Annual Report of the Department of Health 2010 - Unrwa

UNRWA’S INTEGRATED COMMUNITY BASED ACTIONS (ICBA) FRAMEWORK
The growing concentration, isolation, and persistence of poverty in Palestine refugee camps, and their social and economic consequences,
have created an urgency to address the needs of these communities. More than one year has passed since the introduction of the Community
Based Initiative (CBI) framework to two model Palestine refugee camps, namely Suf camp/ Jordan and Qaber Essit camp/ Syria. The
technical and financial support kindly provided by WHO/EMRO was invested to establish a strong basis for further actions to be taken
toward the improvement of the quality of life of people in the two communities, through socioeconomic development, community
empowerment, ownership and intersectoral collaboration, all which constitute the core of the CBI.
The strategies that UNRWA’s ICBA follows in addressing the needs of refugees include:
1. Empowering the camp community and developing intersectoral collaboration between different UNRWA programmes;
2. Addressing of the needs of women, children and youth;
3. Strengthening health, nutrition and environment;
4. Improving economic status and local self- sufficiency;
5. Targeting poor and underprivileged;
6. Encouraging networking and partnership by the community with potential stakeholders; and
7. Creating links between health-related programmes.
MAJOR MILESTONES IN ICBA IMPLEMENTATION
Aiming to share, celebrate, and build on the outcomes of the implementation of CBI in both camps, UNRWA's Health Programme at
UNRWA's HQ (Amman) conducted a meeting for representatives from the two camps, the Directors of Healthy Villages Programmes in the
MoH of the two host countries, concerned UNRWA staff, and potential stakeholders and donors. Participants were invited to share
experiences and ideas for potential cooperation, aimed at supporting the efforts exerted to improve the quality of life of Palestine refugees
at UNRWA camps in all Fields of operations. The main areas of support explored were those aimed at helping the expansion of CBI to all
Palestine refugee camps.
The meeting was held on the 18th of October 2010 in Amman, Jordan. Lessons learned from the modelling of ICBA in Suf and Qaber Essit
camps and those learned from the implementation of the Healthy Villages Programme (HVP) in Jordan and Syria were reviewed. These
inputs are essential to achieve further progress, strengthen partnerships with concerned stakeholders and expand the implementation of
ICBA to new camps in UNRWA Fields. Dr. Mohammad Assai, CBI Regional Advisor/ WHO-EMRO, attended the meeting and expressed his full
support for the efforts of UNRWA in strengthening its capacity to expand the implementation of ICBA in new Fields and new camps.
A webpage on ICBA in UNRWA’s website has been published. This was an important visibility step to attract the interest of potential
stakeholders willing to help communities develop all over the world. The ICBA webpage is available at
http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=672
UNRWA’s HD at HQ/ Amman also succeeded in securing financial support (USD 50,000) from WHO/ EMRO to help sustain the implementation
of ICBA in current camps and expand its implementation to new Fields and camps.
The Regional Director (RD) of WHO/ EMRO, Dr. Hussein A. Gezairy, expressed through Dr. Assai his support, financial and technical, for
UNRWA in its efforts to strengthen its ICBA implementation plans. In addition, he agreed to sign MoUs with UNRWA and other stakeholders
to support further steps in this regard.
FUTURE PROSPECTIVE FOR ICBA IMPLEMENTATION
It is auspicable that UNRWA will help Palestine refugee communities through ICBA implementation, in the creation of links between ICBA
camps and potential stakeholders and donors and in the development of long-term partnerships seeking the improvement of the quality
of life in Palestine refugee camps.
A delegation from Jordan will conduct a field visit to Qaber Essit camp and selected healthy villages in Syria with the aim of exchanging
experiences and witnessing the fruits of the implementation of ICBA and HVP. The delegates will include some of the Suf camp community
members and concerned UNRWA staff. The process of introducing ICBA to two new camps in each of Jordan and Syria, and to one camp in
Lebanon, West Bank, and in the Gaza Strip is on-going.
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