Final draft sa_forum_khan_younis_13_10_2013

Issued Oct. 13, 2013

Prepared by:

Mo’min Abu Nada

Mohammed Yaghi

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The first Social Accountability Forum in Khan Younis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FORUM OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................... 1

ATTENDANCE .................................................................................................................... 2

OPENING SPEECHES ......................................................................................................... 4

PANEL DISCUSSIONS ........................................................................................................ 5

WORLD CAFÉ ..................................................................................................................... 7

WORKSHOPS ...................................................................................................................... 8

LESSONS LEARNED ........................................................................................................... 9

RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................................................................... 10

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Forum overview

The Social Accountability Forum is part of

the promotion plan of the Local

Governance and Civil Society

Development Program (LGP) of Deutsche

Gesellschaft für Internationale

Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Palestine. The

overall goal of the LGP is improving

Municipal basic services and enhancing the

responsiveness to citizens.

The mechanisms of Social Accountability

(SA) are considered quite crucial to

increasing the level of responsiveness of the

municipalities towards the citizens. SA has

also an added value for municipalities and

their communities firstly, as it contributes to

enhancing the principles of Credibility of

government, Empowerment of Citizens,

Development and Effectiveness of Service

Provision, and Good Governance. Secondly,

the efforts of including citizens in municipal

planning, implementation and monitoring

processes need to be rewarded with a

tangible ‘return on investment’.

LGP initiated its intervention on March 2013

to pilot different mechanisms of Social

Accountability. Building on the piloting

experiences, the LGP will extract lessons

learned to further institutionalize well-

functioning SA mechanisms on the local

level.

LGP has organized 4 SA Forums in 4

municipalities in the Palestinian Territories;

the first being in Nablus on September 28,

2013; the second in Ramallah on September

29, 2013; the third in Hebron on October 1,

2013; and finally in Khan Younis on October

2, 2013. This report aims to summarize

activities conducted, speeches said,

discussions held, and recommendations of

the forum in Khan Younis.

GIZ organized the forum in partnership with

the municipality of Khan Younis as well as

five local civil society organizations (CSOs).

Those CSOs are the same partner

organizations of the LGP. They include: The

Palestinian Centre for Democracy and

Conflict Resolution (PCDCR); Bunian

Association for Training, Evaluation, and

social Studies (BUNIAN); Life and Hope

Association; the Palestinian Youth

Association for Leadership And Rights

Activation (PYALARA); and AISHA

Association for Woman and Child Protection

(AISHA). The forum was conducted also with

the presence of The Coalition for

Accountability and Integrity (AMAN).

The forum started with speeches from the

manager of the municipality of Khan Younis

and the representative of the partner CSOs,

and then included two activities to present

the concept of SA in a comedy-based way.

Afterwards, panel discussion was started

allowing audience to raise questions about

the concept of SA and the challenges that

faces the application of SA in Palestine in

general and in the city of Khan Younis in

particular. The panel discussion was

followed by two workshops about two

projects being piloted as part of the LGP; the

first one being about the pilot project of

social accountability; and the second one

being about the pilot project: Youth Create

Change. Simultaneously with conducting the

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workshops, an activity of World Cafe was

carried out that provided a further

opportunity for participants to ask and know

more about the concept of SA and its main

four pillars. The forum was finalized with

thanking all participants, and by submitting

the second award for the social

accountability photo competition to the

winner.

Attendance

According to the entry registration

documents, it was revealed that the total

number of people who attended the forum

was 408.

The variation in attendants’ gender as well

as the organizations they represent is a

significant point of consideration. This is

considered vital to the achievement of

objectives of the forum to share the concept

of SA with citizens from both sexes, as well

as people from various stakeholders. Age

variation of attending audience was also

clear. Participants’ ages varied from being

18 years old to old people in their 70s.

Unfortunately, the entry registration

documents did not require attendants to

mention their age, consequently, it was not

possible to make a comprehensive analysis

on the age variation of the attendants.

However, the variation is clear, and this

conclusion is based on direct observations as

well as estimates from the municipality of

Khan Younis and partner NGOs. Such

conclusion is also based on the variance of

the types of people who attended from youth

coming from youth organizations to

community traditional leaders who are, as

known about the society of the Gaza Strip,

mostly older than 60 years old.

Two important aspects about attendants are:

the gender distribution, and the agencies or

sectors that attendants are representing or

are working for. Based on the information

revealed from the entry registration, and as

represented in figure1, 58% of attendants

were males and 42% were females.

Figure 1: Gender Distribution of Attendants.

The percentage of female attendance is

quite successful given the male-dominant

culture in Palestine. Such participation of

females is considered vital for the success of

introducing SA properly to citizens. In

regards to the distribution of attendants

according to the sectors they represent,

three main categories of sectors were

measured as per the sectors related to the

success of the application of SA in local

governance. Those three sectors were:

Municipalities; NGOs; and media. Once more

the entry registration was used to conclude

such facts and the result is given by figure2.

42%

58%

Gender Distribution of Attendent audience

Female

Male

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Figure 2: Distribution of attendants in regards to sectors.

The fact that 60% of attendants are from

NGOs indicates that NGOs are significantly

successful in mobilizing citizens to

participate in such events. It is essential to

mention that the 60% number does not

consist of attendants coming from partner

CSOs only, but rather from other NGOs as

well. Those NGOs include, amongst others:

AMAN coalition for accountability and

transparency; the UNDP; The Red Crescent

Society; the Palestinian Society for

Traditional leaders; and some local sport

clubs in the governorate of Khan Younis.

