The last summit of the so-called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) almost exactly a year ago saw the unveiling of a compelling call to global humanitarian and development action. The final communiqué envisioned an alliance united by the “overarching common objective of a strong and shared desire for peace and security, contributing significantly to the development of humanity, establishing a more equitable and fair world.”
The BRICS summiteers voiced their strong commitment to the United Nations, with the world body “playing a central role in dealing with global challenges and threats,” so that nations could “achieve peace, stability, prosperity and progress, enjoying their due standing and dignity in the world, according to the legitimate aspirations of their peoples.” Fittingly, it was at that meeting that the BRICS formally admitted South Africa, whose most modern incarnation was born on the struggle for justice, equality and inclusion for all its people.
The BRICS also expressed their “deep concern for the turbulence in the Middle East” and significantly, as they met, the so-called Arab Spring had already begun its course across the region.
The coincidence of these two developments, the Arab Spring and the unveiling of the BRICS global charter, had a particular resonance for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which has worked with some of the most disadvantaged communities in the Middle East for 63 years, delivering services to Palestinian refugees and advocating for the full enjoyment of their rights.
Founded in 1949, UNRWA has programs in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank, assisting almost 5 million Palestinian refugees – those who fled or were forced to flee their homes as a result of the 1948-1949 Arab-Israel conflict, and their descendants. In the aftermath of their flight, the refugees took shelter in tented cities, which today have morphed into impoverished shanties, many deprived of urban and human development.
Most alarmingly, these are spaces deprived of hope, where economic vulnerability, social fragility and political marginalization are acutely felt. However, our job is to provide humanitarian relief and human development opportunities, and it is the political players who must forge a lasting peace, including a just solution to the question of refugees. So while we wait for a peaceful end of the refugees’ plight, based on international law and U.N. resolutions, the U.N. General Assembly has mandated UNRWA to pursue its role – a role that resonates so fittingly with that of the newly unveiled BRICS vision.
UNRWA’s network of primary and preparatory schools have guaranteed widespread access to basic education for refugees across the region, often during times of conflict, providing a vital springboard to higher education. We currently employ some 20,000 teachers educating around 500,000 children in some 700 schools. The agency’s vocational and technical training centers endow thousands of young people each year with marketable skills, enhancing their employability within regional labor markets. Dedicated teacher training colleges have helped UNRWA sustain and expand its education programs, in the face of ever-increasing demand and a growing school-age population.
Prominent among our education initiatives is UNRWA’s program on human rights, conflict resolution and tolerance education, which has been operational for more than a decade. In pursuit of UNRWA’s wider strategic goals and based on universal U.N. values, this program promotes nonviolence, social cohesion, conflict resolution and human rights. It is designed to ensure that refugee children and youth have an appreciation of the need to uphold civic values, understand the role of culture, history and diversity and respect the rights of all citizens, allowing them to make a positive contribution to the development of their societies as adults.
for example, our children are taught as case studies in rights education Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent struggle for justice and the abolition of apartheid in South Africa.
Our microfinance projects have saved tens of thousands from the poverty trap and set them up in a life free from aid dependency. At the other end of the relief and development spectrum, our emergency food and job programs help mitigate the impact of conflict, and of the tense environments in which we often work. In the West Bank and Gaza, where occupation and blockade threaten to deepen marginalization, our programs provide hope for a dignified future.
In Syria, our “Engaging Youth” project, initiated before the current developments, has made major strides in tackling youth unemployment and social exclusion. To date nearly 15,000 young people have directly benefitted from the program, which offers vocational training, promoting entrepreneurship in partnership with the private sector. Our carbon zero, “green school” initiative in Gaza, unveiled at the Durban environment conference last year, also echoes the commitment to “renewable energy as a means to address climate change” that is underlined in the last BRICS communiqué.
Already the BRICS are recognizing the value of partnership with UNRWA and the opportunities we offer for the realization of their global objectives. I applaud Brazil’s most recent contributions of almost $8.5 million and, while looking to deepen our relationship with all the BRICS, I pay tribute to China, India and South Africa who have been donating funds to UNRWA for decades.
With international concerns about instability in the Middle East continuing and with youth demographics showing unrelentingly worrying trends, those partnerships are set become even more important. It is estimated that the number of UNRWA-registered refugees aged 15-29 will rise to over 1.5 million by 2020, or by around 6 percent, with highest rates expected in Gaza.
The burgeoning youth bulge in the Middle East must be a wake-up call as we plan our humanitarian and developmental responses for tomorrow. At a conference planned in Brussels this month, UNRWA will recommit itself to youth by prioritizing its initiatives for young refugees for the next 12 months. This is not tokenism. It is a timetable for action. Together with our partners, in the BRICS and beyond, we will embrace that most pressing global imperative.
UNRWA, with its historic role in assisting Palestinian refugees, coupled with its unparalleled reach to young people within their societies across the Middle East, offers the international community a uniquely effective partnership for engaging youth in a complex, volatile region, while we wait for political solutions. Together with its partners, UNRWA stands with the youth of tomorrow, embracing innovation, entrepreneurialism and green technology, promising dignity and prosperity amid the uncertainty.
Front Page Features