Kick-Starting
Small Enterprise
Through training and financial services, UNDP/PAPP is supporting the
Economic empowerment of women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
hroughout the
West Bank and
Gaza, women
are increasingly
seeking ways
T
in which to help their families
and themselves out of crushing
financial difficulty.With
unemployment on the rise,
currently hovering at around
30 percent according to the
Palestinian Central Bureau
of Statistics (PCBS), some
Palestinian women are finding
themselves in a position where
they have to carry more of the
financial burden. Other women
are actively seeking ways in
which they can be involved in
the workforce to contribute to the
family income, or purely to pursue
activity outside the home.
With the economic empowerment
of Palestinian women in mind,
UNDP/PAPP has launched and
supported a number of projects. In
cooperation with the Palestinian
Agricultural Relief Committees
(PARC), UNDP/PAPP has been
involved in the Rural Women's
Credit and Savings Association.
The project began in 1999, as
a saving and credit programme
to provide economic assistance
to members of a women's
cooperative in the West Bank city
of Jenin. Each month the women
would pay JD10 (Jordanian
dinars) into a fund that was
overseen by a committee, and the
total was disbursed based upon
their needs.
"PARC then began to develop
the project further, based on
international experience,"
explained Nihaya Hammoudeh,
Director of the Capacity Building
Department. "Now, five years
on, following extensive work
on the part of PARC and the
women themselves, the project is
ongoing in 132 locations in the
West Bank and Gaza, involving
5653 women and total funds of
US$1.5 million."
The funds are owned and
overseen by the members of the
cooperatives, who can access the
money for loans for a range of
needs, including starting business
ventures. PARC has been
involved through institutional
capacity building and providing
logistical support to the
cooperatives and has produced a
manual to codify all procedures,
based on their extensive
experience. UNDP/PAPP has
been instrumental in this aspect
of the project, through developing
management information systems
(MIS), as well as providing
hardware for the cooperatives.
"The service is open to all rural
women," said Nihaya. "All you
need is fifteen women or more to
start a group. Each cooperative
has a bank account administered
by the women and overseen by
external auditors. PARC has now
moved into the phase of acting
as consultants to the groups, to
ensure their continued success."
According to Nihaya, women
take loans for a number of
reasons, but one of the most
significant features of the project
is that everything is done on
their terms. Whether they need
financial assistance for health
reasons, for their children's
education, or to jump-start a
business endeavor, members are
given access to funds that would
otherwise not be available.
"One woman in the West Bank
town of Bido' took an initial
loan of JD500, to start a business
selling Jawwal cards [pre-paid
Palestinian mobile network
cards]," Nihaya told Focus.
"With the profits of that business,
she managed to pay off her loan
and borrowed another JD2000 to
start a small grocery shop in the
