2020 oPt Emergency Appeal - Gaza - Emergency Cash-for-Work

Through its CfW programme, UNRWA will support refugees coping with exceptionally high unemployment and poverty levels in Gaza, and will mitigate food insecurity through offering short-term employment opportunities to approximately 21,000 food-insecure Palestine refugees. These will equal more than 2,150,000 workdays and will inject over US$ 26 million into refugee households, generating 7,500 full-time job equivalents (FTEs), contributing to the mitigation of poverty through a temporary reduction in unemployment. An estimated 101,000 dependents will benefit indirectly. The short-term job opportunities will include unskilled, skilled, and professional positions, with a majority being unskilled positions. Priority will be given to applicants from households that have been assessed as abject poor. Other criteria such as applicants? skills and qualifications, location, age and gender will also be taken into consideration. Only one member of a given household is eligible for cash for work contract at a time. UNRWA aims to provide 40 per cent of skilled and professional job opportunities to women, and about 40 per cent of all CfW opportunities to youth (18 to 29 years old). In order to ensure that the benefits of this intervention are spread widely across the refugee community, contracts for unskilled positions are offered for a period of three to four months and contracts for skilled positions are offered for a period of up to nine months. CfW positions will be located in a number of locations throughout Gaza, including UNRWA installations, partner community-based organisations (CBOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and other service providers. UNRWA CfW monitoring team, in coordination with field programmes and departments, will ensure appropriate placement of refugees and will monitor work attendance and performance. Under the 2020 EA, UNRWA is seeking increased financial support to CfW interventions as compared with the 2019 EA, given the deteriorating socio-economic conditions that continue to have a negative impact on the life of Palestine refugees in Gaza. In 2019, UNRWA recorded a three-fold increase in the number of new applications for short-term employment, reflecting exceptionally high unemployment rates and confirming the high demand for temporary job opportunities. Currently, the average waiting time for a family on the CfW waiting list is over four years.