2018 Activities

Aman Coalition and Sharek Youth Forum Organized, Youth Activity on the Community Accountability Day in Palestine and the World

Aman Coalition and Sharek Youth Forum Organized, Youth Activity on the Community Accountability Day in Palestine and the World

In 21 locations across the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Ramallah – Determined to hold everybody accountable and to redress their rights, 120 youth from West Bank and Gaza Strip crowned their initiative by organizing the largest community accountability day in Palestine organizing 21 youth accountability sessions in different sectors. They addressed issues and discussed them to hold decision-makers and officials accountable. The activity was part of the Integrity School organized jointly by Aman Coalition for Integrity and Accountability and Sharek Youth Forum in the West Bank and Gaza Strip last summer.

The Integrity School introduced youth to the concept of corruption and its key causes and repercussions since they represent the largest sector and most affected in the Palestinian society. It focused on the necessity of youth involvement in fighting corruption and how they can immunize themselves against any dragging into its different forms. The aim is to build a large grassroots anti-corruption base that is effective in holding the public and other institutions accountable and building a solid culture of integrity, transparency and accountability. It also aims to lead lobbying and advocacy campaigns until achievement of effective community accountability in local communities and nation-wide.

The youth benefited from the training to understand the concepts and tools of community accountability and the role of media in this effort; they learned how to use social media launching the #National_accountability_day hashtag in order to realize the aspired effect and raise their issues for the purpose of formulating public opinion and receiving promises about solving their issues.

Youth and Unemployment, title of the main session in Ramallah

The Ramallah session on youth and unemployment included a meeting on accountability with Mahmoun Abu Shahla, Minister of Labor, and Dr. Sabri Saidam, Minister of Education and Higher Education. Youth requested immediate implementation of policies and procedures to mitigate the problem of unemployment among the youth through long and short-term interventions. They demanded that such interventions be cross-sectoral as prescribed in the National Policies Agenda 2017-2022, especially as regards priority No 6 “creating decent work opportunities for all”. They also called for implementation of the youth cross-sectoral plan and the creation of job opportunities for them in addition to helping them acquire the necessary skills to prosper and develop. Moreover, they reiterated on the enforcement of Article 25 of the Palestinian Basic Law, which guarantees the right to labor.

The session was organized because of high unemployment rate among the youth, being 55.8% of graduates with intermediate or higher diploma, aged 15-29 years in 2017 (37.8% for male and 72.0% for female). The percentage was higher in the Gaza Strip being 61.2% (PCBC Labor Survey 2017). Latest statistics of the same source also showed that less than 1% of youth are in decision-making positions. Data also showed that 0.8% of youth work in senior positions in the West Bank, compared to 0.7% in the Gaza Strip.

The youth, two-thirds of whom are unemployed, called upon the Minister of Labor to prepare the youth for the labor market via technical and vocational training programs in all governorates. They also asked for external work opportunities by opening markets abroad to employ the youth. For this purpose, they requested training programs and activation of the concept of “tele-work”, especially in the ICT sector, which is prospering worldwide. They also called for support of MSME’s for youth especially in rural areas and in the fields of agriculture and industry as well as in promising sectors like ICT. They proposed this can be done through soft loans and grants to such projects and by adopting policies for youth MSME’s including an operation fund to finance such projects, especially in the productive sectors. In addition to technical and vocational training, they called upon the private sector to coordinate in-site training in coordination with the Ministry of Finance, which can grant tax incentives to enterprises in order to bridge the gap between higher education and the labor market needs.

Abu Shahla explained that improved economic situation in Palestine and less unemployment and poverty are possible if we focus on two parameters: more competences and skills and development of vocational and technical training in addition to opening a new specialization in technology that responds to the needs of the Palestinian labor market. He reiterated the importance of opening more vocational training centers to absorb more students and to focus on MSME’s creation as a solution to unemployment, currently affecting 400,000 people. He stressed on the need to train youth on the necessary skills to establish their own projects in cooperation with the Palestinian Fund for Employment and Social Protection. The Fund offers loans up to 15,000 US Dollars, with grace periods of one year.

Abu Shahla also commended tele-works as a solution to mitigate unemployment and widen cooperation with other countries to absorb Palestinian labor. He further underscored the role of cooperatives in achieving economic development and marketing youth products locally and abroad.

