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To help seize the new opportunity brought about by Israel’s disengagement, UNRWA will receive a 30 percent budget increase this fiscal year, which will allow UNRWA to make significant economic and social improvements in Gaza. AbuZayd stated that UNRWA’s plan is to intensify its current development efforts by implementing a Rapid Action Program, which would have three different but related focuses: microfinance, job creation, and housing reconstruction. Ideally, this program would yield visible results that would boost the morale of Palestinians and lead to self-sufficiency. UNRWA would loan money with a short-term development frame of three years with an expansion timeline of 15 years.

As part of the above plan for economic reform, UNRWA will give loans to businesses and individuals to help them get on their feet and take care of debts. They also plan to create apprenticeship programs in which “new grads” (graduates who have not yet joined the job market, though some graduated as many as four to five years ago, at the beginning of the Intifadah) will gain a year of work experience in private sector, government, and NGO communities.

UNRWA also plans to expand its current efforts to improve the living conditions of the Palestinians. They plan to expand the camps, giving refugees increased room and freedom of movement within the camps, as well as to expand services within them. Houses have already been constructed for 1,000 refugees, with two more building cycles in sight for another 30,000 Palestinians whose homes were demolished during the Intifadah. Now that there is freedom of movement within Gaza, a high priority is linking Gaza with the West Bank via a rail system or a system of back-to-back convoys, so that goods can be transported in an efficient manner. The hope is to create freedom of movement of people and goods within Gaza and beyond, to establish a sustainable economy and society. AbuZayd also alluded to future plans of rebuilding the Gaza seaport and airport to further serve that purpose. There are no plans in place for initiating these multi-year projects in the near future, but the seaport is more and more a viable option.

UNRWA’s long-term goals go beyond Gaza to include the displaced Palestinian communities in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. The goal is to bring services back to their original quality, as the presence of Palestinian refugees in these countries has taxed their resources and decreased the quality of services available to refugees. AbuZayd pointed out that there are still obstacles to improvement in the West Bank as Israeli expansion efforts continue with regard to settlements and the wall. This is a grave concern for UNRWA, as the continuation of these expansions will displace 8,000 Palestinians from their homes.

Currently, over 30,000 people need to be fed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and programs, such as psychosocial counseling, need more funding so that services can be extended to schools, the elderly, the unemployed, and those living in remote areas. Additionally, UNRWA aims to improve the doctor to patient ratio and improve schools in Gaza. According to Ms. AbuZayd, the Palestinian Authority will say it is implementing and overseeing all of these programs, so that the Palestinian people will accept them more readily.

AbuZayd addressed concerns regarding funding of the program and its participants. She stated that UNRWA is committed to ensuring that staff members do not have ties to terrorism, requiring all members to sign a declaration that they have never been jailed, nor had ties to terrorist organizations. They also must abide by the UN code of conduct. As yet another screening measure, UNRWA shares its staff lists with the host countries, including Israel. UNRWA currently employs 12,000 Palestinian workers in the West Bank and Gaza.

AbuZayd stated that UNRWA is committed to urging Arab countries to donate more money to the program. This effort is spurred on by US lawmakers’ demands calling for restrictions on US contributions to UNRWA until Arab states raise their contributions in funding the agency.