Ministry of Social Affairs Palestine The Arab Forum on “Enhancing Social Care Systems”

1. Ministry of Social Affairs Palestine The Arab Forumon “Enhancing Social Care Systems” Reconsidering the Roles of the State, the Market and the Civil Society in the provision of the Basic Social Services Social Protection Beirut, January 19-20 , 2012 AymanSawalha

2. Social Protection: A strategy for the social protection sector was developed through participatory process between the governmental and non-governmental (private sector and CSOs). For this purpose, 94 specialized workshops were held. Vision: "Decent life for the Palestinian people on the road to achieve sustainable human development in light of a Palestinian state based on rights and justice without discrimination".Strategic Objectives: SO 1: to alleviate the burden of poverty among the Palestinians SO 2: Provide welfare and the empowerment of vulnerable and marginalized groups. SO3: Support, provide welfare, protection and rehabilitation of the detainees and empowerment of the ex- detainees and their families. SO4: to build and reinforce the social insurances towards an integrated social security system SO5: Developing the legislative institutional environment and partnership to achieve the social protection

3. Work fundamentals and points of departure Social justice Equity and equality Rights- based approach Local partnership and development Control, monitoring and evaluation Decentralization tendency

4. The Role of the State in Social protection I. Lead the efforts to develop and operate a modern social protection system.  leading the efforts to develop the SPSS and the affiliated executive plan; Development of the MoSA business strategy and leading the efforts to develop the Juvenile Justice Strategy and the Strategy for people with disabilities, in addition to a strategic frame for the childhood plan; Developing the legislative environment of Social Protection, through putting the existent laws into practice, modify some laws, e.g., the Palestinian Child Law, and fill legal needs, as in the case of the Juvenile Justice Project. In addition, a set of procedural manuals and bylaws were approved. Developing the National Database in partnership with all stakeholders. MoSA has succeeded in developing the National Program for Social Protection;

5. Standardizing the provision of social protection services and enhanced its quality; Providing care, protection, rehabilitation, empowerment and integration services for the vulnerable and marginalized groups provide social services to the marginalized and vulnerable groups on the rights- based approach. Operated the Monitoring and Evaluation System; Established the necessity to initiate researching and impact evaluation practices; and Ultimately, the state should gradually withdraw itself from the implementation, to take its leadership role to organize and administer the social protection service provision and delivery.

6. II. Encourage the private sector and civil community to take larger responsibility for social protection A conference on Social Responsibility was organized by MoSA A minimum wages agreement was concluded among the different stakeholders. This shall be valid as of 01/01/2013 Some initiatives are coordinated with the private sector; however they are conducted on an irregular basis; The private sector and the CSOs are represented at the national sectoral boards and bodies. (the Advisory Board for Social Protection Policies, the Higher Council for Persons with Disabilities, the National Committee for the Elderly, the National Committee to Combat Violence Against Women, … etc)

7. III. Allow the beneficiaries to choose services freely MoSA buys services from (currently 10) CSOs MoSA seeks to build the capacities of organizations to enable them to provide high quality services in the three coming years, in order to extend the scale of providers for MoSA to buy services from Insure equal regional and geographic coverage of social protection service providers through registration and awarding silences.

8. IV. Adopt development as a means to combat poverty MoSA owns a special program to economically empower the Palestinian destitute families; MoSA owns a special program for the empowerment of persons with disabilities; MoSA is working to expand the targeting for the economic empowerment program to include the graduates of the TVET centers who are originally school drop outs, in addition to battered women and households headed by women.

9. Coordinate and network with private sector organizations to provide employment for the TVET graduates and persons with disabilities according to the allowance defined by the law; MoSA is working to develop its subsidized TVET centers according to the needs of the national and regional market needs MoSA will support the foundation of cooperatives and marketing societies; MoSA will award privileges and incentives to micro- producers and in particular the poor among them.

10. V: Define Priority Areas Settlement- expansion areas Bedouin Areas Areas under the full Israeli control (labeled area C) Jerusalem

11. Poverty Pockets The Jordan Valley Area Areas affected by the Apartheid (Segregation) Wall The buffer zones in general; particularly in the Gaza Strip

12. VI: Identify the Priority Groups The poor The unemployed The marginalized groups in general, and specifically persons with disabilities, battered women, juveniles and drug addicts

13. The Role of Private Sector in Social Services I. Create a fair and supportive investment environment Creating decent job opportunities Taking social responsibility Increasing investments Protecting the national products and maintaining a reasonable level of prices II. Expand the Social Security System Join the inclusive social security system Bind to the minimum wages policy Observe the national strategies

14. The Role of Civil Society in Social Protection I. Partnership and Integration Membership for national sectoral councils and bodies; Membership in the supportive social protection services networks; e.g. Local Social Protection and childhood protection networks. II. Monitoring and Evaluation Release reports and brochures Promote the principle of accountability and liability.

15. III. Lobbying and Advocacy Activate the role of laborers and professional unions Activate the role of human rights organizations Activate the role of sectoral unions Conduct awareness raising campaigns IV. Promote the Quality Standards Provide high quality services in line with to the world best practices Diversify services properly distributed on regional and geographic areas

16. Challenges: The key challenges in providing services by non-governmental bodies are: The high cost of services Provision of non standardized services The state is unable to buy services in case of financial crisis Lack of efficient referral systems Maldistribution of some services in terms of geographical and regional coverage Activities of Palestinian organizations are hindered by the Israeli occupation

17. Opportunities The existence of experienced CSOs The availability of diverse services Preparedness to development partnership in national and sectoral councils The availability of qualified staff The availability of the political will

18. Recommendations Progressively realize a comprehensive social security system Support the CSOs and establish a pro-development democratic approach Fight corruption Promote and develop the participatory approach Elevate all the supportive sectors for the social protection agenda; economy, infrastructure and good governance Secure financial resources, by extending the donors’ base and the support from the Arab countries Adopt international best practices in providing and delivering services to the clients in a decent and rights – based manner in a context of social justice. Promote decentralization

19. Thank You For Listening