a war-type day every five days this year.
They are physically trapped in their territory.
They are being pushed into universal poverty and reliance on humanitarian assistance due to the blockade, with no prospect for healthy economic growth or any kind of normality.
And just when refugees in Gaza think they have hit rock-bottom, they have to worry about no longer getting their food parcels from UNRWA or World Food Programme.
In Syria, the earthquake in February struck at a time Palestine Refugees were going through the worst humanitarian crisis since the onset of the conflict.
With nothing left to either gain or lose, they are returning to live amid the rubble of their homes with limited access to basic services.
This is particularly the case in places like Ein al Tal and Yarmouk
I visited Syria in the aftermath of this disaster.
I was both heartbroken by the dismal reality on the ground, and at the same time deeply inspired by the resilience of refugees, including UNRWA staff, in supporting each other after the earthquake.
In Jordan, the most stable of our fields of operations, we should not overlook the acute hardship of around 180,000 extremely vulnerable Palestine refugees from Syria and Ex-Gazans - Palestinians who fled from Gaza to Jordan in the aftermath of the June 1967 hostilities.
They rely almost exclusively on UNRWA services due to their legal status in the country.
With inadequate emergency funding for Jordan and insufficient livelihood opportunities, these refugees are sinking further into debt to meet their most basic needs.
In Jerash, one of the camps hosting Ex-Gazans, 90 percent of the people buy food on credit.
Last, but not least, here in Lebanon, the despair of Palestine Refugees is indescribable.
There is a telling example from our own operations that captures the despair well: last month, UNRWA opened 13 vacancies for sanitation laborer posts.
We received no less than 37,000 applications, including from refugees with university degrees!
This shows how little opportunity there is for Palestine Refugees to lead a life of dignity.
Poverty levels amongst the Palestine Refugee community stands today at 80 per cent.
Our quarterly cash assistance brought the rate down from 93 per cent.
For so many refugees across the region, UNRWA is their only lifeline, their only way to access healthcare, education or to have a chance to earn a living.
For them, we remain the hope for a better future.
With this responsibility in mind, UNRWA has continued to deliver on its mandate for 74 years.
Until today.
Dear Members of the Advisory Commission,
UNRWA, as you know, is at a crossroad.
If we continue on our current path, we will simply not be able to sustain the same level of services and to effectively carry out our mandate.
Business as usual is over.
Our ability to muddle through is coming to an end.
The status quo we are "locked in" has become our main existential threat.
Collectively, and you mentioned it Mr. Chair, we must overcome the tensions between:
- The mandate;
- The costs and resources needed to deliver our services; and
- The perception by the communities that any transformation of the service delivery model in the absence of a political horizon would be an abandonment of their rights.
While I am extremely grateful for all the generosity of our donors, the gap between Palestine Refugees' needs, rights, and expectations and the services the Agency can deliver with the available funds is becoming just unbearable.
The "temporary" nature of UNRWA and its fast-approaching 75th anniversary have become an oxymoron that should push us to reflect beyond our short-term and often urgent funding conversations.
Twice a year, I seek your advice, as the Advisory Commission, on how to manage the gap between your political commitment and the financial means you and others give us.
I then go back to my senior management team and we try, each time, to extend every dollar we receive to maximize its reach and cover critical services.
What started as manageable funding gaps 10 years ago, is now no longer manageable.
Any financial expert would tell us that cashflow and funding gaps are only manageable up to a certain level.
We have annually a negative deficit amounting on average to one to one and a half month of operations.
We, at UNRWA, managed to absorb much more than other similar groups can; mostly with astute financial management, loans and austerity.
Last year we managed to keep all services running and paid all salaries on time only thanks to borrowing, some flexible funding and last-minute generosity of donors to bridge the gap.
At the Pledging Conference in New York earlier this month, UNRWA received again strong political support for the valuable work we are doing.