The participation of other municipalities in

the forum was clearly noticed. The 17%

number is not calculated for the attendants

only from the municipality of Khan Younis

but from other municipalities in the Gaza

strip as well. Other municipalities included:

Rafah; Al-Maghazi; Bani Sohaila; Al-Qarara;

Al-Mosaddar; Al-Buraij; Khoza’a; Bet

Hanoun; Bet Lahia; Der Al-Balah; and Al-

Nosairat. The participation of Mayors and

municipality council members was

significant. This participation provides an

indication that those municipalities have a

tendency to know more about SA and to

apply its mechanisms in their municipalities.

Media was significantly present. At least two

radio stations, two satellite channels, and

one private film making company attended.

The forum was lively streamed on one radio

station and one TV Channel. Such an interest

of local media to cover the first SA forum in

Palestine may provide a positive indicator

that media can be utilized, in the way it

should, to maximize the impact of SA in

Palestine.

Figure 3: Significant participation of traditional community leaders and neighborhood committees.

Attendants who were not part of the

previously mentioned categories were

normal citizens that probably wanted to

participate to know more about SA, or are

interested in enhancing the performance of

their municipality. Some of them were

students, some were lawyers, some were

university instructors and some were

unemployed.

17%

60%

3%

20%

Attendance Distribution in regards

to Sector

Municipality

NGOs

Media

Other

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Opening Speeches

General Director of the municipality of

Khan Younis, Mr. Mohammed Al Agha.

Mr. Al Agha started by welcoming the guests

and thanking them for coming. He

emphasized the importance of SA in local

governance in Palestine and explained some

of the measures taken by the municipality of

Khan Younis to apply SA. He also explained

about the benefits a municipality can obtain

if it was committed to the principle of SA.

Figure 4: Mr. Mohammed Al-Agha General Director of the municipality of Khan Younis

Executive manager of the PCDCR, Mr. Iyad

Abu Hjayyer.

Mr. Abu Hjayyer spoke as a representative of

the NGOs who are partners to the SA project.

His speech was directly after presenting the

introductory film produced by GIZ to inform

community about the project of SA. He

began his speech saying: “I hope that this film

and this project will constitute an initiation

for the reunification of the two wings of

Palestine, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”

He, then, explained to the audience that SA

has two goals: the first being political which

is not to misuse the power by power-

holders; and the second being operational to

enhance the quality of services provided by

local agencies. He explained that

Accountability should be understood as a

social contract between citizens and power-

holders in local agencies, whether the

power-holder was elected or assigned, that

they should be in full commitment to the

transparent standards that must be fulfilled

to ensure the best service provision to

citizens. Having said that, he emphasized

that the horizontal accountability, of having

different institutions of the state or the local

agency to monitor each other, is important

but it cannot substitute the other

accountability form; the vertical form of

having citizens monitor the performance of

power-holders by elections.

On his explanation for the rule of civil

society organizations (CSOs), he explained

that CSOs have two main rules: the first is to

complement the work of government and

local agencies for the better service for the

citizens; and the second is to positively

monitor the performance of the government.

Such an understanding of this integral rule

between civil society and government

should, as he stated, be the basis for

cooperation between the two sectors. He

emphasized also that the concept of civil

society is not limited to the civil society

organizations but rather includes all other

non-governmental bodies such as

syndicates; workers unions; students

unions; women coalitions; as well as political

parties.

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In his diagnosis for the problem between

government and local agencies on one side

and civil society bodies on the other, he

stated that: The problem of insufficient

cooperation between CSOs and local agencies,

or government, that we have in the Gaza Strip

is caused by the fact that government

anticipates that CSOs will perform their first

rule (complementing the work of government

by providing services) and not the second

(monitoring the performance of government).

Also, CSOs have failed to perform their first

rule of complementing the work of

government and local agencies and intend

only to perform the second part of

monitoring. Such a status would not result in

the proper status of cooperation between

government and civil society. CSOs should

have a memorandum signed with their

related governmental bodies or local agencies

describing the rules of each and the

commitments of each. CSOs should take a step

towards government despite the limitations

imposed on them by donors and

governmental and local units should take

steps, not only one, towards CSOs.

Clarifying the advantages of applying SA in

Palestine, he explained: firstly, SA

strengthens the mutual trust between citizens

and decision makers. Secondly, a

participating citizen is an asset and an

advantage for the state and we have to

strengthen this feeling of responsibility in

citizens. Thirdly, when a municipality or a

governmental agency participate the decision

making process with citizens by the various

participation tools, citizens will be supporters

to the municipality or the governmental

agency not an enemy to it due to the fact that

they would understand the limitations and

capabilities that the decision was based on.

Fourthly, SA provides a transparency

platform for the local agency to inform

citizens about its plans; projects; and

timetables. This would make criticism by

citizens based on this information spread

which was, by the way, one of the secrets for

the success of holding power-holders

accountable in Turkey.

