A slogan raised by the Dura Municipality in Hebron district read: “We participate…we discuss…we decide” during its first public meeting towards the formulation of participatory budgeting. The municipality held the meeting in partnership with MIFTAH and local community organizations and was attended by several Dura citizens.
Participatory budgeting as an approach
The meeting was opened with a presentation by municipality engineer Ala’ Sweiti on the definition of participatory budgeting. She stressed on the importance of adopting this approach in preparing budgets, citing the benefits on the community and on local bodies.
Sweiti said the Dura Municipality and all of its teams, namely the budgetary team, had adopted the participatory approach in preparing the 2016 budget. She pointed out the skills gained by the municipality teams and members in addition to a number of civil society institutions in Dura from the training they received, saying this was reflected in the technical and professional aspects of managing public money and in maintaining standards of budget transparency, accountability and integrity measures. In this respect, MIFTAH conducted training on participatory and citizen budgets as part of its “Budget Monitoring, Tax Justice and citizens’ participation in oPt” which is implemented in partnership with Civil society organizations and funded by OXFAM-Novib. The goal was to promote the municipality Budget team’s understanding in dealing with these concepts and to give them the necessary tools to develop the municipality’s budgets on this basis. This is all within the framework of support towards adopting a participatory and interactive approach between the municipality and the community. In this way, the municipality will be able to interact with the new concepts and develop a social participatory approach in developing financial policies.
Local communities' priorities
The municipality invited the local community to participate in the various stages of preparing the 2016 budget in order to guarantee that the community’s priorities were reflected in the municipality’s financial policies for years to come. They also wanted the community to be informed about its responsibilities in terms of increasing local revenues especially in order to support developmental expenditures.
Municipality accountant Aqel Abu Qrendal then took the floor, giving a detailed description of financial reports, including the municipality’s revenues and expenditures for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. He explained the course of revenues and expenditures for 2015 as of the end of October.
Promoting the principles of monitoring and accountability
Moreover, engineer Fayez Sweiti, head of the “Hand in hand towards a corruption-free homeland” association, stressed on the important role of the local community and its official local bodies to promote social participation, which would then be a guarantee for safeguarding the principles of transparency, monitoring and social accountability in combating corruption and promoting the principle of integrity.
Community Participation Unit
While Engineer Salah Raba'i, a member of the municipal council, said that the municipality is considering the establishment of a unit or specialized committee in community participation and budget participatory to ensure the institutionalization of this work within the local authority. The unit will comprise a budget preparation team, members of the local authority, and civil society representatives.
The floor was then open for discussion. The townspeople brought up several issues, particularly the Dura Hospital project, which had been first proposed 20 years ago but had never materialized. Others called on citizens to contribute in preparing the budget, especially the development budget, the role of which is to guarantee new financial income for the municipality to help it implement projects such as: establishing outdoor markets and public plazas and parking lots with symbolic fees.
The speakers also called for more attention to be paid to special-needs persons in Dura. They called on the municipality to encourage investments and to set up micro-projects.
Such meetings were a good platform for people to express their priorities and needs.
بالشراكة مع 'مفتاح': لقاء جماهيري في بلدية دورا حول الموازنة التشاركية وموازنة المواطن
تاريخ النشر: 05/11/2015
بقلم: مفتاح
رام الله – "نشارك.. نحاور.. نقرر" ، عنوان لافت رفعته بلدية دورا بمحافظة الخليل في أول لقاء جماهيري لها حول الموازنة التشاركية، والذي نفذ بالشراكة مع مؤسسة "مفتاح"، ومؤسسات المجتمع المحلي، وبحضور عدد من المواطنين والمواطنات من مدينة دورا، وذلك بعد الدعوة العامة التي وجهتها البلدية للمجتمع المحلي بالخصوص.
الموازنة التشاركية كنهج
واستهلت الجلسة، بعرض قدمته مهندسة البلدية ألاء سويطي، حول تعريف الموازنة التشاركية، مشددة على أهمية اعتماد هذا النهج من إعداد الموازنات، والفوائد التي تعود على المجتمع المحلي وكذلك الفوائد التي قد تجنيها الهيئات المحلية.
