The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) announced the allocation of (one billion yen) to support infrastructure in a number of refugee camps in the West Bank, as part of the Palestinian Camp Improvement Project (PALCIP), which is implemented by The Department of Refugee Affairs in the Palestine Liberation Organization, with support and funding from "JICA".
This came during the meeting held by the Japanese-Palestinian Joint Coordination Committee through the (Zoom) technology to discuss the implementation of the second phase of the camp improvement project, which is scheduled to include 12 additional camps in the West Bank, after the success of the first phase, which included 3 camps.
A high-level team from JICA headquarters in Tokyo participated in the joint meeting, which included the senior advisor in the peacebuilding program, Ari Komukaya, the director of the Peacebuilding Office and his deputy, the Middle East division staff at the agency´s headquarters, and the main representative of the (JICA) office. In Palestine, "Tosha Abe", in addition to the economic cooperation coordinator at the Japanese representative office, "Asaka Ishiguro", the director of UNRWA operations in the West Bank, Gwen Lewis, representatives of the Palestinian Ministry of Finance and the counterpart team in the Refugee Affairs Department.
The meeting began with an opening speech by the Director of the Camp Improvement Project (in Al-Seib) and the Director General of Camps at the Department of Refugee Affairs, Yasser Abu Kishk, who welcomed the attendees on behalf of Dr. Ahmed Abu Huli, member of the PLO Executive Committee, head of its Refugee Affairs Department and head of the project.
He expressed his deep thanks to the Palestinian people for the Japanese people and the Japanese government and its arm, JICA, for the strong and sustainable support for the Palestinian people, and for targeting the Palestinian camps with their programs and projects.
Abu Kishk indicated that the first phase of the Camp Improvement Project (2017-2019), which targeted three camps, was completed with great success, and that was a great motivation for the Japanese side to agree to the implementation of the second phase of the project, which targets 12 other camps (2020-2025), stressing that The project met with a great response among the refugees and their institutions in the West Bank camps.
He indicated the great willingness of the department´s staff to work with greater enthusiasm to achieve additional successes in the coming stage, appreciating the cooperation of the camp residents and their institutions to achieve the project´s goals of achieving a positive change in the lives of refugees.
For his part, the representative of the JICA office in Palestine, Toshia Abe, expressed his happiness at attending this meeting, and expressed his pride in launching the second phase of the "Baseeb" project, which took place in August of last year, and wished that this step would be a new beginning to complete the process of successful achievements. Which culminated in the signing of the "Program Grant to Improve Refugee Camps", in the presence of the Japanese Ambassador and the Palestinian Prime Minister. Abe announced the arrival of the second package of emergency aid to respond to the needs of the camps in light of the "Covid-19" pandemic, in mid-February.
The agenda of the meeting for the Joint Coordinating Committee included a presentation of the methodology of the second phase of the "Camp Improvement" project, the outlines and the work plan by the Director of Jerusalem Camps and a member of the counterpart team in the Department of Refugee Affairs, Nancy Al-Hindi, while Abu Kishk gave a presentation of the project design matrix.
An extended discussion took place by the attendees of the presentations, while the work plan for the second phase, which targets 12 Palestinian camps in the West Bank for the next five years, was approved. Its mission is to determine the camp’s priorities and the needs of the residents based on their desires and aspirations, in addition to developing planning and implementation guides, and developing an effective mechanism for raising funds to support infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects in Palestinian camps.
Details of the JPY 1 billion grant
Before the end of the meeting, Naohiro Ojima from the Middle East Department in JICA announced the approval of transferring (one billion Japanese yen) to a special account at the Palestinian Ministry of Finance in Tokyo in late February, provided that the funds will be transferred to the account of the Ministry of Finance in Ramallah at Payments, the first payment being 40% of the total amount, and these funds will be used to support infrastructure projects in the camps in which improvement plans are completed over the next four years, where in the current first year (2021) projects will be supported in the first three camps that It completed its plans within the first phase of the project, namely:Camps (Aqbat Jabr, Jalazun and Old Askar), and in the coming year (2022), priority projects will be covered for the first camps targeted in the second phase, in which work is currently underway to complete plans to improve them, namely the camps (Nour Shams, Al Fawar and Ain Al Sultan), and the process continues with the same mechanism For the other camps, where three camps are selected annually to implement improvement plans in them, and payments are made according to a mechanism agreed upon between the Palestinian and Japanese sides.
At the end of the meeting, Abu Kishk expressed his happiness and the happiness of the department´s team for this happy news, by practically starting to fund the projects resulting from the camp plans. Camp improvement plans.