Panel Discussions

Discussion was held at the forum where

audience was allowed to raise questions to

the main guests and also to make

interventions and suggestions related to: the

concept of SA, mechanisms of SA, possible

strategies to make the application of SA in

The horizontal accountability, of having

different institutions of the state or the local

agency to monitor each other, is important but it

cannot substitute the other accountability form;

the vertical forms of having citizens monitor the

performance of power-holders by elections,

says: Mr. Iyad Abu Hjayyer.

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the municipality successful, and the extent to

which the municipality of Khan Younis was

committed to SA. The main guests for the

discussion were: the mayor of Khan Younis,

Mr. Yahya Al-Astal; the executive manager of

the PCDCR, Mr. Iyad Abu Hjayyer; and the

member of the department of social welfare

and development in the republic of the

Philippines, Mrs. Angelita Gregorio-Medel.

The discussion was moderated by Ehsan Abu

Obaida, project coordinator for the SA

project in Bunian Association.

The discussion started with an introduction

by Ehsan about the objective of the

discussion and the main topics to be

discussed. The first three questions were

raised by Ehsan to the three guests, the first

being about the extent SA is really applied so

far at the municipality of Khan Younis, the

second being about the role of CSOs in the

application of SA in Palestine, and the third

being how can we, in Palestine, benefit from

the experience of applying SA in the

Philippines?

After those three questions were answered,

audience was given the chance to raise

questions. The questions raised were related

to the extent citizens think the municipality

is really applying SA, the extent to which SA

is applicable in Palestine, the legal

framework that can be used to apply SA, the

elections, the sustainability of the project of

SA, the awareness building of citizens in

regards to SA, and examples of

methodologies related to SA, that were

applied in other countries that we can

benefit from in Palestine.

Suggestions raised by audience were related

to methodologies to share information by

the municipality, methodologies to enhance

the culture of SA in new generations, and

voluntarily supportive mechanisms by youth

to the municipality.

Figure 5: Side of the Panel Discussions

The discussions revealed that the mayor of

Khan Younis has a different understanding

of SA, which is listening to citizens’

complaints only. He also avoided answering

questions raised directly to him that are

related to SA. He explained that the

municipality has received 1600 complaints

and 85% of which were replied to. He

certified that the strategic plan of the

municipality and other information will be

shared on the municipality website soon.

Mr. Iyad explained, throughout the

discussions, the challenges that face the

application of SA in the Gaza Strip. He also

explained that the role of CSOs in applying

SA is integrative and complementary to the

role of the government by awareness

building and training. As discussions were

going, in a serious way, towards the criticism

of the political party that is assigning

municipality councils in the Gaza Strip, he

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explained that SA will not be as successful if

we intend to use it for political interests. He

emphasized that SA should be used only for

the sake of better service provision by local

agencies. The issue of the sustainability of

the project of SA was raised many times,

and, as a result, Mr. Iyad explained the

amount of work needed for the intended

change in culture and municipality

procedures to adequately apply SA. He also

made a recommendation that both CSOs and

municipalities allocate a portion of their

budgets, time, strategic plans, and

employees to continue the efforts to raise

the culture of SA if funding was terminated.

According to him, there are positive

indicators that imply a positive change in the

culture of SA.

Mrs. Angelita explained some methodologies

and approaches applied in other countries

that have, somehow, similar situations to the

situation in Palestine. She explained about

the secret of having organized people to

claim their rights (people power). She

explained that SA is not about individuals

claiming their needs, but it must be

organized citizens who are capable of

producing data and launching their

advocacies. She explained that SA is a new

concept that requires so much media and

uses other untraditional approaches for

awareness building such as jokes, comedies,

and technology. She explained about the

legal and legislative support that was used in

the Philippines to ensure an adequate

accountability by society to the government

and local agencies.

For complete text of the panel discussion

please refer to: Appendix A.

World Cafe

The world café is an activity that was

performed directly after completing the

panel discussions. It involves having a

number of tables with chairs surrounding

them, exactly like a real-world café, were

each table discusses a certain topic and

participants are supposed to spend a

specified time on each table and move to the

other. There were five tables that discussed

five topics: the concept of SA and its four

main pillars (participation, response,

monitoring, and transparency). Participants

varied in ages and sexes considerably.

Almost half of participants were females.

Their ages varied from being young to be in

their fifties. The intention of participants to

share varied from one to another. Some

wanted to understand more about the

concepts and some wanted to propose

suggestions. The most important

suggestions proposed by them were:

1. Re-form the neighborhood

committees by elections.

2. Form an independent committee of

volunteer citizens to attend the

meetings of municipality council and

follow up on the implementation of

its decisions.

3. Form a committee to follow up on

citizen’s complaints.

4. Form a committee to follow up on

compensations for citizens whose

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properties were harmed by the

projects of the municipality.

5. Not to assign neighborhood

committees by municipality but

rather by elections. The duty of them

is to try to enhance service provision

not to defend the municipality.

6. Employ young people in professions

that involve direct provision of

service, like cleaning and sewage,

since they have better physical

abilities to do the work in a more

proper way.

Figure 6: Side of the strong participation in the World Cafe activity.

Workshops

Two workshops were conducted, the first

intended to raise the awareness of

participants about the concept of SA, and the

second intended to introduce participants to

the basics of youth participation.

The main discussion topics for the first

workshop were:

1. Basic components of general

accountability.

2. Main questions in accountability.

3. Basic elements and pillars of SA.

4. Basic benefits of SA.

5. Potential risks of SA.

6. Factors that facilitate the success of

SA.

