Final draft sa_forum_khan_younis_13_10_2013

Prepared by:
Mo’min Abu Nada
Mohammed Yaghi

Issued Oct. 13, 2013

The first Social Accountability Forum in Khan Younis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FORUM OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................... 1
ATTENDANCE .................................................................................................................... 2
OPENING SPEECHES ......................................................................................................... 4
PANEL DISCUSSIONS ........................................................................................................ 5
WORLD CAFÉ ..................................................................................................................... 7
WORKSHOPS ...................................................................................................................... 8
LESSONS LEARNED ........................................................................................................... 9
RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................................................................... 10

1


Forum overview
The Social Accountability Forum is part of
the promotion plan of the Local
Governance
and
Civil
Society
Development Program (LGP) of Deutsche
Gesellschaft
für
Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Palestine. The
overall goal of the LGP is improving
Municipal basic services and enhancing the
responsiveness to citizens.
The mechanisms of Social Accountability
(SA) are considered quite crucial to
increasing the level of responsiveness of the
municipalities towards the citizens. SA has
also an added value for municipalities and
their communities firstly, as it contributes to
enhancing the principles of Credibility of
government, Empowerment of Citizens,
Development and Effectiveness of Service
Provision, and Good Governance. Secondly,
the efforts of including citizens in municipal
planning, implementation and monitoring
processes need to be rewarded with a
tangible ‘return on investment’.
LGP initiated its intervention on March 2013
to pilot different mechanisms of Social
Accountability. Building on the piloting
experiences, the LGP will extract lessons
learned to further institutionalize wellfunctioning SA mechanisms on the local
level.
LGP has organized 4 SA Forums in 4
municipalities in the Palestinian Territories;
the first being in Nablus on September 28,
2013; the second in Ramallah on September
29, 2013; the third in Hebron on October 1,

2013; and finally in Khan Younis on October
2, 2013. This report aims to summarize
activities
conducted,
speeches
said,
discussions held, and recommendations of
the forum in Khan Younis.
GIZ organized the forum in partnership with
the municipality of Khan Younis as well as
five local civil society organizations (CSOs).
Those CSOs are the same partner
organizations of the LGP. They include: The
Palestinian Centre for Democracy and
Conflict Resolution (PCDCR); Bunian
Association for Training, Evaluation, and
social Studies (BUNIAN); Life and Hope
Association;
the
Palestinian
Youth
Association for Leadership And Rights
Activation
(PYALARA);
and
AISHA
Association for Woman and Child Protection
(AISHA). The forum was conducted also with
the presence of The Coalition for
Accountability and Integrity (AMAN).
The forum started with speeches from the
manager of the municipality of Khan Younis
and the representative of the partner CSOs,
and then included two activities to present
the concept of SA in a comedy-based way.
Afterwards, panel discussion was started
allowing audience to raise questions about
the concept of SA and the challenges that
faces the application of SA in Palestine in
general and in the city of Khan Younis in
particular. The panel discussion was
followed by two workshops about two
projects being piloted as part of the LGP; the
first one being about the pilot project of
social accountability; and the second one
being about the pilot project: Youth Create
Change. Simultaneously with conducting the
1

workshops, an activity of World Cafe was
carried out that provided a further
opportunity for participants to ask and know
more about the concept of SA and its main
four pillars. The forum was finalized with
thanking all participants, and by submitting
the second award for the social
accountability photo competition to the
winner.

Attendance
According to the entry registration
documents, it was revealed that the total
number of people who attended the forum
was 408.
The variation in attendants’ gender as well
as the organizations they represent is a
significant point of consideration. This is
considered vital to the achievement of
objectives of the forum to share the concept
of SA with citizens from both sexes, as well
as people from various stakeholders. Age
variation of attending audience was also
clear. Participants’ ages varied from being
18 years old to old people in their 70s.
Unfortunately, the entry registration
documents did not require attendants to
mention their age, consequently, it was not
possible to make a comprehensive analysis
on the age variation of the attendants.
However, the variation is clear, and this
conclusion is based on direct observations as
well as estimates from the municipality of
Khan Younis and partner NGOs.
Such
conclusion is also based on the variance of
the types of people who attended from youth
coming from youth organizations to

community traditional leaders who are, as
known about the society of the Gaza Strip,
mostly older than 60 years old.
Two important aspects about attendants are:
the gender distribution, and the agencies or
sectors that attendants are representing or
are working for. Based on the information
revealed from the entry registration, and as
represented in figure1, 58% of attendants
were males and 42% were females.

Gender Distribution of
Attendent audience
42%
Female
Male
58%

Figure 1:
Attendants.

Gender

Distribution

of

The percentage of female attendance is
quite successful given the male-dominant
culture in Palestine. Such participation of
females is considered vital for the success of
introducing SA properly to citizens. In
regards to the distribution of attendants
according to the sectors they represent,
three main categories of sectors were
measured as per the sectors related to the
success of the application of SA in local
governance. Those three sectors were:
Municipalities; NGOs; and media. Once more
the entry registration was used to conclude
such facts and the result is given by figure2.