Whilst we were seeking to cover our most urgent core and emergency requirements of around US$ 300 million for this year, we received only US$ 13 million in additional funding.
Though I am grateful for every single dollar, it is simply not enough to sustain the existing level of services, let alone modernize or meet our environmental sustainability commitments.
At this rate, this year we will be out of funds as of September.
And then what?
I have alerted UN country teams in the regions to include in their scenario planning and contingency plans the likelihood of UNRWA suspending its services.
I keep hearing that the UNRWA budget should be reasonable.
What does that mean when the bulk of our activities are essential public-like services?
Should we end all our activities in one of our fields of operations?
Or ask 20 per cent of the students in our school to drop out?
Should we prevent cancer patients to access health care?
Or end the social-safety net for women-headed families or families with disabled members?
Who can make this triage in good conscience?
And who is ready to bear the political consequences to signal Palestine Refugees that we are not willing to accompany them anymore until a just and lasting political solution?
Dear friends of UNRWA,
By the fourth quarter, we may also face an interruption in the food pipeline in Gaza.
This would be in addition to WFP having been forced to significantly reduce the number of its beneficiaries.
And we are all too aware of the Palestinian Authority's own challenges.
Between WFP and UNRWA, three out of four Gazans receive food assistance that covers around 50 per cent of their calorific need.
This scenario would lead us to a situation where people in Gaza would be deprived of food, education and primary health care all at the same time.
This just cannot happen.
The rights, dignity, and in many cases, the sheer survival of Palestine Refugees will be put into question.
The fundamental social contract between refugees and the United Nations in Gaza would be broken beyond repair.
The human, political and security implications of the dead-end that we are heading towards are huge.
Human suffering in the region would reach new heights.
And the cost for the international community would be far beyond what it would cost to bridge UNRWA's chronic underfunding.
Suspending vital services would be perceived as a grave betrayal of the Palestine Refugees after more than seven decades of waiting for a just and lasting solution.
Dear partners,
After 104 days, the end of the strike in the West Bank has come as a relief to thousands of Palestine Refugees impacted by the interruption of the services.
Around 40,000 girls and boys were on the verge of losing the entire academic year.
Health indicators among the refugee community were deteriorating as health centers remained closed.
As we meet today, the Agency's 90 schools and 43 health clinics in the West Bank have reopened their doors.
The focus of all our efforts is now geared towards catching up on the lost services in the next months.
Over the last four months, the management has spared no efforts to find a solution to the labour dispute.
In doing so, we have at all times sought to maintain the balance between the interests of the Palestine Refugee communities, the staff well-being and the Agency's sustainability.
At all times, we have upheld the right to strike but have also been firm on the right of staff to work, on their right not to be intimidated or threatened and on the right of refugees to access critical services such as health.
Overcoming a legacy of past practice, we have firmly implemented our rules and regulations, including our Pay Policy, and held staff accountable for their actions.
This crisis must now lead to a reflection and review of the relationship between staff and management with the aim of improving it.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
This labour dispute might well be the first crack caused by ten years of financial difficulties.
An implosion of the Agency is what my team and I are trying to avoid at all costs.
Let me pause here for a second to thank my senior management team.
Despite the considerable financial and operational challenges they are under, our senior managers showed incredible energy, team spirit and commitment to overcome recurrent and new crisis while driving improvements that allow us to build a stronger and more effective and modern Agency.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am convinced that nobody present here today would like to deal with an unpredictable UNRWA, unable to deliver basic services to millions of Palestine Refugees.
There is no known alternative to the Agency, and I am sure no one wants to deal with a vacuum under the current circumstances.
Over the last two years, we have offered three solutions for discussion:
- We sought more multi-year funding and presented a blueprint at the Brussels Conference;
- We discussed expanding partnerships; and
- We pursued increases from the UN Regular Budget to cover management costs, in line with the UN General Assembly decision of last December.
But none of these options will individually or collectively be the game changer that UNRWA, refugees, Hosts and the region need.