7. Definition of public hearing.

8. Types of public hearing.

9. Stakeholders of public hearing.

10. What public hearing is used for?

11. The phases of executing public

hearing.

Figure 7: Side of the Social Accountability workshop.

The main discussion topics for the second

workshop were:

1. Definition of youth participation on

family and community using colored

cards.

2. Hart’s ladder of participation and

reflecting grades of participation.

3. Where to find your position on Hart’s

ladder.

4. Introducing the pilot project

performed by GIZ—Youth Create

Change (YCC).

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Figure 8: Side of the YCC workshop.

Lessons Learned

1. Distinguish should be made between

the preparations for an event in the

Gaza Strip and in the West Bank.

Since the Gaza Strip has a special

situation in regards to the freedom of

movement, not all kinds of guests can

attend. The fact that GIZ did not take

that distinguish in consideration has

resulted in a threat that the forum in

Khan Younis would not have an

important activity—the TEDx show.

Performers of the TEDx show were

denied access by the Israeli side, only

four days before the forum.

Consequently, the team who was

preparing for the forum in Gaza was

in a chaos situation to solve the

problem. The problem was solved by

a stand-up comedy video that was

created in only three days. The video

would, of course, have been better if

it was given more time for

production.

2. Consideration should be made

during planning not to have two

events to be held too close to each

other. The forum was planned to be

on Oct. the second, and another event

was planned on the directly previous

day—the visit of the BMZ delegation

to Gaza. As the team was busy with

the activities related to that visit,

some of the preparation activities for

the forum could not be performed

and the team was in a stressful

situation.

3. Procurement procedures that require

long administrative time should have

started earlier as they delayed some

other activities and made preparation

more stressful to the team. The

printing of brochures and other

forum-related-printings, for example,

takes long administrative time this

has resulted in that the team had no

choice but to do the biggest deal of

preparations on Tuesday, just one

day before the forum.

4. Other municipalities in the Gaza Strip

should have given the chance to

participate in the preparation of the

forum. Some mayors and

municipality directors informed

project coordinators that this was an

important day for all municipalities,

not only the municipality of Khan

Younis. Their participation in the

preparation process could have had

improved the forum even more.

5. Special invitations should have been

sent to the directors of other

municipalities. Representatives of

other municipalities were either

mayors or employees from PR

department. The participation of

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municipality directors would provide

a better impact on the level of

application of SA in their

municipalities as they deal more with

technical administrative issues.

6. Panel discussions would have been

better if they were based on a

discussion agenda that limits the

topics of discussion, and if a

preparation meeting was held with

Ehsan, Iyad, and the mayor.

7. Ehsan should have exerted more

effort to control the discussions

during the panel discussion, and

should have given priorities to

persons who have more potential to

enrich the discussion like the mayor

of Rafah who raised his hand all the

time but was not given the chance to

participate.

8. Booths should have been located

away from each other to provide

more space for guests to visit them.

The locations of the booths next to

each other made the relatively high

number of guests packed with

discomfort.

Recommendations

1. Angelita recommends to run smaller

types of discussions with the

presence of the mayor that will be

more focused and with fewer number

of participants who are related. The

workshops should be held

episodically (like once every week or

month), and shall be topic-identified

like this week we will discuss the

service of water for example.

2. The promises of the mayor in the

forum are something that can be

used. They should be written down,

printed, and distributed to citizens.

(Angelita)

3. The production of short films, comic

books and similar things to build the

capacity of the citizens and NGOs in

SA. (Angelita).

4. Youth project should not be

separated from SA project. Social

Accountability must be an element of

everything. (Angelita)

5. Labels from the local culture and

religion should be found to facilitate

the change in culture. Because in

change management it cannot be too

new. It should be linked to something

familiar. (Angelita).

6. NGOs should allocate a portion of

their budgets, time, and employees

outside the framework of the projects

funded by GIZ to activities that will

promote SA to maximize

sustainability when funding is

terminated. (Iyad )

7. Municipalities shall include SA in

their strategic plans and exert every

effort to ensure its application. (Iyad)

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Appendix A: Panel Discussions Content.

Ehsan started by introducing the main guests of the panel discussion: Mr. Yahya Al-Astal, the

mayor of Khan Younis (referred to later as Yahya); Mr. Iyad Abu Hjayyer, the executive manager

of the PCDCR(referred to later as Iyad); and Mrs. Angelita Gregorio-Medel member of the

department of social welfare and development in the republic of the Philippines.

Ehsan: Before we start our discussions, I would like to give the word to Mr. Al-Astal, the mayor

of Khan Younis to tell us about his impression about the forum and his understanding of the

concept of SA.

Yahya: I would like to begin by welcoming all people who attended the forum, and especially the

mayors and managers of CSOs, and all who have participated to make this event successful. In

fact, this effort is a continuation to what we have started before—the direct communication with

citizens, those we offer our services to. Those citizens must feel satisfied about our service, and

should know about all aspects related to it, such as its content, its cost, the objectives we intend

to achieve by providing them, and the places where those services are delivered. Based on that,

our communication with members of society is open: we deal with them in markets, and we

pray with them at mosques. So, we hear from them, and our doors are open for them. We have

specified times for dealing with citizens, since the mayor is not available at the municipality 24

hours. The mayor has other duties to perform. So, there are specified days to hear from citizens

about their complains. Communication with citizens is not limited to the direct contact, but also,

we read what they write to us by email and Facebook. This communication, I believe, would

bridge the gap between service providers and service receivers. We hope that all decision-

makers--whether they were in municipalities, in governmental units, or in other organizations--

believe in the concept so they will be creative doing their work. Before that, I hope that citizens

will understand this concept and understand what they want so they can participate with their:

views, complaints, suggestions, and, sometimes, with their objections. Social Accountability is

good and important, and I think it is a duty that every citizen should raise his voice with: advice,

suggestions, complaints, and also with work to support us. Thank you very much.

