This special issue of This Week in Palestine marks an exciting occasion: the United Nations Development Programme/Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP) is celebrating Partners4Good, a cultural ceremony and media campaign to commemorate 20 years of unwavering collaboration and strategic partnerships between the Government of Germany and its KfW Development Bank, the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian civil society sector, and the UNDP/PAPP. Partners4Good serves as a platform to recognize the impact of joint efforts on the lives of Palestinians over the past two decades and celebrates the shared commitment towards transforming lives and eradicating poverty through sustainable socioeconomic development. In 2002, these partnerships inaugurated the Employment Generation Programme (EGR) that is now coming to an end, followed up since 2021 by the Investment Programme for Resilience (IPR) that targets marginalized communities in the oPt and aims to increase the management capacities of local partners. This issue details some of these interventions and introduces individuals and organizations that have benefited from these programs. Beneficiaries include playgrounds, schools for children with disabilities, women’s organizations, cultural institutions, and many, many more. You will read inspiring stories of lives that have been improved, individuals and communities that have been empowered and strengthened in their resilience, and sites and heritage that have been preserved.
This Week in Palestine wishes to thank the UNDP/PAPP for adopting the gold sponsorship of this issue. Immense gratitude goes to Marina Parisinou, who co-edited the articles and thereby made it possible for us to bring out an extra issue between our regular issues! Last but not least, we thank the authors who have contributed content. They include Yvonne Helle, the UNDP’s Special Representative of the Administrator; Jochen Flasbarth, a State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development; Marc Engelhardt, Director Middle East at Germany’s KfW Development Bank; Hebron Rehabilitation Committee; the Ministry of Tourism in Gaza; Muntaser Ekdaidek, the executive director of Burj Al-Luqluq Social Center Society in East Jerusalem; Fidaa Shurrab, a writer and projects and fundraising manager at Gaza’s Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children; Alice Dal Gobbo, the Resilience Programme Specialist at the UNDP/PAPP who manages the Investment Programme for Resilience; Palestinian Minister of Health Dr. Mai Salem AlKaila; Zeina Cooperative Association for Handicraft and the University College of Applied Sciences, Gaza; Women’s Center in Shuafat Refugee Camp, East Jerusalem; Yosra Al-Khairi, the focal point for risk communication and community engagement at Life & Hope Association, Gaza; Israa Yasin, project coordinator at Rawya Al-Shawa Cultural Center Initiative, Gaza; and Manal al-Nashwi, project coordinator at Al-Bureij Association for the Rehabilitation of the Handicapped, Gaza.
From the entire team at TWiP, we wish you a peaceful month of March, as our thoughts are with everyone suffering from the aftermath of natural disasters or human-made calamities!
By Marina Parisinou and Tina Basem