2


Attendance
Distribution in regards
to Sector
60%

Municipality
NGOs
Media
Other

17%
20%
3%

Figure 2: Distribution of attendants in
regards to sectors.
The fact that 60% of attendants are from
NGOs indicates that NGOs are significantly
successful in mobilizing citizens to
participate in such events. It is essential to
mention that the 60% number does not
consist of attendants coming from partner
CSOs only, but rather from other NGOs as
well. Those NGOs include, amongst others:
AMAN coalition for accountability and
transparency; the UNDP; The Red Crescent
Society; the Palestinian Society for
Traditional leaders; and some local sport
clubs in the governorate of Khan Younis.
The participation of other municipalities in
the forum was clearly noticed. The 17%
number is not calculated for the attendants
only from the municipality of Khan Younis
but from other municipalities in the Gaza
strip as well. Other municipalities included:
Rafah; Al-Maghazi; Bani Sohaila; Al-Qarara;
Al-Mosaddar; Al-Buraij; Khoza’a; Bet
Hanoun; Bet Lahia; Der Al-Balah; and AlNosairat. The participation of Mayors and
municipality
council
members
was

significant. This participation provides an
indication that those municipalities have a
tendency to know more about SA and to
apply its mechanisms in their municipalities.
Media was significantly present. At least two
radio stations, two satellite channels, and
one private film making company attended.
The forum was lively streamed on one radio
station and one TV Channel. Such an interest
of local media to cover the first SA forum in
Palestine may provide a positive indicator
that media can be utilized, in the way it
should, to maximize the impact of SA in
Palestine.

Figure 3: Significant participation of traditional community
leaders and neighborhood committees.

Attendants who were not part of the
previously mentioned categories were
normal citizens that probably wanted to
participate to know more about SA, or are
interested in enhancing the performance of
their municipality. Some of them were
students, some were lawyers, some were
university instructors and some were
unemployed.

3


Opening Speeches
General Director of the municipality of
Khan Younis, Mr. Mohammed Al Agha.
Mr. Al Agha started by welcoming the guests
and thanking them for coming. He
emphasized the importance of SA in local
governance in Palestine and explained some
of the measures taken by the municipality of
Khan Younis to apply SA. He also explained
about the benefits a municipality can obtain
if it was committed to the principle of SA.

Figure 4: Mr. Mohammed Al-Agha General Director of the
municipality of Khan Younis

Executive manager of the PCDCR, Mr. Iyad
Abu Hjayyer.
Mr. Abu Hjayyer spoke as a representative of
the NGOs who are partners to the SA project.
His speech was directly after presenting the
introductory film produced by GIZ to inform
community about the project of SA. He
began his speech saying: “I hope that this film
and this project will constitute an initiation
for the reunification of the two wings of
Palestine, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”
He, then, explained to the audience that SA

has two goals: the first being political which
is not to misuse the power by powerholders; and the second being operational to
enhance the quality of services provided by
local agencies.
He explained that
Accountability should be understood as a
social contract between citizens and powerholders in local agencies, whether the
power-holder was elected or assigned, that
they should be in full commitment to the
transparent standards that must be fulfilled
to ensure the best service provision to
citizens. Having said that, he emphasized
that the horizontal accountability, of having
different institutions of the state or the local
agency to monitor each other, is important
but it cannot substitute the other
accountability form; the vertical form of
having citizens monitor the performance of
power-holders by elections.
On his explanation for the rule of civil
society organizations (CSOs), he explained
that CSOs have two main rules: the first is to
complement the work of government and
local agencies for the better service for the
citizens; and the second is to positively
monitor the performance of the government.
Such an understanding of this integral rule
between civil society and government
should, as he stated, be the basis for
cooperation between the two sectors. He
emphasized also that the concept of civil
society is not limited to the civil society
organizations but rather includes all other
non-governmental
bodies
such
as
syndicates; workers unions; students
unions; women coalitions; as well as political
parties.
4

The horizontal accountability, of having
different institutions of the state or the local
agency to monitor each other, is important but it
cannot substitute the other accountability form;
the vertical forms of having citizens monitor the
performance of power-holders by elections,
says: Mr. Iyad Abu Hjayyer.

In his diagnosis for the problem between
government and local agencies on one side
and civil society bodies on the other, he
stated that: The problem of insufficient
cooperation between CSOs and local agencies,
or government, that we have in the Gaza Strip
is caused by the fact that government
anticipates that CSOs will perform their first
rule (complementing the work of government
by providing services) and not the second
(monitoring the performance of government).
Also, CSOs have failed to perform their first
rule of complementing the work of
government and local agencies and intend
only to perform the second part of
monitoring. Such a status would not result in
the proper status of cooperation between
government and civil society. CSOs should
have a memorandum signed with their
related governmental bodies or local agencies
describing the rules of each and the
commitments of each. CSOs should take a step
towards government despite the limitations
imposed on them by donors and
governmental and local units should take
steps, not only one, towards CSOs.
Clarifying the advantages of applying SA in
Palestine,
he explained:
firstly, SA
strengthens the mutual trust between citizens

and
decision
makers.
Secondly,
a
participating citizen is an asset and an
advantage for the state and we have to
strengthen this feeling of responsibility in
citizens. Thirdly, when a municipality or a
governmental agency participate the decision
making process with citizens by the various
participation tools, citizens will be supporters
to the municipality or the governmental
agency not an enemy to it due to the fact that
they would understand the limitations and
capabilities that the decision was based on.
Fourthly, SA provides a transparency
platform for the local agency to inform
citizens about its plans; projects; and
timetables. This would make criticism by
citizens based on this information spread
which was, by the way, one of the secrets for
the success of holding power-holders
accountable in Turkey.