Ehsan: Mr. Iyad, Do you think that CSOs have a positive role to play in applying the concept of

SA? Like being a communication channel between the municipalities and citizens?

Iyad: Thank you so much for inviting me, and I thank all participants. We have the right to be

proud of this effort; a participatory effort between the municipalities and all CSOs, that I

represent. In regards to SA, it is both a new and an old culture. I mean it existed before in our

culture, but it was not applied in the proper and technical way. CSOs have started to be

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interested in SA only recently. SA was not amongst the traditional duties of CSOs in Palestine,

especially when a clear understanding of the mechanisms of SA was not available for the CSOs

and citizens. In regards to municipalities, there is a mechanism (a SA mechanism he means)that

existed before but it was not activated until recently; that is the neighborhoods committees.

Those committees are considered one of the links between citizens and municipalities to deliver:

the interests, expectations, priorities, problems, complaints, and suggestions of citizens to

municipalities; for those municipalities to satisfy those ambitions and needs of those citizens.

There are some municipalities that took serious steps in the neighborhood committees field, and

there are some municipalities who have been working on that field since ancient times. And as

part of this SA project being held now, efforts are being taken to reactivate those neighborhood

committees in more municipalities. Those neighborhood committees are social and popular

objects, and they are the ones that build the framework for the full application of SA mechanisms

in municipalities. So, neighborhood committees are the basic gate for us to apply SA in

municipalities. In regards to the interest of CSOs in applying SA in municipalities, honestly, I am

sorry to say that their interest, or the interest of most of them, to apply SA in municipalities is

triggered only by the interest of the donor. But I think that we need to take some more efforts to

make CSOs take the initiative by their own. And I hope that the relationship between citizens, on

one side, and citizens and the municipalities, on the other, will develop from the level of

coordination and participation, to the level of complete partnership in making decisions that

directly affect citizens in their cities or neighborhoods, and this is what we hope to achieve

during this forum.

Ehsan: Dr. Angelita, you have started your career as a social activist in the poor neighborhoods

in cities and villages, and you have now the sufficient experience in the field of SA, and as you are

a member of the department of social welfare and development in Philippines, I would like to ask

you how can we benefit from the experience of applying SA in the Philippines in Palestine and

how far can we apply such an experience?

Angelita: Thank you very much for allowing me to be here. You may be wondering why a

philipina from far away land is here talking to you now about SA in Palestine. I think the value of

my visit and this opportunity for me to talk to you is because this is one big but small world. We

are interconnected. Anything that happens in any of the small villages in our country, if it

attracts me, it is actually, immediately, talked about in the parts of the world. One third of the

Philippines population are Muslim brothers and sisters particularly in the south. Although my

country is performing economically very well, we come from a history of impoverished

communities and big disparity between the rich and the poor. My country too starts on a very

authoritarian culture. So, in many ways, we share many things. What did work in the Philippines

on SA, one other thing, you must have heard about a lot, is people power. This is the non-violent

protest of citizens when we try to kick out a corrupt, an authoritarian, and marshal low

government. There was no accountability in the past, and how do we achieve it now? Primarily

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through the work of very strong citizen organizing. We have student and youth organizations

and very strong women organizations. We have workers, farmers, and professional

organizations, educational institutions and even businesses have, what we call, corporate social

responsibility. So, in trying to relate to government, it cannot be individuals complaining about

their needs; it must be organized citizens who are capable of producing data and launching their

advocacies. So, we use their numbers. The number of the citizens is a strong power against

government. But, it cannot be only mob mobilization, it must also be reason negotiation. When

we say that the provision of educational resources is not enough, we should not say just not

enough, but we show them numbers from our schools, parents collecting information why the

books are not sufficient? Why teachers are absent? We count when teachers are absent or when

nurses are not around, so we give them data and information to prove our complaints. So, it’s

not only shouting, it is also counting.

The other thing that works is that we had reform champions inside government. Those are

government officials who believe in this work and believe SOs can work in very close

coordination. And, these people must help put in place policies and laws to encourage citizen

participation and SA.

Finally, this is a new concept, but at the same time you use a lot of media, a lot of awareness

building, we use jokes, comedies, we use dramas, because these are more easily understood by

people, and we use technology, but we must understand that technologies that worked in other

countries will not necessarily work in your country. So , you have to see what is possible and to

push what is possible until you achieve your objective.

Ehsan: We will now hear questions and interventions from the audience in the framework of SA.

Please take into consideration that we are discussing the concept of SA not particular problems

of the municipality that were discussed before.

Participant1 (female): My name is Wafaa abu Zarifa, a journalist. Firstly, you are speaking

about the concept of SA which is a too big concept, as I think, compared to the environment we

live in that is not adequate for such a concept; despite the fact that we are in actual need for it.

