A programme on children in Palestine

V arious sections of the public will be involved in the inter-NGO Programme: children themselves, parents, childhood professionals and public policy officials. Three sites in Palestine as  West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza strip which are expected to benefit from the programme.

In terms of structural objectives, taking into account the various existing projects, the broad experience of French, Palestinian international NGOs in this field, and the NGOs in the Platform agree that such a Programme should promote synergy between the actors (both public and private), as well as, skills, and resources networking.

For the Platform, the experience of the Priority Programme (between 1996 and 2001), in addition to continual exchanges with Palestinian partners, confirms the existence of a stock of knowledge, skills, and trust, acquired over the long term.

It is therefore, a matter of reinvesting these assets, of strengthening the Platform’s coordinating role in the exchanges of experience and reflections, as well as in consultation with other players in the field of international solidarity (institutions, territorial collectives, and universities…).

Both the NGOs in the Platform and the Palestinian partners have extensive knowledge, and expertise in the field of promotion of children’s rights and needs. This will develop further as specific skills meeting particular needs are shared through the inter-NGO Programme. These shared skills and work experience acquired through the Priority Programme constitute significant assets, enabling the NGOs to improve the situation of children in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Furthermore, it is essential that the Palestinian associations work together, particularly in the face of growing difficulties in meeting and consulting each other. An inter-NGO programme will allow the fortification of links, and knowledge exchanges, not only between French and Palestinian NGOs, but also between groups in the West Bank and Gaza. The associations’ involvement in the network will allow them to share their skills whilst ensuring the promotion of their individual specificities, identity and capacities. It is in this framework that complementarities could be created and joint solutions to common problems may be found.

Furthermore, the PIA’s impact to be effective, it must fall within the scope of a coherent harmonised approach between both French and Palestinian NGOs ,and institutional actors, such as the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE), as well as the UNRWA, UNESCO, UNICEF, and priorities of France’s bilateral policy.

In today’s Palestinian situation, NGOs are trying to allow children, whatever their environment, to remain children’s life although the environment that they lived in, the Programme could rely on existing work on the notion of resilience, led by the SCAC (Service of Cooperation and Cultural Action) of the French Consulate in Jerusalem. This work aims to see actors responsible for child protection,so from these actors are  (UNRWA, UNESCO, MoEHE,and NGO) strengthening current practices or developing new approaches. Various objectives are being discussed at the series of conferences and round tables concerning the concept of resilience in the Palestinian Territories. Psychological, psychoanalytical, sociological, historical and cultural approaches entail differing analyses of the phenomenon, calling on French and Palestinian researchers from various disciplines and thus encouraging a streamlined approach together with richer exchanges.

All these elements confirm that an inter-NGO Programme would considerably improve French-Palestinian cooperation on the issue of childhood in the Palestinian Territories.