There is another path. It is also not an easy one, but we should leave no option unexplored.
In the run up to the 75th commemoration of an Agency that was meant to be temporary, and at a time a political solution is further beyond reach, we need to reflect on our obligations to uphold the rights of Palestine Refugees.
We need to elevate the discussion from the self-destructive status quo and find the political will to discuss the future of a sustainable UNRWA.
This conversation needs to be honest and transparent, in good faith, and held together with Palestine Refugees, especially the youth.
We need to understand the perspective of young Palestine Refugees and their expectations from the international community.
UNRWA also needs the political space to be able to evolve to meet the changing needs of Palestine Refugees in a broader context of international support for their legitimate rights.
There is an urgent need for the refugees, the Agency, the donors, and Hosts to have a clear and common vision for how a sustainable UNRWA can directly contribute to a future political solution that supports peace and development for all within the region.
Undoubtedly, this needs to be accompanied by renewed, serious, and tangible commitment from the international community to work towards a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Dear partners,
UNRWA has proven to be able to adapt to our changing context.
We have reformed our management practices and made immense progress on digitalization and modernization of the Agency practices.
And there is much more to come.
As an example, I recently endorsed the proposal to transform our Information Management and Technology Department into the Digital Impact, Technology, and Innovation Department.
I recently established a Compliance Advisory Group to look at overarching issues related to compliance, oversight, governance, policy architecture and emerging risks.
Work is also underway to develop a new Human Resource People Strategy as well as to set out our new approach to Accountability to Affected Populations.
We are also enhancing our organizational culture. I launched in May the Agency's first Leadership Dialogue which is now cascading down the Agency.
We also distributed a Where to Go Guide to help direct staff to the right avenues to resolve disputes, including promoting informal dispute resolution.
The Women Advisory Forum, which was launched last year to address female staff concerns, is already producing concrete outputs as we have increased the maternity leave and released the first ever teleworking policy for Area Staff.
Dear friends of UNRWA,
To conclude, I want to stress the following three points.
First - we need to prevent the looming disaster we are on track to hit in September.
We urgently need around US$ 200 million to continue to deliver our services this year, pay our staff and end the vicious cycle of debt.
We also need the resource to address the most pressing humanitarian needs, including US$ 75 million to maintain the food pipeline for 1.2 million refugees in Gaza, and another US$ 30 million to maintain cash and food assistance to 600,000 of the most vulnerable refugees in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
I urge all of you to raise the alarm in your capitals to prevent the looming implosion of the Agency.
Second - We need an equally urgent conversation about a sustainable UNRWA.
We cannot let the Agency simply breakdown under its current model, as this would be a political and humanitarian disaster.
Third - the conversation on a sustainable UNRWA must be situated in a broader discussion on upholding the rights of Palestine Refugees, including their right to work and their right to a just and lasting political solution.
As today we mark World Refugee Day, we must remember that Palestine Refugees have been waiting for a just and lasting solution for 75 years.
It is our duty to bring the conversation forward.
Before closing, it pains me, but I have to officially inform the Advisory Commission that Leni Stenseth, Deputy Commissioner-General will leave us soon to take a very senior position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway.
As we know, Leni was instrumental in the reforms of the Agency. She has the drive and the energy that UNRWA needed to face challenges and it is thanks to your contributions that we accomplished many successes in the last three years.
She will be difficult to replace.
Thank you.
UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The United Nations General Assembly established UNRWA in 1949 with a mandate to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to registered Palestine refugees in the Agency's area of operations pending a just and lasting solution to their plight.
UNRWA operates in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, The Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Tens of thousands of Palestine refugees who lost their homes and livelihoods due to the 1948 conflict continue to be displaced and in need of support, nearly 75 years on.
UNRWA helps Palestine Refugees achieve their full potential in human development through quality services it provides in education, health care, relief and social services, protection, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance, and emergency assistance. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions.
