A delegation from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation meets residents in the marginalised local communities
Within the Marginalised Local Communities Development Project in a number of Gaza Strip municipalities, implemented through the Municipal Development and Lending Fund with funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and German technical cooperation (GIZ), the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution facilitated two meetings with marginalised local communities, held in Al-Shoka and Rafah on 19 June 2019. Their aim was project follow-up by the donor, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, with a delegation headed by the director of the SDC office and colleagues from the Jerusalem and Gaza offices, together with the project follow-up team from the Municipal Development and Lending Fund represented by Ms. Amal Al-Sabaawi, Eng. Ahmed Dardouna and Eng. Abdullah Samour; and on the municipal side the mayor of Al-Shoka Mr. Mansour Breik and the projects department manager Eng. Fayez Abu Jabara, and in Rafah Municipality the head of the projects department Eng. Suhail Mousa, along with a number of representatives of the marginalised local communities in Al-Shoka and Rafah, in order to learn about the programme's progress and the activities completed. Eng. Iyad Abu Hjair opened the floor for the local community to speak about their experience of taking part in the project's activities and the project's impact on individuals' attitudes to community participation and social accountability, specifically their experience in identifying their needs and priorities for infrastructure projects and other services in their marginalised local communities, and the importance of constructive dialogue between citizens and the municipality.
Residents taking part in the two meetings noted that the community meetings held with the municipality present, under the auspices of PCDCR, had greatly helped them look beyond their own narrow neighbourhood, recognising that there are communities suffering a severe shortage of services that need intervention even more than their own marginalised area. This helped them understand the priorities for infrastructure interventions and how they are ranked according to the shortage of services, the availability of funding and the technical feasibility of implementation, and also to understand the challenges facing the municipality in providing infrastructure services to several marginalised communities given the obstacles municipalities face and the shortage of capacities and resources. These explanations and reassurances from the municipality to citizens about why particular communities were targeted with particular projects helped improve their satisfaction with the services provided and their understanding of current interventions and of the municipality's future plans to deliver services according to the priorities that citizens themselves see as essential to making their daily lives easier.
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation thanked the Municipal Development and Lending Fund, the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution and the municipalities of Al-Shoka and Rafah for their efforts in the project, and expressed their wish for greater participation of young people, women and persons with disabilities in the project's activities.
This is the constant aim of the project and of PCDCR: to empower marginalised groups in their communities and to convey their voice to the municipalities.
These steps are positive indicators that contribute to achieving the project's goal of creating a space for dialogue between citizens and the municipality and bridging the gap in community participation and social accountability, in order to achieve more accountable infrastructure services and improve community participation in the decisions taken by municipalities on improving living conditions in those marginalised communities.
