Representatives of Palestinian NGOs warned of the dire consequences of the slow pace of the reconstruction process in the besieged Gaza Strip; particularly the houses that the Israeli occupation's war-machine completely destroyed during the offensive of summer 2014; thus causing the displacement of thousands of families; who since then have been sheltering in metal caravans and facing extremely difficult and complicated humanitarian conditions.
The NGOs representative’s warnings were raised in a panel discussion organized by the Palestinian NGO's Network (PNGO) in Partnership with the civil society program implemented by (GIZ) to assess the NGOs influence in the reconstruction process and discuss possible strategies to strengthen the NGOs role in the future, various civil society and international originations and different interested stakeholders attended the pane discussion. .
The participants in the panel discussion stressed the need to develop mechanisms and a clear comprehensive plan for the construction of the Gaza Strip to take into account civil society's vision on the reconstruction process and include the reconstruction and repairing of not only a few houses but all the infrastructure and houses that have been destroyed during the three offensives. They called to create a workable effective plan that may offer better opportunities for a better life in Gaza.
According to Amjad Shawa the director of the Palestinian NGO's Network (PNGO), the workshop highlighted the NGOs experience in influencing the reconstruction process and discussed strategies to strengthen the NGOs role making it more effective in the reconstruction of Gaza.
Shawa stated "PNGO continues efforts to pressure all the parties involved in the reconstruction process to speed up the reconstruction considering the need to achieve development and the high rates of unemployment, poverty and food insecurity."
He called for a national partnership and concentrate efforts of all formal and informal sectors to support the Palestinian people on humanitarian grounds.
Shawa demanded the cancelation of the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM) which imposes inequitable conditions on the flow of construction and reconstruction materials into the Gaza Strip and therefore institutionalizes the Israeli blockade and deepens crises.
He called upon the donors to speed up payment the sums pledged in Cairo conference for the reconstruction of Gaza which awaits the reconstruction for the second year after the Israeli offensive of summer 2014.
Nizar Alwazir, civil society program coordinator, said the aim behind holding this discussion under the umbrella of GIZ is to raise the voice of civil society organizations not only in the issue of Gaza reconstruction but in all the relating matters.
He pointed out that the discussion held as a part of NGOs initiative in cooperation with GIZ with an aim to increase the capacity of civil society organization to coordinate and communicate with each other and raise their capacity for lobbying and advocacy.
Regarding the panel discussion, Alwazir said, "The discussion isn't held as a part of a project or programme, but as a mean to dialogue with the various NGOs sectors and stakeholders to raise the voice of NGOs and promote their role and active participation in the reconstruction process."
Bashir Al-Rayyes, coordinator of the National Team for the Reconstruction of Gaza, pointed out that the year 2015 witnessed a slowdown in donor states fulfillment for their obligations in the Cairo Conference which intuitively led to decrease in donor funding and delayed the intended interventions in the reconstruction process.
He pointed out that according to latest statistical updates, the donor states in the Cairo conference pledged $1.409 million; which accounts for about 40% of the real amount pledged for the reconstruction of Gaza which equaled $3.5 billion, and accounts for 27.7% of the total amount pledged in Cairo which equaled $5.082 billion.
According to Al-Rayyes, the number of the beneficiaries from construction materials after the reset of the reconstruction mechanism (GRM), mounted to 156 thousand including the owners of totally and partially destroyed houses "non-affected families", houses with sheltering families, and almost finished houses of non-affected families. He also noted that 934 large scale projects have been registered in the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism to benefit from the reconstruction materials.
He went on saying, "what matters people is housing and the reconstruction of the destroyed houses, so that these two issues require more attention by the international donors, '' adding '' There are about 11 thousand completely and other 6.800 seriously damaged and uninhabitable houses as well as 5.700 partially damaged inhabitable houses and other 147.500 slightly damaged houses."
Al-Rayyes noted that funds have been provided for repairing of 90.000 partially damaged houses and the reconstruction of 6.955 completely destroyed houses which approximately equal to 63% of the total entirely destroyed houses.
"An approximate number of 5.153 economic facilities were destroyed which raised the economic loss to $152 million," said he.
He also stated that ''some 3.195 owners of slightly affected economic facilities already received their compensation out of Qatari grant. Moreover, other $15.6 million granted from Qatar Foundation and Kuwait are underway to be distributed soon,'' said Al-Rayyes.
At the end of the panel discussion, the participants called upon the special committee for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip to pressure the donors to speed up their contributions, and called upon the international community to fully lift the blockade on Gaza Strip