Secondly, the question is raised to the mayor, you are partners in the project and implementers

of the SA forum, For what extent the municipality of Khan Younis is welling to receive complaints

from citizens and to stand in front of justice? I mean that the municipality will be in situation to

be accountable. Is the municipality of Khan Younis ready to be in a real situation of

accountability? Today in the forum, you are talking about the first SA forum, I noticed that, even

in the comedy video, it was the society that was in the situation to be accountable not the

municipality. There was grooming for the municipality to a level that I got the indication that

the municipality has no fault in the lack of service provision. It was totally far away from putting

the municipality in an accountability position. My second question is raised to Angelita. I don’t

know if you have enough idea about our environment here. I want to say that here, in my point

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of view, social accountability is not a possibility as our government is our oppressor, and we

have a status of political division, and we don’t have a real state. The laws that concern our rights

as citizens are not raised for discussion by both of our governments. Can such forums make SA a

possibility in such a political status?

Yahya: I will answer briefly, in regards to your question if we receive complaints, yes we do

receive and hear complaints. Every citizen has the right to submit a complaint. We, in the

municipality, have received 1600 complaints. We did reply on time on more than 85% of them,

which I think is good. Some complaints require more information which makes us not able to

reply on them, this is why we could not reply on the rest. But, we receive people in all places, in

and out of the municipality, we receive complaints and we deal with them friendly and in

accordance to the law. In regards to your question about the laws, I want to say that laws that

regulate our work in municipalities exist and you can refer to them in courts. Laws don’t change,

but administrative decisions do.

Angelita: That is not an easy question! But let me try my own reflection in experience from other

countries. It is not the Philippines that I bring to the table, but I also had the privilege to look at

the transition in Cambodia, Mongolia, and many other countries. I think, even in the smallest

space of freedom, in the most impoverished place you can give. There will always be a room to

strengthen the relationship between those who hold the authority and those who are being

governed. What we’re talking about is the social fabric of your capacity to work with each other

to build your own country and nation. You can be under the power of a foreign oppressive force,

but you cannot allow yourself to be weaker because you are not internally able to engage each

other. This is a personal lesson: I, myself, came from a political oppression and I had a prison

experience myself. I believe, that we, the government, the little that you can have, the confusion

you are in, the oppression you are suffering as a people, can be material for you to become

stronger, to become transparent and to trust each other more, because the worst that can

happen to us is when we turn against each other so that those who want to oppress us become

stronger. The social fabric of the government and the people in the municipality must be built on

trust. It is not going to be perfect! You will be forever fighting! That’s OK. In families, we fight!

But you can have strong communities and families if:

1. If there is truth telling, that’s the heart of transparency;

2. If there is forgiveness and willingness to try and try again; and

3. If there is a continuity of what you are doing.

I think that in my society, as in yours, the young and women should fight their place in building

the country and the nation you could wish for -- a strong, participatory, transparent, and truly

accountable.

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Participant2 (male): My name is Ahmad AlGharbi, legal consultant. My question is to Angelita.

Through the experience you had in the Philippines, What legal measures and legislative

frameworks did you use to activate SA in the Philippines?

Participant3(male): It was mentioned before that some of the municipalities in the Gaza Strip

did not have elections for 55 years. It was mentioned also that recently, elections were held at

the municipalities of the West Bank and those elections were successful. My question is: Why

don’t we have elections to choose our municipality council in the Gaza Strip? Don’t tell me that

the conditions are hard. The conditions are the same whether here or in the West Bank. The

MDLF is funding municipalities both here and in the West Bank. So, why the municipalities of

Gaza were not different when it comes to funding? Another point, when no elections are being

held in the municipalities of the Gaza Strip, and municipality councils are being assigned, why

aren’t they assigned from all sectors and political parties of the Palestinian society? And why

don’t we see the program followed by those assigned councils? Councils should have clear

programs when they get first created, so we as citizens will have the possibility after two years

or so to hold those councils accountable and to raise questions about their performance based to

their programs.

Participant3(male): My name is Hani Abu Mustafa, director of Activists of Palestine network

and a member of neighborhood committee in Wadi Al-Salqa. I congratulate Palestinians to have

such a forum because we really lack an important aspect between citizens and the local agencies,

which is the aspect of trust! This lack of trust has many external causes related to the political

division that I don’t want to go through now, but there are some internal causes related to us; the

most important being: our complacency, the lack of information shared by municipalities with

citizens, and, the fact that municipalities do not have enough appreciation for citizens and the

importance of their participation. This results in that SA would lose one important pillar, the

pillar of participation. This, consequently, would result in that we lose any significant output for

the application of SA. I hope that municipalities would have more awareness campaigns to

inform citizens about the developmental plans to ensure that citizens play their role in this

developmental plan as they are the main pivot for it. Finally, I suggest that the forum would

results in the creation of youth groups that will work in coordination with the partner NGOs to

be supportive to the municipalities in their work to activate SA and to conduct other activities

related to it.

Participant4 (male): I suggest that SA be applied not only in municipalities, but also in

ministries such as the ministry of social affairs and the ministry of education to allow for more

participation of citizens to the aspects in those ministries. For example, we should participate

developing the school syllabus for our children.