The youth also addressed the Minister of Education and Higher Education to encourage students to opt for vocational and technical training through practical policies and steps and a comprehensive action plan whose impact is assessable. They called for steps like opening vocational training schools in all governorates and adding professional skills to fulfill the needs of the labor market. They asked for co-ed schools since existing vocational training accepts only male students. It is also a must to match university specializations to the local and global markets and rationalize access to certain specializations or remove them since the market no longer needs them. Admission to some specializations requires revisiting and students and parents need guidance on the needs of the labor market. It was proposed to publish an annual bulletin every June based on an empirical study assessing the demand and supply of specializations in order to bridge the gap between higher education and market needs. Youth also called for new specializations to be added to school curricula to address entrepreneurship in a modern rather than traditional business administration modes. They recommended an enrichment course in coordination with the private sector to present successful entrepreneurship experiences and create a community culture that fosters vocational and technical training. They requested awareness programs to students and their families and integration of this type of training in the Palestinian educational system and curricula.

Majdi Abu Zeid, Executive Director of Aman, explained that the youth initiative aimed to enhance community accountability under weak official accountability and monitoring because of the paralysis of the legislative council and weak official oversight agencies. He further added that such weak oversight led to lack of accountability in management of public affairs and funds. He commended the openness of the Ministries of Labor and Education to Palestinian citizens and reiterated the importance of joint mechanisms for ministries and civil society organizations to secure job opportunities for the unemployed. Youth and students should be provided with the opportunity to raise questions about the Palestinian current and future economic situation in order to devise appropriate solutions with decision-makers. Bader Zamaarah, Executive Director of Sharek Youth Forum underscored the importance of cooperation between the Ministry and civil society organizations to boost Palestinian youth’s role in public accountability in a framework of integrity and transparency.

Medical Waste in Nablus

The plenary session in Nablus discussed medical waste and its mismanagement during the transportation, disposal and treatment phases. It addressed national responsibility for safe disposal of such waste to safeguard the environment and protect citizens. Youth raised questions about the capacity of landfills to receive this kid of waste and wondered about the availability of special transportation vehicles that fulfill international WHO standards for transportation of medical waste to landfills. They learned that medical waste is transported in vehicles with other hazardous and solid waste and encouraged decision-makers to take proactive steps for full disposal of such waste.
Questions were also asked to the Environment Quality Authority, Ministry of Health and Nablus Municipality on their respective roles in this matter. Youth also inquired about the environmental oversight rule of the Ministry of Health and the effectiveness of the comprehensive national strategy prepared by the Ministries of Health and Local Government. They held officials in the Ministry of Health responsible for the promises they made in the 2017 conference on solid waste when the Ministry pledged to devise a clear strategy to address the problem.

The youth also shed light on the lack of specialized landfills to dispose of hazardous medical waste and that they are treated like regular solid household waste at Zahrat Al-Finjan landfill in Jenin. The youth recommended the creation of a special landfill or incinerator of medical waste in Nablus and the allocation of special zones to dispose of medical waste in Hebron, Bethlehem and Ramallah. They proposed the establishment of a system for sorting of hazardous medical waste to separate it from regular waste in all treatment phases. They also recommended the instauration of appropriate mechanisms in health institutions for the selection, sorting, packaging and storing of medical waste until they are transported to final disposal in a special incinerator. They further advised to establish model projects to recycle solid waste.

Outcome of accountability sessions

Youth in Nablus asked questions about the public transportation in Beit Wazan following promises by the Ministry of Transport to provide a public bus line to serve the village while the village council identifies the bust stops. Furthermore, youth raised the issue of public services in Al-Ein Camp Street. In Jenin, questions revolved around fees in Palestinian universities and the specializations-market match. The Ministry of Education promised to intensify its awareness efforts to direct youth toward vocational and technical training. Questions also tackled water distribution in Arzaba and municipal services in Ya’abad. They turned their questions to the Ministry of education and local and village councils as well as the Youth Employment Department following promises to include youth in their sessions and periodic meetings and holding open meetings with Aman’s participation to ensure transparency and integrity. The Mayor of Qalqilia and Director of Culture in the city were also asked about the delayed construction of Qalqilia Cultural Central. Al-Zawiya Municipality received question about land settlement project while the City of Jericho was asked about wastewater systems and Ramallah received questions relating to high housing cost, the same question was also addressed to the Real Estate Developers Union. Distribution of water in Hebron, minimum wages and environmental pollution cause by quarries in Beit Fujjar. In Gaza, five sessions were organized in northern, middle and southern areas focused mainly on the establishment of a public library in Al-Bureij Camp, water services in the City of Gaza and intermittent water distribution in Beit Hanoun as well as the marine club affiliated to Rafah Municipality and the violations of shop owners in the street in Khanyounes Municipality.

Recommendations in all sessions focused on more active role of the Ministry of Planning to harmonize all sectors and upgrade the quality of services to citizens.

Aman and its partners apply a strategy to unify community efforts and invest in expertise and tools of partner organizations to undertake joint action and lobby for change at national level. The efforts also aim to foster the oversight role of partner organizations by including a system and tools to enhance integrity and combat corruption together with strategies in the organizations’ action plans, procedures and systems.

 

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