Panel Discussions
Discussion was held at the forum where
audience was allowed to raise questions to
the main guests and also to make
interventions and suggestions related to: the
concept of SA, mechanisms of SA, possible
strategies to make the application of SA in
5

the municipality successful, and the extent to
which the municipality of Khan Younis was
committed to SA. The main guests for the
discussion were: the mayor of Khan Younis,
Mr. Yahya Al-Astal; the executive manager of
the PCDCR, Mr. Iyad Abu Hjayyer; and the
member of the department of social welfare
and development in the republic of the
Philippines, Mrs. Angelita Gregorio-Medel.
The discussion was moderated by Ehsan Abu
Obaida, project coordinator for the SA
project in Bunian Association.
The discussion started with an introduction
by Ehsan about the objective of the
discussion and the main topics to be
discussed. The first three questions were
raised by Ehsan to the three guests, the first
being about the extent SA is really applied so
far at the municipality of Khan Younis, the
second being about the role of CSOs in the
application of SA in Palestine, and the third
being how can we, in Palestine, benefit from
the experience of applying SA in the
Philippines?
After those three questions were answered,
audience was given the chance to raise
questions. The questions raised were related
to the extent citizens think the municipality
is really applying SA, the extent to which SA
is applicable in Palestine, the legal
framework that can be used to apply SA, the
elections, the sustainability of the project of
SA, the awareness building of citizens in
regards to SA, and examples of
methodologies related to SA, that were
applied in other countries that we can
benefit from in Palestine.

Suggestions raised by audience were related
to methodologies to share information by
the municipality, methodologies to enhance
the culture of SA in new generations, and
voluntarily supportive mechanisms by youth
to the municipality.

Figure 5: Side of the Panel Discussions

The discussions revealed that the mayor of
Khan Younis has a different understanding
of SA, which is listening to citizens’
complaints only. He also avoided answering
questions raised directly to him that are
related to SA. He explained that the
municipality has received 1600 complaints
and 85% of which were replied to. He
certified that the strategic plan of the
municipality and other information will be
shared on the municipality website soon.
Mr. Iyad explained, throughout the
discussions, the challenges that face the
application of SA in the Gaza Strip. He also
explained that the role of CSOs in applying
SA is integrative and complementary to the
role of the government by awareness
building and training. As discussions were
going, in a serious way, towards the criticism
of the political party that is assigning
municipality councils in the Gaza Strip, he
6

explained that SA will not be as successful if
we intend to use it for political interests. He
emphasized that SA should be used only for
the sake of better service provision by local
agencies. The issue of the sustainability of
the project of SA was raised many times,
and, as a result, Mr. Iyad explained the
amount of work needed for the intended
change in culture and municipality
procedures to adequately apply SA. He also
made a recommendation that both CSOs and
municipalities allocate a portion of their
budgets, time, strategic plans, and
employees to continue the efforts to raise
the culture of SA if funding was terminated.
According to him, there are positive
indicators that imply a positive change in the
culture of SA.
Mrs. Angelita explained some methodologies
and approaches applied in other countries
that have, somehow, similar situations to the
situation in Palestine. She explained about
the secret of having organized people to
claim their rights (people power). She
explained that SA is not about individuals
claiming their needs, but it must be
organized citizens who are capable of
producing data and launching their
advocacies. She explained that SA is a new
concept that requires so much media and
uses other untraditional approaches for
awareness building such as jokes, comedies,
and technology. She explained about the
legal and legislative support that was used in
the Philippines to ensure an adequate
accountability by society to the government
and local agencies.

For complete text of the panel discussion
please refer to: Appendix A.

World Cafe
The world café is an activity that was
performed directly after completing the
panel discussions. It involves having a
number of tables with chairs surrounding
them, exactly like a real-world café, were
each table discusses a certain topic and
participants are supposed to spend a
specified time on each table and move to the
other. There were five tables that discussed
five topics: the concept of SA and its four
main pillars (participation, response,
monitoring, and transparency). Participants
varied in ages and sexes considerably.
Almost half of participants were females.
Their ages varied from being young to be in
their fifties. The intention of participants to
share varied from one to another. Some
wanted to understand more about the
concepts and some wanted to propose
suggestions.
The
most
important
suggestions proposed by them were:
1. Re-form
the
neighborhood
committees by elections.
2. Form an independent committee of
volunteer citizens to attend the
meetings of municipality council and
follow up on the implementation of
its decisions.
3. Form a committee to follow up on
citizen’s complaints.
4. Form a committee to follow up on
compensations for citizens whose
7

properties were harmed by the
projects of the municipality.
5. Not
to
assign
neighborhood
committees by municipality but
rather by elections. The duty of them
is to try to enhance service provision
not to defend the municipality.
6. Employ young people in professions
that involve direct provision of
service, like cleaning and sewage,
since they have better physical
abilities to do the work in a more
proper way.

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Main questions in accountability.
Basic elements and pillars of SA.
Basic benefits of SA.
Potential risks of SA.
Factors that facilitate the success of
SA.
7. Definition of public hearing.
8. Types of public hearing.
9. Stakeholders of public hearing.
10. What public hearing is used for?
11. The phases of executing public
hearing.