وأشارت مهندسة البلدية خلال اللقاء إلى أن بلدية دورا بأعضائها وأطقم عملها المختلفة وبالأخص فريق إعداد الموازنة تبنى النهج التشاركي في إعداد الموازنة للعام 2016، منوهة إلى المهارات التي اكتسبها أعضاء وفريق البلدية، بالإضافة إلى عدد من مؤسسات المجتمع المدني في دورا من خلال التدريب المتخصص الذي تلقاه المستهدفون ، والذي انعكس بمكتسبات على المستوى الفني والمهني في إدارة المال العام، والحرص على معايير الشفافية والمساءلة والوقاية في التعامل مع الأمور المالية المتعلقة بموازنة الهيئة المحلية، حيث كانت المبادرة الفلسطينية لتعميق الحوار العالمي والديمقراطية "مفتاح" قد نفذت تدريباً متخصصاً حول الموازنة التشاركية وموازنة المواطن، وذلك في إطار برنامج "تفعيل المشاركة المجتمعية في الرقابة على الموازنة العامة والإصلاح الضريبي" الذي تنفذه "مفتاح" بدعم من أوكسفام نوفب، مستهدفة فريق إعداد الموازنة في بلدية دورا، وذلك بهدف تعزيز فهم وتعامل الفريق مع المفاهيم ذات العلاقة، وامتلاكهم الأدوات اللازمة لتطوير الموازنات الخاصة بالبلدية على هذا الأساس، وفي إطار الدعم باتجاه تبني نهج تشاركي تفاعلي ما بين البلدية من جهة والمجتمع الحلي من جهة أخرى، وضمان ذلك من خلال تنفيذ فترة متابعة عملية لفريق الموازنة في البلدية وهم عل رأس عملهم، وتحديداً في ذروة عمل البلدية على تطوير موازنة العام القادم، وذلك من خلال فريق عمل متخصص من قبل "مفتاح" في هذا الإطار، وذلك لضمان تفاعل وتعاطي فريق البلدية مع المفاهيم التي تم اكتسابها خلال العملية التدريبية، وتطوير النهج التشاركي المجتمعي في تطوير ورسم السياسات المالية الخاصة بها.
أولويات المجتمع المحلي
وكانت البلدية قد وجهت دعوة أثناء اللقاء إلى مشاركة المجتمع المحلي خلال المراحل المختلفة لعملية إعداد الموازنة للعام 2016، لضمان انعكاس أولويات المجتمع المحلي في رسم السياسة المالية للهيئة المحلية للسنوات القادمة، ولاطلاع المجتمع المحلي على المسؤوليات الملقاة على عاتقه في زيادة الإيرادات خاصة المحلية، وذلك لدعم البنود المتعلقة بالنفقات التطويرية والإنمائية.
بعد ذلك، قدم محاسب البلدية عقل أبو قرندل شرحا مفصلا للتقارير المالية، متضمنة إيرادات ونفقات البلدية خلال الأعوام 2012، 2013، و2014، كما قدم شرحا منفصلا لمسار الإيرادات والنفقات للعام 2015 حتى نهاية شهر تشرين الأول.
تعزيز مبدأ الشفافية والرقابة
بدوره، أكد المهندس فايز السويطي، رئيس جمعية "يدا بيد نحو وطن خال من الفساد"، على الأهمية التي تقع على المجتمع المحلي، وهيئاته المحلية في تعزيز المشاركة المجتمعية لتكون الضامن لتعزيز مبدأ الشفافية والرقابة والمساءلة المجتمعية في مكافحة الفساد وتعزيز مبدأ النزاهة.
وحدة خاصة بالمشاركة المجتمعية
بينما قال المهندس صلاح ربعي، عضو مجلس بلدي دورا، أن البلدية تدرس إنشاء لجنة أو وحدة خاصة بالمشاركة المجتمعية والموازنة التشاركية لضمان مأسسة العمل داخل الهيئة المحلية، على أن تضم فريق إعداد الموازنة، وأعضاء من الهيئة المحلية، وممثلين عن مؤسسات المجتمع المدني بفئاته المختلفة.
وتخلل اللقاء طرح العديد من القضايا من قبل أهالي البلدة، ومن أبرزها مشروع مستشفى دورا، الذي طرح قبل عشرين عاما كمشروع ولم ينفذ، فيما دعا آخرون إلى أن يساهم المواطن في إعداد الموازنة خاصة الموازنة الإنمائية، بما يؤمن للبلدية مدخولات مالية جديدة تساعدها في تنفيذ بعض المشاريع، مثل: إقامة أسواق شعبية وساحات عامة، وأماكن وقوف للسيارات مقابل رسوم رمزية يدفعها المواطن، ما يوفر للمواطنين بعض ضرورياتهم واحتياجاتهم.
