Tracking External Donor Funding.pdf - NDC

Executive Summary
Between 1999 and 2008, external aid to the West Bank
and Gaza Strip increased by over 600% to 3.25 billion
US Dollars per year. During the same time period,
external aid to Palestinian Nongovernmental
Organizations (PNGOs) increased by over 500% from 48
million US Dollars in 1999 to 257 million in 2008.
Throughout this period the level of external aid received
by PNGOs fluctuated, however, it averaged around 10%
over the 10 year period.
According to our findings, not only the amount, but also
the type of external aid entering the WB&GS varied
according to political conditions. During times of
political upheaval, we identified shifts in the destination
of external aid, usually moving away from development
or the Palestinian Authority and towards emergency
relief programs, as well as a shift in the conduits of
external aid, away from bilateral donors and towards
multilateral agencies. According to our findings, PNGOs
are engaged in development activities on a nearly 2:1
basis to Relief, changing only slightly during the
Intifada. Whereas we had expected a higher percentage
of PNGO activities during the Second Intifada, we
learned that much of the external aid to the Occupied
Palestinian Territories during this period was channeled
through International Nongovernmental Organizations
(INGOs) and multilateral agencies engaged in direct
implementation.
Amongst donor groupings, it is clear that Europe, both as
an institution and as individual states, is by far the largest
donor to both the Palestinian Authority and the PNGO
sector, providing nearly 70% of the total funding to the
latter. Aid from the Arab countries to Palestine has
decreased steadily in comparison to Western donors and
primarily contributes to the Palestinian Authority’s
budget. Unlike European and American aid to Palestine
and PNGOs, during times of Political crisis the amount
and impact of Arab aid increases. Aid from the United
States has decreased steadily throughout the period
studied, from around 12% of the total external aid to
PNGOs in 1999 to only 5% in 2008. According to our
findings, nongovernmental donors surpass governmental
sources in external aid to PNGOs, though most of the aid
granted through INGOs comes from national
governments. Prior to the Second Intifada, the opposite
had been true, in which bilateral contributions to the
PNGO sector outmatched those of the INGO sector.
According to our findings, external aid is critical to both
the health of the PA and PNGO sectors. According to
MAS’s estimates, external aid comprises over 60% of the
GNI of the WB&GS. For PNGOs, the dependency is
even more pronounced with around 78% of PNGO
revenues come from external aid. The increase in aid
dependence has occurred along side a decrease in PNGO
funding from the local community in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip.
The primary conclusion of our analysis of externally
funded PNGO activities by sector was the seemingly
clear correlation between political realities and the
sectors receiving external aid. According to our findings
in 2008, PNGOs engaged in Rights-based activities
received the highest proportion of external aid (30%),
followed by PNGOs engaged in the Social Services
sector (26%), Economic Sector (22%), Education (14%)
and Charity and Relief (9%).
According to our survey, external aid to PNGOs engaged
in urban areas increased between 1999 and 2008 from
25% to just under 40%. We also found that PNGOs tend
to focus their efforts in rural areas, spending 40% of their
resources there, despite urban inhabitants making up
only 31% of the Palestinian population. Due to the scale
and importance of UNRWA in providing aid to
Palestinian refugees, PNGOs are less represented in the
refugee target area.
While PNGOs are regionally distributed somewhat close
to the Palestinian population, those who partner with
international agencies are overwhelmingly located in the
Central West Bank, along with the vast majority of
external donors. Though project implementation is more
evenly spread throughout the WB&GS, it is still
disproportionately targeting the Central West Bank in
comparison to the number of people or PNGOs.
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