Figure 7: Side of the Social Accountability workshop.
Figure 6: Side of the strong participation in the World Cafe
activity.

Workshops
Two workshops were conducted, the first
intended to raise the awareness of
participants about the concept of SA, and the
second intended to introduce participants to
the basics of youth participation.
The main discussion topics for the first
workshop were:
1. Basic
components
accountability.

of

The main discussion topics for the second
workshop were:
1. Definition of youth participation on
family and community using colored
cards.
2. Hart’s ladder of participation and
reflecting grades of participation.
3. Where to find your position on Hart’s
ladder.
4. Introducing
the
pilot
project
performed by GIZ—Youth Create
Change (YCC).

general

8


Figure 8: Side of the YCC workshop.

Lessons Learned
1. Distinguish should be made between
the preparations for an event in the
Gaza Strip and in the West Bank.
Since the Gaza Strip has a special
situation in regards to the freedom of
movement, not all kinds of guests can
attend. The fact that GIZ did not take
that distinguish in consideration has
resulted in a threat that the forum in
Khan Younis would not have an
important activity—the TEDx show.
Performers of the TEDx show were
denied access by the Israeli side, only
four days before the forum.
Consequently, the team who was
preparing for the forum in Gaza was
in a chaos situation to solve the
problem. The problem was solved by
a stand-up comedy video that was
created in only three days. The video
would, of course, have been better if
it was given more time for
production.
2. Consideration should be made
during planning not to have two

events to be held too close to each
other. The forum was planned to be
on Oct. the second, and another event
was planned on the directly previous
day—the visit of the BMZ delegation
to Gaza. As the team was busy with
the activities related to that visit,
some of the preparation activities for
the forum could not be performed
and the team was in a stressful
situation.
3. Procurement procedures that require
long administrative time should have
started earlier as they delayed some
other activities and made preparation
more stressful to the team. The
printing of brochures and other
forum-related-printings, for example,
takes long administrative time this
has resulted in that the team had no
choice but to do the biggest deal of
preparations on Tuesday, just one
day before the forum.
4. Other municipalities in the Gaza Strip
should have given the chance to
participate in the preparation of the
forum.
Some
mayors
and
municipality directors informed
project coordinators that this was an
important day for all municipalities,
not only the municipality of Khan
Younis. Their participation in the
preparation process could have had
improved the forum even more.
5. Special invitations should have been
sent to the directors of other
municipalities. Representatives of
other municipalities were either
mayors or employees from PR
department. The participation of
9

municipality directors would provide
a better impact on the level of
application
of
SA
in
their
municipalities as they deal more with
technical administrative issues.
6. Panel discussions would have been
better if they were based on a
discussion agenda that limits the
topics of discussion, and if a
preparation meeting was held with
Ehsan, Iyad, and the mayor.
7. Ehsan should have exerted more
effort to control the discussions
during the panel discussion, and
should have given priorities to
persons who have more potential to
enrich the discussion like the mayor
of Rafah who raised his hand all the
time but was not given the chance to
participate.
8. Booths should have been located
away from each other to provide
more space for guests to visit them.
The locations of the booths next to
each other made the relatively high
number of guests packed with
discomfort.

Recommendations
1. Angelita recommends to run smaller
types of discussions with the
presence of the mayor that will be
more focused and with fewer number
of participants who are related. The
workshops
should
be
held
episodically (like once every week or

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

month), and shall be topic-identified
like this week we will discuss the
service of water for example.
The promises of the mayor in the
forum are something that can be
used. They should be written down,
printed, and distributed to citizens.
(Angelita)
The production of short films, comic
books and similar things to build the
capacity of the citizens and NGOs in
SA. (Angelita).
Youth project should not be
separated from SA project. Social
Accountability must be an element of
everything. (Angelita)
Labels from the local culture and
religion should be found to facilitate
the change in culture. Because in
change management it cannot be too
new. It should be linked to something
familiar. (Angelita).
NGOs should allocate a portion of
their budgets, time, and employees
outside the framework of the projects
funded by GIZ to activities that will
promote
SA
to
maximize
sustainability when funding is
terminated. (Iyad )
Municipalities shall include SA in
their strategic plans and exert every
effort to ensure its application. (Iyad)

