麻豆APP

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 75^th?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 麻豆APP 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:

1. We?sought?more multi-year funding and presented a blueprint at the Brussels Conference;
2. We?discussed expanding partnerships; and
3. 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?75^th?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.