A UN assessment suggests that a comprehensive recovery and reconstruction plan, combining humanitarian aid with strategic investments in recovery and reconstruction along with lifting economic restrictions, could help put the Palestinian economy back on track to realign with Palestinian development plans by 2034. The impact of the year-long war in Gaza and escalations in the West Bank has set development in the State of Palestine back by about 69 years, according to a new UN report released on Tuesday.
‘Without lifting economic restrictions, enabling recovery, and investing in development, the Palestinian economy may not be able to restore pre-war levels and advance forward by relying on humanitarian aid alone,’ Gaza war: Expected socioeconomic impacts on the State of Palestine, concludes, produced by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA).
But, this scenario can only play out if recovery efforts are unrestricted, said UNDP Administrator Achi
m Steiner.
‘Projections in this new assessment confirm that amidst the immediate suffering and horrific loss of life, a serious development crisis is also unfolding – one that jeopardises the future of Palestinians for generations to come,’ he said.
‘The assessment indicates that, even if humanitarian aid is provided each year, the economy may not regain its pre-crisis level for a decade or more.”
As conditions on the ground allow, he said, the Palestinian people need a robust early recovery strategy embedded in the humanitarian assistance phase, laying foundations for a sustainable recovery.
Building on findings published in November and May, the report estimates that poverty in Palestine will rise to 74.3 percent in 2024, affecting 4.1 million people, including 2.61 million people who are newly impoverished.
The assessment also examines the extent and depth of deprivation, employing multidimensional poverty indicators and includes recovery prospects for Palestine after a ceasefire is reached as well as
three early recovery scenarios.
In addition to $280 million in humanitarian aid, $290 million is allocated annually for recovery efforts, resulting in an increase in productivity by one per cent annually, enabling the economy to recover and putting Palestinian development back on track.
Source: Emirates News Agency