10


Appendix A: Panel Discussions Content.
Ehsan started by introducing the main guests of the panel discussion: Mr. Yahya Al-Astal, the
mayor of Khan Younis (referred to later as Yahya); Mr. Iyad Abu Hjayyer, the executive manager
of the PCDCR(referred to later as Iyad); and Mrs. Angelita Gregorio-Medel member of the
department of social welfare and development in the republic of the Philippines.
Ehsan: Before we start our discussions, I would like to give the word to Mr. Al-Astal, the mayor
of Khan Younis to tell us about his impression about the forum and his understanding of the
concept of SA.
Yahya: I would like to begin by welcoming all people who attended the forum, and especially the
mayors and managers of CSOs, and all who have participated to make this event successful. In
fact, this effort is a continuation to what we have started before—the direct communication with
citizens, those we offer our services to. Those citizens must feel satisfied about our service, and
should know about all aspects related to it, such as its content, its cost, the objectives we intend
to achieve by providing them, and the places where those services are delivered. Based on that,
our communication with members of society is open: we deal with them in markets, and we
pray with them at mosques. So, we hear from them, and our doors are open for them. We have
specified times for dealing with citizens, since the mayor is not available at the municipality 24
hours. The mayor has other duties to perform. So, there are specified days to hear from citizens
about their complains. Communication with citizens is not limited to the direct contact, but also,
we read what they write to us by email and Facebook. This communication, I believe, would
bridge the gap between service providers and service receivers. We hope that all decisionmakers--whether they were in municipalities, in governmental units, or in other organizations-believe in the concept so they will be creative doing their work. Before that, I hope that citizens
will understand this concept and understand what they want so they can participate with their:
views, complaints, suggestions, and, sometimes, with their objections. Social Accountability is
good and important, and I think it is a duty that every citizen should raise his voice with: advice,
suggestions, complaints, and also with work to support us. Thank you very much.
Ehsan: Mr. Iyad, Do you think that CSOs have a positive role to play in applying the concept of
SA? Like being a communication channel between the municipalities and citizens?
Iyad: Thank you so much for inviting me, and I thank all participants. We have the right to be
proud of this effort; a participatory effort between the municipalities and all CSOs, that I
represent. In regards to SA, it is both a new and an old culture. I mean it existed before in our
culture, but it was not applied in the proper and technical way. CSOs have started to be
1

interested in SA only recently. SA was not amongst the traditional duties of CSOs in Palestine,
especially when a clear understanding of the mechanisms of SA was not available for the CSOs
and citizens. In regards to municipalities, there is a mechanism (a SA mechanism he means)that
existed before but it was not activated until recently; that is the neighborhoods committees.
Those committees are considered one of the links between citizens and municipalities to deliver:
the interests, expectations, priorities, problems, complaints, and suggestions of citizens to
municipalities; for those municipalities to satisfy those ambitions and needs of those citizens.
There are some municipalities that took serious steps in the neighborhood committees field, and
there are some municipalities who have been working on that field since ancient times. And as
part of this SA project being held now, efforts are being taken to reactivate those neighborhood
committees in more municipalities. Those neighborhood committees are social and popular
objects, and they are the ones that build the framework for the full application of SA mechanisms
in municipalities. So, neighborhood committees are the basic gate for us to apply SA in
municipalities. In regards to the interest of CSOs in applying SA in municipalities, honestly, I am
sorry to say that their interest, or the interest of most of them, to apply SA in municipalities is
triggered only by the interest of the donor. But I think that we need to take some more efforts to
make CSOs take the initiative by their own. And I hope that the relationship between citizens, on
one side, and citizens and the municipalities, on the other, will develop from the level of
coordination and participation, to the level of complete partnership in making decisions that
directly affect citizens in their cities or neighborhoods, and this is what we hope to achieve
during this forum.
Ehsan: Dr. Angelita, you have started your career as a social activist in the poor neighborhoods
in cities and villages, and you have now the sufficient experience in the field of SA, and as you are
a member of the department of social welfare and development in Philippines, I would like to ask
you how can we benefit from the experience of applying SA in the Philippines in Palestine and
how far can we apply such an experience?
Angelita: Thank you very much for allowing me to be here. You may be wondering why a
philipina from far away land is here talking to you now about SA in Palestine. I think the value of
my visit and this opportunity for me to talk to you is because this is one big but small world. We
are interconnected. Anything that happens in any of the small villages in our country, if it
attracts me, it is actually, immediately, talked about in the parts of the world. One third of the
Philippines population are Muslim brothers and sisters particularly in the south. Although my
country is performing economically very well, we come from a history of impoverished
communities and big disparity between the rich and the poor. My country too starts on a very
authoritarian culture. So, in many ways, we share many things. What did work in the Philippines
on SA, one other thing, you must have heard about a lot, is people power. This is the non-violent
protest of citizens when we try to kick out a corrupt, an authoritarian, and marshal low
government. There was no accountability in the past, and how do we achieve it now? Primarily
2

through the work of very strong citizen organizing. We have student and youth organizations
and very strong women organizations. We have workers, farmers, and professional
organizations, educational institutions and even businesses have, what we call, corporate social
responsibility. So, in trying to relate to government, it cannot be individuals complaining about
their needs; it must be organized citizens who are capable of producing data and launching their
advocacies. So, we use their numbers. The number of the citizens is a strong power against
government. But, it cannot be only mob mobilization, it must also be reason negotiation. When
we say that the provision of educational resources is not enough, we should not say just not
enough, but we show them numbers from our schools, parents collecting information why the
books are not sufficient? Why teachers are absent? We count when teachers are absent or when
nurses are not around, so we give them data and information to prove our complaints. So, it’s
not only shouting, it is also counting.
The other thing that works is that we had reform champions inside government. Those are
government officials who believe in this work and believe SOs can work in very close
coordination. And, these people must help put in place policies and laws to encourage citizen
participation and SA.
Finally, this is a new concept, but at the same time you use a lot of media, a lot of awareness
building, we use jokes, comedies, we use dramas, because these are more easily understood by
people, and we use technology, but we must understand that technologies that worked in other
countries will not necessarily work in your country. So , you have to see what is possible and to
push what is possible until you achieve your objective.
Ehsan: We will now hear questions and interventions from the audience in the framework of SA.
Please take into consideration that we are discussing the concept of SA not particular problems
of the municipality that were discussed before.
Participant1 (female): My name is Wafaa abu Zarifa, a journalist. Firstly, you are speaking
about the concept of SA which is a too big concept, as I think, compared to the environment we
live in that is not adequate for such a concept; despite the fact that we are in actual need for it.
Secondly, the question is raised to the mayor, you are partners in the project and implementers
of the SA forum, For what extent the municipality of Khan Younis is welling to receive complaints
from citizens and to stand in front of justice? I mean that the municipality will be in situation to
be accountable. Is the municipality of Khan Younis ready to be in a real situation of
accountability? Today in the forum, you are talking about the first SA forum, I noticed that, even
in the comedy video, it was the society that was in the situation to be accountable not the
municipality. There was grooming for the municipality to a level that I got the indication that
the municipality has no fault in the lack of service provision. It was totally far away from putting
the municipality in an accountability position. My second question is raised to Angelita. I don’t
know if you have enough idea about our environment here. I want to say that here, in my point
3