كما طالب متحدثون بالاهتمام أكثر بالأشخاص ذوي الإعاقة، حيث توجد نسبة مرتفعة من هذه الإعاقات، ودعوة البلدية لتشجيع الاستثمار وإنشاء المشاريع الصغيرة، مؤكدين على أهمية هذه اللقاءات كونها تتيح المجال للمواطنين في تحديد أولوياتهم واحتياجاتهم الخدماتية.
MIFTAH releases 2021-2022 comparative actual spending reports for the social and security sectors, including social justice and gender indicators
Date posted: April 04, 2023
By MIFTAH
MIFTAH recently released 2021-2022 comparative actual spending reports for the social sector (health, education, higher education and scientific research, social development and labor), and for the first time, the security sector (Ministry of Interior and National Security). The reports were based on annual financial data released by the Ministry of Finance in Palestine for 2021-2022 and on an accrual basis.
The data showed that the Ministry of Interior and National Security had the highest percentage of actual spending in 2022, accounting for 22.8% of overall public expenditures, or ILS3.68 billion. This was a slight increase from the Ministry’s share in 2021. Meanwhile, actual spending on the education sector (Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Scientific Research) stood at 21.5% of overall public expenditures, or ILS3.48 billion. This was also an increase from the education sector’s share in 2021, which was 20.6% of public expenditures.
Moreover, actual spending on the Ministry of Health also increased in 2022, comprising 15% of overall public expenditures, at a sum of ILS2.4 billion. This was higher than in 2021, where its share was 14.4%. As for the Ministry of Social Development, actual spending was still low, amounting for 6.2% of overall public expenditures in 2022, compared to 5.8% in 2021. The Ministry of Social Development’s actual spending in 2022 was approximately ILS1 billion. As for the labor sector, actual spending on this sector in 2022 was 0.31% of overall public expenditures, while in 2021 it was 0.28%. Actual spending on the labor sector in 2022 was ILS50.1 million.
Upon review of actual spending reports of the targeted ministries from a gender and social justice perspective, it is clear that actual spending on the Ministry of Social Development does not coincide with the scope of its responsibilities as the forerunner of the social sector in Palestine, including its programs for combatting poverty and the protection of poor and marginalized social sectors. Moreover, non-compliance to the disbursement of payments for poor families within the CTP continued according to estimates, whereby only two of four installments for 2022 were disbursed, one at minimum value. This adversely affected the financial security of the most underprivileged and marginalized sectors of society, in addition to the insufficient estimated budget and actual spending on the social protection program, in spite of its importance in providing protection and social services to battered women, children, special-needs persons and the elderly.
The data also pointed to the low percentage of women working in the security sector, which stood at 6% of the total number of workers in this sector, while they comprised 46% of the civil sector. This shows a gap in actual spending on the security sector from a gender perspective, given that the lion’s share of actual spending in 2022 was on salaries and wages. Hence, women only benefited very little from these allocations, which were nearly ILS2.9 billion in 2022.
The data also indicated that the development expenditures for the Ministry of Labor were only ILS4.5 million in 2022, even though planned development expenditures were ILS32 million, which is much higher. This casts a shadow on gender-related programs and projects, which were allotted sizeable budgets within development expenditures, such as creating sustainable opportunities as alternatives for Palestinian men and women working in settlements, for which ILS10 million were earmarked.
Even though there was an increase in actual spending in 2022 at the targeted ministries in general, this increase was mainly concentrated on salaries and wages. In spite of the importance of providing a decent life for employees, there is still a need to increase spending on development expenditures, since they are at the forefront of developing government services, including the nationalization and institutionalization of various social services.
MIFTAH concludes town hall meetings on political participation and citizens’ rights for women and youth
Date posted: January 09, 2023
By MIFTAH
Ramallah – 29/12/2022 – Within its efforts to promote democratic values and the peaceful transfer of power within the Palestinian government system, MIFTAH’s field advisory team completed over 100 town hall meetings in the second half of 2022. The meetings were held in coordination and cooperation with CSOs, LGUs and grassroots organizations and targeted women and youth in several West Bank and Gaza Strip districts. The objective of these meetings was to raise awareness among the electorate on the electoral system in Palestine and on civil society demands to increase women and youth participation in local and general elections as candidates and voters, on the premise that this boosts their presence in decision-making levels and involves them in public affairs.
The town hall meetings included several exchange visits between LGU members in the various districts. The women shared the experiences and challenges they faced after becoming council members. The meetings focused on the concept of citizenship within a broader definition of the various forms of political participation and the importance of involvement from youth and women in public life. They also pointed to the different forms of democracy and the main pillars of the democratic society Palestinians seek to create. The participants furthermore discussed the various forms of electoral systems and shed light on the gaps in electoral laws regarding the presence of women and youth.
