Supporting the development of the Palestinian rural economy (agricultural cooperatives and women’s self-help groups)

Context

The Palestine Economic and Social Development Center (ESDC) is a Palestinian non-governmental organisation established in 2003. It was founded by Palestinian development practitioners to work on the development of the Palestinian social economy in rural and marginalised areas, with a particular focus on cooperatives and women's self-help groups. At the launch of the organisation, several interventions took place to strengthen agricultural cooperatives in the region. Gradually, the cooperation partners (i.e. Palestinian development practitioners) realised that the activities and plans covered a wider set of target groups. So a local cooperation structure that would be able to broadly represent the different types of cooperatives in Palestine was created, giving birth to the Palestine Economic and Social Development Centre.

Working in line with the needs of the Palestinian social economy and the immediate needs of target groups, ESDC works in two areas to meet the humanitarian and development needs of people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip: capacity building and livelihood support, and food security.

The project

ESDC's main objective is to promote integrated development in Palestine through the economic and social empowerment of communities. The centre promotes the values of transparency, integrity and accountability, social justice and peace. The ESDC has 4 strategic objectives which are broken down into 4 action programmes:

1. The cooperation development programme is based on several actions:

• The ESDC develops and implements training courses for cooperatives and organisations in the fields of commercial and financial management, according to the needs of the organisation;
• The centre provides coaching and advice in the preparation of business development plans, marketing support, promotion, financial management and accounting;
• The centre supports project start-ups by providing equipment, awarding small grants, strengthening networking with financial institutions and providing guarantees to associations to obtain appropriate loans to establish co-operative projects or develop existing services;
• Promoting and marketing co-operative products locally and externally;
• The centre also works to improve the working environment, promote Palestinian products and register trademarks;
• The centre also organises networking and exchange visits between socio-economic organisations, both locally and externally.

    2.  The programme to support the development of small businesses run by women and young people in a stimulating and empowering business environment:

• The centre has a business development service which includes training and the provision of services in the areas of business, administrative and financial planning and all matters relating to the legal status of an establishment;
• ESDC also provides the capital, materials and production equipment needed to develop small businesses;
• The centre helps to sign contracts to market the products of small businesses at fair prices and promote them internationally;
• Finally, small producers are supported by chambers of commerce, trade unions and other institutions that promote mutual and collective work.

    3.  The programme to strengthen the resilience of farmers, through the vision of productive, profitable and sustainable family farming:

• Farmers and livestock breeders receive training to increase the productivity and sustainability of their production methods, in line with national and international quality standards;
• The centre organises campaigns to promote fresh and locally processed products in Palestine and more widely in Arab countries, in order to raise awareness among Palestinian and Arab consumers of local and fresh products;
• Farmland is rehabilitated and access is facilitated for farmers: creation of farm roads, construction of retaining walls, excavation of wells, protective fencing, collection and planting of seedlings… ;
• ESDC digs wells to keep water on farmland and improve the efficiency and sustainable management of the resource;
• Finally, the centre provides direct assistance to families affected by climate change, labour policies and market fluctuations, to help them secure their work and their contribution to the farming and livestock sector.

    4.  The programme to build capacity and adapt to standards of good governance :

• The centre's staff and management are trained in gender mainstreaming and inclusion in the organisation of programmes (reform of internal policies, formation of an internal committee specialising in reviewing the centre's policies for gender inclusion, etc.);
• Building the technical, administrative and financial capacity of staff and the Board of Directors;
• The development of alliances and partnerships with national and international organisations in the fields of agriculture, economic empowerment and cooperative action;
• The development of a monitoring, evaluation and learning system to improve each year;
• Public and international relations are developed to encourage networking and international cooperation.

Who is it for ?

The ESDC's various action and support programmes are aimed at farmers, young people wishing to develop a business, project leaders and members of cooperatives and small businesses in the fields of the environment, clean energy and natural resources, agriculture and agri-food in Palestine (West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jerusalem) and more widely in Arab countries.

With whom ?

The Palestine Centre for Social and Economic Development has many international partners: the Swedish Cooperative Centre & Weeffect, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the European Commission (EC), Care international, AusAid, Oxfam GB, CHF International, the UNDP, IFAD, Action contre la Faim (ACF) and many others. The centre also has several local partners such as : Palestinian Cooperation and its self-help groups, the Directorate General for Cooperation (Ministry of Labour), the Ministry of Agriculture, the Palestinian Peasants Union (PPU), the New Civil Society for Agricultural Marketing and Processing (NFC), the Jerusalem Institute for Applied Research (ARIJ) and the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA).

Results

According to the centre's activity report, by 2021 the number of beneficiaries of the centre's projects and interventions in the country's various governorates had reached 37,861 direct beneficiaries, broken down as follows (16,080 men / 21,781 women), 723 child beneficiaries, 72 people with special needs, 70 cooperative societies, 98 businesses and health centres, and 162 municipal and village councils…

An example of the agricultural initiatives supported by the ESDC to increase the capacity of the agricultural sector to adopt innovative solutions and create sustainable jobs can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07wvk-vyvGU&t=311s.

A number of farm roads have been created or repaired, with the result that 15 km of farm roads have been built and rehabilitated in the Bani Naim, Ithna, Al Dhahiriya, Kharas and Deir Abu Daeef areas. A total of 550 farmers with 2,650 dunums of farmland have benefited directly from these road improvements.

Lastly, around 1,106 dunums of agricultural land have been rehabilitated, targeting the north of the West Bank. This has improved the quality and production of the rehabilitated land, in addition to cultivating it, renewing the trees and increasing the production units.

Little extra

A workshop was organised by the ESDC in partnership with the Swedish organisation We Effect and in cooperation with the Palestinian Standards and Metrology Institute and the Ministry of Agriculture to develop the "PAL GAP" standard along the lines of the Global GAP international quality standard.

In 2019, the ESDC will join the Fishery Mediterranean Network project, which brings together the coastal regions of 14 countries in the European Union and the Mediterranean to promote small-scale fishing that is more competitive, innovative, inclusive and sustainable.

This initiative sheet was written by Nadja Camille, LF project manager in March 2023.

Sources

• https://arab.org/fr/directory/economic-and-social-development-center-palestine/ 
• http://www.esdc-pal.org 
• http://www.esdc-pal.org/components/com_booklibrary/ebooks/2021%20Annual%20Report.pdf 

Last modification : 29 Jun 2023.