ACPP-PHG project funded by European Commission

Emergency action to improve the access of vulnerable rural Palestinian households to a diversified and quality dietRamallah, The Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG) together with the Asamblea de Cooperación por la Paz (ACPP), supported by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Department (EU), are currently implementing a food security project to alleviate the situation of vulnerable families in the Hebron district.

The action is now being launched in the villages of Al Kum, Beit Ula, Idhna and Tarqumiya.  These areas are badly affected by high levels of poverty and unemployment, primarily as a result of the closure, the complicated permit procedures, the confiscation and destruction of land and crops, limited access to water resources, and the expansion of settlements and bypass roads.

A needs assessment carried out by ACPP and PHG found that 44% of household heads in the 4 target areas were unemployed, and that many families were living on less than US$ 1.6 per day. 

Factors affecting poverty and unemployment rates have also undermined coping strategies to raise household income levels. The high price of water, coupled with limited access to agricultural or grazing land (almost 15% of the land in these villages has been confiscated for the construction of settlements and bypass roads), has restricted the possibility of agricultural income-generating activities. 

This has had serious implications for levels of food security.  According to a Joint Rapid Food Security Survey in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (oPt) conducted by the WFP, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Refugee Works Agency (UNRWA) in May 2008, 38% of the Palestinian population is food insecure (compared to 34% in 2006).  In Hebron, the percentage of the population affected by food insecurity stood at 28.5%  in January 2007, while a further 18.2% were vulnerable to food insecurity, 27.2% were marginally secure, and just 26.1% were food secure.

In order to develop sustainable means of re-dressing levels of food insecurity in the Hebron district, the project seeks to support 3,120 people (520 families) through the creation of 368 home gardens managed by men and women, and the construction of 48 rainfall harvesting cisterns that will support the irrigation of these home gardens.  Trainings in cisterns operation and maintenance, composting and home gardening will also be given to beneficiaries to support them in effectively managing and utilising the cisterns and home gardens.  It is expected that 520 families will be healthier and more secure by the end of the project: their self-sufficiency in the production of food products will be increased, their diets will be diversified and of better quality, and will have reduced their expenditure on water.

 ACPP, Asamblea de Cooperación por la Paz, is a Spanish non-governmental organization working in the oPt since 1993 to improve health services, agricultural activities, and water access and sanitation services for vulnerable Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza.

The European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department supports relief activities for vulnerable people in crisis zones around the world.