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UNRWAUNRWA AT 60“Without UNRWA, the threat to peace and securityin the Middle East would undoubtedly be far greater.”MARIA V. DWEGGAH, WHOOn 8 December 2009, the United Nations Reliefand Works Agency for Palestine Refugeesin the Near East, UNRWA, will be sixty yearsold. Following the Arab-Israel conflict of1948, UNRWA was established by the UnitedNations General Assembly to carry out directrelief and works programmes for Palestinerefugees. Today some 4.7 million Palestinerefugees in UNRWA’s five fields of operations– Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Stripand the West Bank including East Jerusalem– are eligible for the Agency’s services.While UNRWA’s 60th anniversary providesan occasion for sober reflection on Palestinianexile, it also affords a moment toUN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moonconsider the contribution that the Agency’sprogrammes have made to a better life forgenerations of Palestine refugees. ThroughUNRWA’s programmes and emergency activities,carried out by a staff of over 29,000,refugees experience the practical applicationof a range of human rights relating toeducation, health, a decent standard of living,economic opportunity, human dignityand the right to life. Primary education andhealthcare, social safety-net interventions,the building and maintenance of homes andinfrastructure, and microfinance services,are the tangible results of UNRWA’s positiveimpact on the live of Palestinians, at theindividual and community level.UNHQ PHOTO LIBRARYUNRWA’s record in education is impressive.Through times of strife in the Middle East,as well as times of relative calm, generationsof Palestine refugees have received theirfirst years of education in UNRWA schools.Today, the Agency provides free educationto some 500,000 pupils enrolled in its 689schools and employs 22,000 educationalstaff. Sixty years after its establishment,UNRWA operates one of the largest schoolsystems in the Middle East. It uses curriculaof host countries, but enriched with coursematerial devised specifically by the agencyon human rights, tolerance and conflictresolution. Conveying to the next generationa sense of universal values in a regionbeset by radicalism is an incalculably valuablecontribution.More important, since its establishment, UN-RWA has made gender parity in educationa priority, welcoming girls into its schoolsfrom the start. In 1951, the proportion of femalepupils was 26 per cent. Gender equityin enrolment was achieved in the 1960s andhas been maintained ever since.UNRWA’s work in the field of primaryhealth care has had a considerable impact.Despite the difficult conditions in which Palestinerefugees live, diseases preventable byvaccines and other communicable diseaseshave been kept under control. Between the1960s and 2006, a drop in infant mortalityrates from 16 to 22 percent was achieved.This exceeds the World Health Organization(WHO) target for middle income countries.Today, UNRWA’s health care programmeis delivered by its own doctors and some4,000 in 137 busy facilities, where the focusis on mother and child care, family planningand disease prevention. UNRWA’s clinicscurrently receive around 10 million patientvisits per year.In addition, UNRWA has implementedother successful programmes in differentdomains that have contributed to the developmentof the Palestinian population andthe assistance to those who are the mostneeded. Thus, since 1983, UNRWA’s Relief20 – UN Special – Décembre 2009