The participants pointed to the importance of periodic legislative and presidential elections and the danger of the ongoing absence of the PLC on matters pertaining to civic peace. They also warned against the absence of oversight and accountability, maintaining that the defunct PLC has contributed to shrinking civic space and public freedoms and therefore, the ability or desire to become involved in political life, especially for women and youth. In most of the meetings, the participants also indicated that the absence of a regular democratic process in Palestine contributed to the overall exclusion of youth from participation and to the marginalization of the role of women in Palestinian political decision-making.
The town hall meetings stressed on the importance of pressing for legislative, presidential and local elections in all West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip districts. They also endorsed the demand for equality in electoral laws, starting with raising the women’s quota to a minimum of 30%, raising the candidacy age and lowering the threshold. They urged Palestinian factions to assume a key role in the process of inclusion for women and youth in the public sphere and to prevent the progression of tribalism in the democratic process. The attendees emphasized the importance of monitoring the performance of LGUs in their interaction with local communities and the consistency of their meetings. Finally, they said female council members must be given the opportunity to exercise their role in their respective councils as equals to their male counterparts.
MIFTAH holds town hall meetings on an annual basis as part of its awareness campaign on citizens’ rights and the promotion of the democratic approach for a peaceful transfer of power, in addition to the involvement of women and youth in elections as both candidates and voters. Each year, through these town hall meetings, MIFTAH aims to reach the widest possible segment of the electorate and the different social sectors in all parts of Palestine.
MIFTAH completes training workshop in the Gaza Strip on family protection and advocacy
Date posted: January 05, 2023
By MIFTAH
Gaza – 2/1/2023 – MIFTAH recently completed a training workshop on measures and regulations on family protection in the Gaza Strip. The workshop was part of MIFTAH’s strategic objectives to prioritize family issues in communities and to support local institutions in increasing awareness on citizenship and constitutional rights for Palestinian women and on combatting all forms of GBV and discrimination in Palestinian society.
The workshop’s objectives included providing institutions with important information on the legislations, laws and measures for family protection in effect in the Gaza Strip, in a bid to enhance the oversight role of CSOs in holding accountable official parties responsible for enforcing these measures and legislations. The training also included offering institutions the necessary mechanisms for managing digital and media campaigns to press for the ratification of laws and legislation that protect women’s rights.
The discussions focused on a number of points, including legal (including sharia law) rebuttals to claims from parties opposing legislation, including the Family Protection Law. They also discussed how applicable this law would be in the Gaza Strip once ratified by the President.
The participants unanimously agreed that they supported adoption of the law, giving no credence to the claims of more extreme elements in Gaza on the Family Protection Law. They called on MIFTAH to hold general, open meetings with the public to introduce them to the law and its importance, so that they could defend themselves from the extremist discourse surrounding it.
Opinions and impressions
One of the participants, Latifa Shatat, said such training workshops were crucial for every Palestinian, male and female. “It is great we are pressing for protection laws such as the Family Protection Bill. This law will have tremendous impact on society as a whole. I can say from experience as a social and mental health worker that protection is the most important element in our work, especially in cases involving women and children, who are the most vulnerable social sectors. I commend MIFTAH and anyone who participates in spreading a culture of nonviolence, protection, justice and equality.”
Meanwhile, Haifa Al Araj said the training offered important details about the Family Protection Law and also ways of conducting initiatives and activities that could produce positive results in mobilizing support it.
Another participant, Hatem Abu Ta’a, said the training was a new starting point for him as an institution director in terms of integrating the demand to implement the Family Protection Law in all advocacy and lobbying activities and programs. He said he became more aware of the impediments to the law’s implementation at the official and social level, saying, “This training reminds us to renew our calls to demand implementation and ratification of the law at the official level.”
Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abu Rabee said ratification of the Family Protection Law would be a huge step, for women and children especially. “This law will amplify women’s voices and their ability to access help with stronger and more supportive centers throughout the homeland. As a strong supporter of this bill, I want to stress on the importance of civil society institutions explaining the clauses in the bill pertaining to CEDAW and to also focus on working with parties that oppose the law in particular.”
The training workshop is part of MIFTAH’s “Policy dialogue and Good Governance” Program, which aims at influencing public policies and legislation in favor of protection for citizens’ rights in Palestinian society, based on the principles of social justice and respect for human rights.