of view, social accountability is not a possibility as our government is our oppressor, and we
have a status of political division, and we don’t have a real state. The laws that concern our rights
as citizens are not raised for discussion by both of our governments. Can such forums make SA a
possibility in such a political status?
Yahya: I will answer briefly, in regards to your question if we receive complaints, yes we do
receive and hear complaints. Every citizen has the right to submit a complaint. We, in the
municipality, have received 1600 complaints. We did reply on time on more than 85% of them,
which I think is good. Some complaints require more information which makes us not able to
reply on them, this is why we could not reply on the rest. But, we receive people in all places, in
and out of the municipality, we receive complaints and we deal with them friendly and in
accordance to the law. In regards to your question about the laws, I want to say that laws that
regulate our work in municipalities exist and you can refer to them in courts. Laws don’t change,
but administrative decisions do.
Angelita: That is not an easy question! But let me try my own reflection in experience from other
countries. It is not the Philippines that I bring to the table, but I also had the privilege to look at
the transition in Cambodia, Mongolia, and many other countries. I think, even in the smallest
space of freedom, in the most impoverished place you can give. There will always be a room to
strengthen the relationship between those who hold the authority and those who are being
governed. What we’re talking about is the social fabric of your capacity to work with each other
to build your own country and nation. You can be under the power of a foreign oppressive force,
but you cannot allow yourself to be weaker because you are not internally able to engage each
other. This is a personal lesson: I, myself, came from a political oppression and I had a prison
experience myself. I believe, that we, the government, the little that you can have, the confusion
you are in, the oppression you are suffering as a people, can be material for you to become
stronger, to become transparent and to trust each other more, because the worst that can
happen to us is when we turn against each other so that those who want to oppress us become
stronger. The social fabric of the government and the people in the municipality must be built on
trust. It is not going to be perfect! You will be forever fighting! That’s OK. In families, we fight!
But you can have strong communities and families if:
1. If there is truth telling, that’s the heart of transparency;
2. If there is forgiveness and willingness to try and try again; and
3. If there is a continuity of what you are doing.
I think that in my society, as in yours, the young and women should fight their place in building
the country and the nation you could wish for -- a strong, participatory, transparent, and truly
accountable.

4

Participant2 (male): My name is Ahmad AlGharbi, legal consultant. My question is to Angelita.
Through the experience you had in the Philippines, What legal measures and legislative
frameworks did you use to activate SA in the Philippines?
Participant3(male): It was mentioned before that some of the municipalities in the Gaza Strip
did not have elections for 55 years. It was mentioned also that recently, elections were held at
the municipalities of the West Bank and those elections were successful. My question is: Why
don’t we have elections to choose our municipality council in the Gaza Strip? Don’t tell me that
the conditions are hard. The conditions are the same whether here or in the West Bank. The
MDLF is funding municipalities both here and in the West Bank. So, why the municipalities of
Gaza were not different when it comes to funding? Another point, when no elections are being
held in the municipalities of the Gaza Strip, and municipality councils are being assigned, why
aren’t they assigned from all sectors and political parties of the Palestinian society? And why
don’t we see the program followed by those assigned councils? Councils should have clear
programs when they get first created, so we as citizens will have the possibility after two years
or so to hold those councils accountable and to raise questions about their performance based to
their programs.
Participant3(male): My name is Hani Abu Mustafa, director of Activists of Palestine network
and a member of neighborhood committee in Wadi Al-Salqa. I congratulate Palestinians to have
such a forum because we really lack an important aspect between citizens and the local agencies,
which is the aspect of trust! This lack of trust has many external causes related to the political
division that I don’t want to go through now, but there are some internal causes related to us; the
most important being: our complacency, the lack of information shared by municipalities with
citizens, and, the fact that municipalities do not have enough appreciation for citizens and the
importance of their participation. This results in that SA would lose one important pillar, the
pillar of participation. This, consequently, would result in that we lose any significant output for
the application of SA. I hope that municipalities would have more awareness campaigns to
inform citizens about the developmental plans to ensure that citizens play their role in this
developmental plan as they are the main pivot for it. Finally, I suggest that the forum would
results in the creation of youth groups that will work in coordination with the partner NGOs to
be supportive to the municipalities in their work to activate SA and to conduct other activities
related to it.
Participant4 (male): I suggest that SA be applied not only in municipalities, but also in
ministries such as the ministry of social affairs and the ministry of education to allow for more
participation of citizens to the aspects in those ministries. For example, we should participate
developing the school syllabus for our children.
Participant5 (male): My first question is raised to the mayor. How will the municipality
convince and deal with citizens who lack the knowledge and awareness in regards to SA? My
5

