UNRWA's responsibility in the camps
UNRWA's responsibility in the camps is limited to providing services and managing its facilities. The Agency does not own, manage or maintain security as these services are the responsibility of the host governments.
UNRWA runs a service office in each camp that camp that residents refer to for the purpose of updating their data or raising issues related to the Agency's services with the director of that office, who in turn refers issues of refugee concern and their petitions to the Agency's management in the area in which that camp is located.
UNRWA priorities:
More than half of the Agency's budget (meaning health, education, protection and social relief) for the year 2017, amounting to $760 million, was allocated for education, while 15% was allocated to ensuring the health of Palestinian refugees.
UNRWA services:
According to its annual report covering its activities for the year 2019, the Agency has continued to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian refugees registered in it, including:
1. Providing more than 8 million and 723 thousand consultations for health care.
2. Providing education to about 532,000 students (male and female).
3. Providing social safety net assistance (including money and food) to more than 254 and 927 individuals.
4. Providing technical and vocational education and training to 7,557 young men and women.
5. Providing microfinance loans to 35,576 people.
6. Repairing and construction of 3,108 housing units, and construction, develop or reconstruction of 12 health centers and 101 schools.
7. Provide protection assistance in all work fields of the Agency under an organizational structure that has been modified according to the funding restrictions, with a significant focus on further equipping UNRWA staff to achieve practical protection outcomes for Palestine refugees.
According to the report, in 2019, providing food assistance remained a priority for UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, as it supported the food needs of approximately 1,36,000 Palestine refugees, including 16,826 families headed by women, while also providing temporary cash-for-work opportunities for 13,572 refugees.
In the occupied West Bank, the Agency continued to provide emergency food assistance, in partnership with the World Food Program, covering 37,000 individuals from Bedouin communities that were assessed as being food insecure or vulnerable to various threats from the Israeli occupation forces.
Throughout the year, UNRWA also continued to monitor, document and report Palestine refugees affected by threats in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and provided them with emergency assistance.
UNRWA also provided vital humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees in Syria and Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria to Lebanon and Jordan, and distributed emergency money assistance to 410,870 Palestinian refugees in Syria.
It provided education for 50,143 Palestinian refugee students in Syria, and health care through 25 health facilities.
It continued to provide protection services, including legal counseling and psychosocial support, through 6 family support offices.
The Agency has also focused its efforts on rehabilitating its facilities in the areas that have become accessible, in order to ensure that Palestinian refugees to Syria returning on their own can safely access humanitarian aid and services.
However, the report stresses, funding restrictions have limited UNRWA's ability to carry out all necessary work.
In Lebanon, humanitarian support was provided in the form of money grants to cover the expenses of food, housing and preparation for the winter season, an average of 27,987 Palestinian refugees from Syria benefited from this assistance.
UNRWA continued to provide education to 5,254 Palestine refugee children fleeing Syria, health care services through 27 health centers, and protection and legal aid services to 4,262 Palestine refugees from Syria.
In Jordan, money grants were provided to meet the basic needs of 16,159 Palestine refugees from Syria.
In addition, 695 severely vulnerable Palestine refugee families from Syria were supported with one-off emergency money grants to help them absorb shocks and respond to specific protection concerns.
Medical services continued to be provided to Palestinian refugees from Syria through 29 health facilities throughout Jordan.
The Agency also continued to provide basic education to 1,167 Palestinian refugee children from Syria and Syrians in Jordan who attend 133 UNRWA schools.
Funding crisis:
The Agency has been suffering from a budget deficit since 2013.
But the year 2018 marked the most serious financial crisis facing the agency in its history, because of the administration of US President Donald Trump cutting his country’s important financial contribution from it (the US contribution constituted about 30% of the agency’s budget for the year 2017 / or about 365 million US dollars).
In 2019 the Agency secured $1 billion throughout funding (meaning the program budget covering education, health, relief and social protection, emergency budget, and project budget).
Regarding the program budget, UNRWA received $619.2 million, which is $130.8 million less than the total needs, and $231.6 million less than the year 2018, which forced the Agency to austerity measures on the programs during the year, including:
1. Its inability to raise its social safety net program, which has been frozen since 2013, despite the increase in poverty in many of its field of operation.
2. The Increase in classrooms in its schools with more than 40 students to more than 52%.
3. Managing vacancies, postponing job appointments, and raising the retirement age, and increasing the use of day laborer contracts.
4. Reducing spending on maintenance of information technology equipment and vehicles.
But despite all these austerity measures, at the end of the year a number of unfunded financial dues were transferred to the 2020 budget.
The Agency's humanitarian operations have been the most affected by the funding gap, with only 34.24% of its emergency funding needs receiving for Syria.
The emergency appeal for the oPt were better, but was only 84,965% funded, forcing the Agency to borrow from the program budget to avoid disruption to the provision of vital services in the oPt, in particular the disruption of the food supply line under the Gaza Emergency Appeal, which Through it, one million refugees are assisted every 3 months.
Renewing UNRWA's mandate:
In the midst of this suffocating and unprecedented funding crisis experienced by the Agency, other challenges that raised up, including the management crisis that affected some of its senior staff. The United Nations General Assembly voted, on December 13, 2019, with an overwhelming majority to extend the mandate of the Agency. UNRWA until 30 June 2023, reaffirming and praising the vital role that the Agency has played for nearly seven decades in providing services vital to the well-being, human development and protection of more than five million Palestine refugees registered with it, and in reducing their plight and promoting stability in the region, pending a solution fair to their cause.
UNRWA in Jordan:
According to its report for 2019, there are about two million and 411 thousand Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA in Jordan, in addition to about 147 thousand registered as non-Palestinian refugees (as the offspring of Palestinian refugee women married to non-Palestinian refugees).
In Jordan's field of operations, UNRWA provides basic education to 120,967 students, including Palestine refugees from Syria, in 169 schools, in addition to providing technical and vocational education and training to 2,803 youth.
According to the report, 25 UNRWA health centers provided 1,695,000 health care consultations during 2019, and money transfers were delivered through the Social Safety Net Program to 58,479 refugees.
In addition, the agency repaired housing for 50 families and provided 12,060 microfinance loans with a total value of 10,717,000 US dollars.
Through 2019 Syria Regional Crisis Emergency Appeal, UNRWA continued to provide humanitarian assistance, including emergency money, health care, education, protection and winterization assistance to 17,343 Palestine refugees from Syria registered with the Agency in Jordan.
During the year, the Agency provided money grants to meet the basic needs of 16,159 Palestine refugees from Syria, while 695 Palestine refugees from Syria were supported with one-time emergency money grants designed to help them respond to specific protection concerns.
Medical services, including secondary and specialized care, were provided for 15,464 Palestine refugees from Syria, while the educational needs of 1,167 Palestine refugee children from Syria and Syrian refugees were met through the UNRWA network of schools.