Participant5 (male): My first question is raised to the mayor. How will the municipality

convince and deal with citizens who lack the knowledge and awareness in regards to SA? My

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second question is raised to Mr. Iyad. In regards to the CSOs, we see that they cooperate with

municipalities in more than one project, but, the problem is that we see the project being

implemented for one year and finishes after that. There is a problem with the sustainability of

any project. What are the plans that ensure the sustainability of the SA forum?

Participant6 (male): My name is Mahmoud Abu Haya from Khan Younis municipality. My

question is raised to Mr. Iyad. We know that SA needs the cooperation of two parties:

municipalities and citizens. Based on your experience working in the civil society field, how

much percent of citizens in the Gaza Strip are aware of the concept of SA and the aspects related

to it. And what is the role of the CSOs in reaching citizens and raising their awareness about their

rights and the proper way to help local agencies implementing or developing projects?

Angelita: The legal is a little bit more complex because after the people’s revolution, we were

able to change our constitution. There was really a solid attempt to redraft the constitution, and,

in the constitution, there is a vision of people’s participation. So, right in the constitution we have

this. And another one is in our local government code for the revolution, where there is a law

that says: regional development councils must have one citizen representative. There are also

many laws, even in procurement that requires that citizens must observe the procurement

process. There are even laws that require 20% of the budget should go to women and children.

There is the constitution, there is the national law, there are mayors who actually put in local

laws on SA. And beyond laws, our programs that push the boundary of the law and allow us to

experiment on what we can, as citizens, propose and advocate for new laws to strengthen this

practice.

Iyad: In regards to the questions raised about the role of CSOs to apply SA, our role is integrative

or complementary to the role of the government and the local agency to raise and build the

awareness about the culture of SA.

In regards to the question about the sustainability of projects, you are right. This is a pain for the

CSOs. Our problem in CSOs is that projects are not permanent. One project may last 6 months

and another project may last one year. CSOs have a crisis or a gridlock in this regard.

Government, or the state, is supposed to fund those CSOs, but this, unfortunately, is not

happening. Another factor is that most of the funding that CSOs receive is not sustainable fund.

Funding is more like funding to provide services or to provide relief, but it does not create

foundations for a solid fermentation such as in SA. Such aspects requires projects not less than 5

continuous years for the CSOs to be able to create an impact on society. Thus, we have to think

about alternatives to make our work to apply SA properly more sustainable.

In regards to the question about the awareness of citizens about SA, there is no percentage I can

answer with. But, there are some indicators. Citizens tend to be more aware about their rights

and the methods of claiming those rights. This is a good indicator that should be promoted by the

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various types of organizations. And there are some positive indicators related to power-holders

such as the fact that they started to have better understanding for the needs and expectations of

citizens. One last point I need to add is that, based on my experience, SA may not be successful if

it was used politically. If SA was used to serve objectives related to the political division or other

political interests, there is a big risk that it will have minimum opportunities to be successful. We

are talking about issues related to the services provided to citizens and we must always have the

assumption that politics do not intervene. So, issues like elections and oppression are of higher

level than the level this forum intends to discuss. Those issues are to be solved by political talks

and agreement between the Palestinian political parties, but this can’t be solved in such a forum.

Until we reach this point of political agreement, we should not sit doing nothing, but rather we

need to find practical methods that facilitate the participation of society through civic

participation.

Yahya: Firstly, I would like to thank all participants who raised questions without any exception.

I believe that this is part of the SA, that a citizen do not be afraid to say what he wants. Secondly,

in regards to the elections, I agree with the participant that elections should be held, but,

unfortunately, the conditions are not adequate right now to have elections. Unfortunately, the

municipalities of Gaza and Khan Younis did not have any elections since the British mandate. But,

the mayor of Khan Younis and the mayor of Gaza are elected during the Palestinian Authority era

by all engineers. The mayor of Gaza was elected as the head of the syndicate of engineers in

Gaza, and the mayor of Khan Younis was elected as the head of the syndicate of engineers in

Khan Younis. So, transcended, we can say that they are elected. There is no mayor, here or there,

that is one-sided for one group against the other. When we first came to the municipality, we

made a decision not to allow any political slogan in the building of the municipality. The

municipality is a house for all and should be for all. Another thing, the strategic plan is available

at the municipality for anyone who wishes to see it. We created the strategic plan with

participation of 500 people. There was projects proposed for funding, and more than 90% of

those projects are priorities in the new strategic plan. So, there is a harmony between the ideas

of the people in the municipality and the ideas of society, even before their participation in the

creation of the new strategic plan. In regards to the fact that some municipality employees may

say that this is not your business, if an employee in the municipality tells you as a citizen: this is

not your business, come to the mayor and the mayor will tell you: it is your business. In regards

to the youth groups to support the municipality, I want to say that the municipality is in need of

the support of all, not only the youth. The municipality is in need for the support of youth,

women, educated people, and neighborhood committees. I would like to express my gratitude to

all who helped, especially the neighborhood committees that proposed projects to donors to be

implemented in their neighborhoods.

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Participant7 (male): My name is Alaa Younis a coordinator for the SA project for the Life and

Hope Association. My question is raised to Angelita. Can you give us an example of methods used

by your people that can be used in our country to apply SA?