second question is raised to Mr. Iyad. In regards to the CSOs, we see that they cooperate with
municipalities in more than one project, but, the problem is that we see the project being
implemented for one year and finishes after that. There is a problem with the sustainability of
any project. What are the plans that ensure the sustainability of the SA forum?
Participant6 (male): My name is Mahmoud Abu Haya from Khan Younis municipality. My
question is raised to Mr. Iyad. We know that SA needs the cooperation of two parties:
municipalities and citizens. Based on your experience working in the civil society field, how
much percent of citizens in the Gaza Strip are aware of the concept of SA and the aspects related
to it. And what is the role of the CSOs in reaching citizens and raising their awareness about their
rights and the proper way to help local agencies implementing or developing projects?
Angelita: The legal is a little bit more complex because after the people’s revolution, we were
able to change our constitution. There was really a solid attempt to redraft the constitution, and,
in the constitution, there is a vision of people’s participation. So, right in the constitution we have
this. And another one is in our local government code for the revolution, where there is a law
that says: regional development councils must have one citizen representative. There are also
many laws, even in procurement that requires that citizens must observe the procurement
process. There are even laws that require 20% of the budget should go to women and children.
There is the constitution, there is the national law, there are mayors who actually put in local
laws on SA. And beyond laws, our programs that push the boundary of the law and allow us to
experiment on what we can, as citizens, propose and advocate for new laws to strengthen this
practice.
Iyad: In regards to the questions raised about the role of CSOs to apply SA, our role is integrative
or complementary to the role of the government and the local agency to raise and build the
awareness about the culture of SA.
In regards to the question about the sustainability of projects, you are right. This is a pain for the
CSOs. Our problem in CSOs is that projects are not permanent. One project may last 6 months
and another project may last one year. CSOs have a crisis or a gridlock in this regard.
Government, or the state, is supposed to fund those CSOs, but this, unfortunately, is not
happening. Another factor is that most of the funding that CSOs receive is not sustainable fund.
Funding is more like funding to provide services or to provide relief, but it does not create
foundations for a solid fermentation such as in SA. Such aspects requires projects not less than 5
continuous years for the CSOs to be able to create an impact on society. Thus, we have to think
about alternatives to make our work to apply SA properly more sustainable.
In regards to the question about the awareness of citizens about SA, there is no percentage I can
answer with. But, there are some indicators. Citizens tend to be more aware about their rights
and the methods of claiming those rights. This is a good indicator that should be promoted by the
6

various types of organizations. And there are some positive indicators related to power-holders
such as the fact that they started to have better understanding for the needs and expectations of
citizens. One last point I need to add is that, based on my experience, SA may not be successful if
it was used politically. If SA was used to serve objectives related to the political division or other
political interests, there is a big risk that it will have minimum opportunities to be successful. We
are talking about issues related to the services provided to citizens and we must always have the
assumption that politics do not intervene. So, issues like elections and oppression are of higher
level than the level this forum intends to discuss. Those issues are to be solved by political talks
and agreement between the Palestinian political parties, but this can’t be solved in such a forum.
Until we reach this point of political agreement, we should not sit doing nothing, but rather we
need to find practical methods that facilitate the participation of society through civic
participation.
Yahya: Firstly, I would like to thank all participants who raised questions without any exception.
I believe that this is part of the SA, that a citizen do not be afraid to say what he wants. Secondly,
in regards to the elections, I agree with the participant that elections should be held, but,
unfortunately, the conditions are not adequate right now to have elections. Unfortunately, the
municipalities of Gaza and Khan Younis did not have any elections since the British mandate. But,
the mayor of Khan Younis and the mayor of Gaza are elected during the Palestinian Authority era
by all engineers. The mayor of Gaza was elected as the head of the syndicate of engineers in
Gaza, and the mayor of Khan Younis was elected as the head of the syndicate of engineers in
Khan Younis. So, transcended, we can say that they are elected. There is no mayor, here or there,
that is one-sided for one group against the other. When we first came to the municipality, we
made a decision not to allow any political slogan in the building of the municipality. The
municipality is a house for all and should be for all. Another thing, the strategic plan is available
at the municipality for anyone who wishes to see it. We created the strategic plan with
participation of 500 people. There was projects proposed for funding, and more than 90% of
those projects are priorities in the new strategic plan. So, there is a harmony between the ideas
of the people in the municipality and the ideas of society, even before their participation in the
creation of the new strategic plan. In regards to the fact that some municipality employees may
say that this is not your business, if an employee in the municipality tells you as a citizen: this is
not your business, come to the mayor and the mayor will tell you: it is your business. In regards
to the youth groups to support the municipality, I want to say that the municipality is in need of
the support of all, not only the youth. The municipality is in need for the support of youth,
women, educated people, and neighborhood committees. I would like to express my gratitude to
all who helped, especially the neighborhood committees that proposed projects to donors to be
implemented in their neighborhoods.

