As a part of Human Dynamic’s team working on the team working on the “Technical Assistance for further institutional capacity building at the Palestinian Authority”, a Senior NKE Sa’ad Khatib has been working directly with Palestine’s Ministry of Agriculture. Mr Khatib has been engaged to support the administration of a EUR 17 million of EU funds for small project grants to farmers whose livelihoods have been badly affected by violence and military action in recent years.
The EUR 17 million is broken down into smaller sums (for example EUR 2,000) to allow the purchase of livestock, repair or building of outbuildings or purchase of farm equipment by farmers in need. The disbursement of the grants has been four years in the making; with the first transfer of USD 300,000 being made in the last week of June for 19 beneficiaries (farmers) residing in Benin, West Bank. In July a second, larger, disbursement of USD 800,000 for 89 beneficiaries occurred in Beit Hanoun, Gaza.
The grant disbursement programme did not occur in isolation. To support this, the team has over the last few weeks conducted a series of workshop in Bethlehem, Nablus and Ramallah for approximately 50 farmers and Ministry staff to help them apply for and properly administer the EU funds. To ensure and embed a clear understanding of the monitoring procedures that would be applied and the necessity for transparency and accountability in the use of the funds.
This forms a part of the ongoing project. The Human Dynamics team has been working with the Palestinian Authority since August 2014 in the implementation of this 24-month contract. With our team supporting the speedy, effective and transparent use of EU Aid.