Over 13,000 disabled people in the West Bank town of Hebron are receiving cash grants thanks to an initiative involving the United Nations World Food Programme, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the International Labour Organization, and the Palestinian social development ministry.
Some 2,500 families with one or more members with disabilities are to receive the assistance under the pilot project. The cash amount will vary depending on the number of disabled members per family, Rome-based WFP said in a statement.
WFP is delivering the aid through its existing vouchers, which families can redeem from the agency’s contracted shops in Yatta, Hebron.
“This partnership is an essential first step in building robust and resilient national systems to ensure that we can continue supporting the people we serve in every context and under any circumstance,” said WFP representative and county director for the Palestinian territories, Samer AbdelJaber.
In the last year, the effects of COVID-19 and the global surge in food and fuel prices stoked by the Ukraine war, have left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unable to meet their basic needs, WFP warned.
In the absence of a national safety net, these vulnerable families rely entirely on humanitarian assistance, the agency reported.
“The pilot comes at a critical time when COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of national institutions’ readiness to respond to shocks and emergencies in a swift and efficient manner,” said ILO Representative Mounir Kleibo.
Around 6 percent of the Palestinian population is living with some form of disability and 15 percent of over-70s.
The Joint SDG Fund – an inter-agency mechanism for integrated policy support and strategic financing – provided US$456,000 to finance the grants to disabled people in Hebron, the statement noted.
The project marks an important step towards reform of social safety nets in Palestine, according to the statement. The ILO is overseeing an assessment of the results of the project, the statement said.
The Joint SDG Fund has allocated US$2 million to support and accelerate wider social protection reform efforts led by the Palestinian social development ministry under a UN Joint Project, said the statement.
The results of the project will feed into future policy recommendations and capacity strengthening measures to make sure that all Palestinians, and especially the neediest, have a reliable and inclusive social safety net to fall back on in times of need, the statement concluded.