Participant8: (male): My name is Mohammed Al-Najjar, the mayor of Al-Maghazi. I believe that

the information about SA shared by this forum reached only the people who participated in the

forum. Such concepts need to be shared with as many citizens as possible to ensure a proper

understanding. To maximize the level of understanding for the concept of SA, we need to include

it in our education and teach it to our children. This is how we can build a new generation that

has solid understanding of the concept. The proper application of SA needs a proper mechanism

that involves institutionalization of SA in all fields. For a citizen that needs to know information,

there should be a clear guide from the agency or the authority on how to find those information.

The mechanism should also involve objects related to local community such as neighborhood

committees or a SA committee or a social cooperation committee that includes elected

representatives. This would result in a balance between citizens who receive services and

power-holders who provide that service. SA means that there should be questions raised. Those

questions will be raised only by citizens who care, and for them to be able to raise useful

questions, information is needed. Thus, SA needs a proper spread of information so that citizens

will raise their questions based on right information not on gossip or rumors . This requires from

authorities, and specially the local agencies, to have channels to spread information. Also, there

should be clear standards for the work of municipalities, standards on things like: recruiting and

project implementation. I also think that when a citizen raises a question, his question must be

answered without confusing information or ambiguity. I think those factors will result in the

proper application of SA as SA does not result in from nothing, but rather from successful civic

participation.

Participant9: My name is Mohammed Mansour, from the municipality of Al-Buraij. As we are

talking about SA, I think one of the most important elements of SA is elections. My question is:

Are we willing to accept the results of elections given the complex situation we have in Palestine?

Participant10: Firstly, to convey information properly to citizens, I hope that the municipality

issue brochures to be delivered to the houses of citizens just like water invoices are conveyed.

Secondly, a strategic plan was created for the municipality of Khan Younis and I was one of the

members of the stakeholder committee, but until now, we have not received the final draft of

this strategic plan. Thirdly, I hope that the municipality will share the strategic plan with all

citizens, for them to be able to know the strategy of the municipality during the next 5 years.

Fourthly, I suggest that the municipality make regular meetings with stakeholder figures from

the city including: highly educated people, women, and youth, for them to be able to propose

ideas that will develop the performance of the municipality. Municipality officials should listen

directly to citizens so they can provide their input before they make their complaints. Finally, we

have to think about how to make SA a part of the culture of the Palestinian society. I hope that

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the ministry of local governance would suggest to the ministry of education the inclusion of SA in

the syllabus of the “National Education” in the preparatory level for them to be raised with this

concept as part of their culture.

Iyad: It is clear that the majority are raising questions to me related to sustainability of the

projects. To be honest, we in the CSOs have problems related to funding. As soon as funding

provided for a project is terminated, we have so limited resources to continue the activities of

the project. But, I said and I emphasize that we have to think about alternatives that do not

required foreign funding. The GIZ will not fund us to eternity. This is why we have to create other

alternatives. The work required to introduce the concept adequately is huge. I will give you one

example; we in the PCDCR are working with the municipality of Rafah and the municipality of Al-

Maghazi. One of the activities that we intend to perform is to re-form the neighborhood

committees. For this to be done, we have to make elections for them, then train them, then follow

up with their performance, and all the meetings and conferences needed for it. All this requires

trained crews to perform those tasks. Such work cannot be achieved with carrying out a one-

workshop. But, I say again CSOs and municipalities should allocate a part of their time, budget,

and personnel for the application of SA. But, I doubt that it will be with the same productivity

when funding is terminated, because the load of work is not small and when we analyze the work

required, we will find that we have considerable expenses to be encountered.

I make two recommendations in the framework of this forum. The first is that CSOs should start

to allocate even a tiny part of their budget to the application of SA when funding is terminated.

The second is for municipalities to include the application of SA in their strategic plans, and to

have SA practically existent in all the measures they take.

Angelita: There are several examples, I would like to cite example of elections. Before elections

we use to have a community gathering and all the candidates will stand, and they will have a

contract with the people. Sometimes people will ask for a kindergarten or whatever is most

important to them. And then the candidates will be asked: Who among you if he wins will

promise this? Of course everyone says yes if they want to win. And they will sign the contract.

Whoever wins will have to be measured by that contract. So, there is information and there is

monitoring. Whoever wins must show: the plan, the budget, to whom it will be contracted, and

when it will be finished. So, there is a continuing basis to tract the promises of politicians. That’s

one example. Another example is to monitor the schools via the internet to check how many

students are there, how many teachers, budget, and how many books, for example.

I ask permission to respond on some of the concerns that came out. One is political

accountability in elections. Election is episodic, it happens after four or six years, that’s political

accountability. Social Accountability is different. SA is what happens between elections. Second,

no accountability can happen without participation and transparency. You just cannot

participate without clear information. You have to have an access to information and information

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must be complete and must be user-friendly. You cannot give me any technical information,

ordinary people cannot understand. So, you have to have participation and information

(transparency) before you can actually have accountability.

Yahya: In regards to the information, information will be shared on the website of the

municipality soon, including the strategic plan. It is the right of the citizen to know the

information he needs while being home, without the need to come to the municipality building.

In regards to listening to citizens, I meet with people in different places and I try to pray in

different mosques so that I can meet as many as I can. But, this of course cannot substitute the

public hearing and this forum is part of those public hearings.

At the end, Ehsan thanked all participants, municipalities, and partner CSOs.

Documents

Final draft sa_forum_khan_younis_13_10_2013