Attachments
Summary
The report, submitted in compliance with General Assembly resolution 70/108, contains an assessment of the assistance received by the Palestinian people and an assessment of needs still unmet, together with proposals for responding to them. It provides a description of efforts made by the United Nations, in cooperation with the Government of the State of Palestine, donors and civil society, to support the Palestinian population and institutions.
During the reporting period (April 2015-March 2016), negative trends on the ground persisted, resulting in a two-State solution becoming even more distant. The United Nations continued its efforts to respond to humanitarian and development challenges in the context of occupation, while focusing in particular on supporting the recovery and reconstruction of Gaza after the conflict with Israel in the middle of 2014.
The 2016 Humanitarian Response Plan, requiring $571 million, outlines the programming to address urgent humanitarian needs throughout the occupied Palestinian territory. In addition, at the request of the Government of the State of Palestine, the United Nations, together with the European Union and the World Bank, prepared a detailed needs assessment and recovery framework for Gaza, to inform the recovery and reconstruction work, and estimated the effects of the escalation of hostilities in Gaza in 2014 at $1.4 billion in damages and $1.7 billion in economic losses.
The Government continued to implement the Palestinian National Development Plan 2014-2016: State-building to Sovereignty. In support of those efforts, the United Nations continued to implement the United Nations Development Assistance Framework for 2014-2017. The financial resources required for the assistance provided through the Framework are some $2.15 billion.
I. Introduction
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The present report is submitted in compliance with General Assembly resolution 70/108, in which the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit to it, at its seventy-first session, through the Economic and Social Council, a report on the implementation of the resolution, containing an assessment of the assistance actually received by the Palestinian people and an assessment of the needs still unmet, with specific proposals for responding effectively to them. Also included is a summary of key political developments and challenges relevant to the reporting period, as the international community continued to work to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people, especially with regard to the recovery and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, and to support the State-building efforts of the Government of the State of Palestine. The reporting period is from April 2015 to March 2016.
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Information on the living and socioeconomic conditions of the Palestinian people is provided in several reports prepared by other United Nations agencies and submitted to various United Nations bodies, in particular: the report of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia on the economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan (to be issued); the annual report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) (A/70/13); and the report of the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee in September 2015.
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The humanitarian, economic and development needs of the Palestinian people are reflected in several complementary strategic and resource mobilization documents. The 2016 Strategic Response Plan seeks $517 million to address the most urgent humanitarian needs, including by enhancing the protective environment and improving access to essential services for the most vulnerable groups throughout the occupied Palestinian territory. The United Nations Development Assistance Framework for 2014-2017 presents the United Nations strategic response to the Palestinian development priorities contained in the Palestinian National Development Plan for 2014-2016: State-building to Sovereignty.
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Throughout the year, the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process continued its efforts to support the peace process and to promote coordination among the Government of the State of Palestine, the United Nations, the international community and the Government of Israel. The Office also continued to document the economic and social conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory and to develop policies and programmes to improve them.