7

Participant7 (male): My name is Alaa Younis a coordinator for the SA project for the Life and
Hope Association. My question is raised to Angelita. Can you give us an example of methods used
by your people that can be used in our country to apply SA?
Participant8: (male): My name is Mohammed Al-Najjar, the mayor of Al-Maghazi. I believe that
the information about SA shared by this forum reached only the people who participated in the
forum. Such concepts need to be shared with as many citizens as possible to ensure a proper
understanding. To maximize the level of understanding for the concept of SA, we need to include
it in our education and teach it to our children. This is how we can build a new generation that
has solid understanding of the concept. The proper application of SA needs a proper mechanism
that involves institutionalization of SA in all fields. For a citizen that needs to know information,
there should be a clear guide from the agency or the authority on how to find those information.
The mechanism should also involve objects related to local community such as neighborhood
committees or a SA committee or a social cooperation committee that includes elected
representatives. This would result in a balance between citizens who receive services and
power-holders who provide that service. SA means that there should be questions raised. Those
questions will be raised only by citizens who care, and for them to be able to raise useful
questions, information is needed. Thus, SA needs a proper spread of information so that citizens
will raise their questions based on right information not on gossip or rumors . This requires from
authorities, and specially the local agencies, to have channels to spread information. Also, there
should be clear standards for the work of municipalities, standards on things like: recruiting and
project implementation. I also think that when a citizen raises a question, his question must be
answered without confusing information or ambiguity. I think those factors will result in the
proper application of SA as SA does not result in from nothing, but rather from successful civic
participation.
Participant9: My name is Mohammed Mansour, from the municipality of Al-Buraij. As we are
talking about SA, I think one of the most important elements of SA is elections. My question is:
Are we willing to accept the results of elections given the complex situation we have in Palestine?
Participant10: Firstly, to convey information properly to citizens, I hope that the municipality
issue brochures to be delivered to the houses of citizens just like water invoices are conveyed.
Secondly, a strategic plan was created for the municipality of Khan Younis and I was one of the
members of the stakeholder committee, but until now, we have not received the final draft of
this strategic plan. Thirdly, I hope that the municipality will share the strategic plan with all
citizens, for them to be able to know the strategy of the municipality during the next 5 years.
Fourthly, I suggest that the municipality make regular meetings with stakeholder figures from
the city including: highly educated people, women, and youth, for them to be able to propose
ideas that will develop the performance of the municipality. Municipality officials should listen
directly to citizens so they can provide their input before they make their complaints. Finally, we
have to think about how to make SA a part of the culture of the Palestinian society. I hope that
8

the ministry of local governance would suggest to the ministry of education the inclusion of SA in
the syllabus of the “National Education” in the preparatory level for them to be raised with this
concept as part of their culture.
Iyad: It is clear that the majority are raising questions to me related to sustainability of the
projects. To be honest, we in the CSOs have problems related to funding. As soon as funding
provided for a project is terminated, we have so limited resources to continue the activities of
the project. But, I said and I emphasize that we have to think about alternatives that do not
required foreign funding. The GIZ will not fund us to eternity. This is why we have to create other
alternatives. The work required to introduce the concept adequately is huge. I will give you one
example; we in the PCDCR are working with the municipality of Rafah and the municipality of AlMaghazi. One of the activities that we intend to perform is to re-form the neighborhood
committees. For this to be done, we have to make elections for them, then train them, then follow
up with their performance, and all the meetings and conferences needed for it. All this requires
trained crews to perform those tasks. Such work cannot be achieved with carrying out a oneworkshop. But, I say again CSOs and municipalities should allocate a part of their time, budget,
and personnel for the application of SA. But, I doubt that it will be with the same productivity
when funding is terminated, because the load of work is not small and when we analyze the work
required, we will find that we have considerable expenses to be encountered.
I make two recommendations in the framework of this forum. The first is that CSOs should start
to allocate even a tiny part of their budget to the application of SA when funding is terminated.
The second is for municipalities to include the application of SA in their strategic plans, and to
have SA practically existent in all the measures they take.
Angelita: There are several examples, I would like to cite example of elections. Before elections
we use to have a community gathering and all the candidates will stand, and they will have a
contract with the people. Sometimes people will ask for a kindergarten or whatever is most
important to them. And then the candidates will be asked: Who among you if he wins will
promise this? Of course everyone says yes if they want to win. And they will sign the contract.
Whoever wins will have to be measured by that contract. So, there is information and there is
monitoring. Whoever wins must show: the plan, the budget, to whom it will be contracted, and
when it will be finished. So, there is a continuing basis to tract the promises of politicians. That’s
one example. Another example is to monitor the schools via the internet to check how many
students are there, how many teachers, budget, and how many books, for example.
I ask permission to respond on some of the concerns that came out. One is political
accountability in elections. Election is episodic, it happens after four or six years, that’s political
accountability. Social Accountability is different. SA is what happens between elections. Second,
no accountability can happen without participation and transparency. You just cannot
participate without clear information. You have to have an access to information and information
9

must be complete and must be user-friendly. You cannot give me any technical information,
ordinary people cannot understand. So, you have to have participation and information
(transparency) before you can actually have accountability.
Yahya: In regards to the information, information will be shared on the website of the
municipality soon, including the strategic plan. It is the right of the citizen to know the
information he needs while being home, without the need to come to the municipality building.
In regards to listening to citizens, I meet with people in different places and I try to pray in
different mosques so that I can meet as many as I can. But, this of course cannot substitute the
public hearing and this forum is part of those public hearings.
At the end, Ehsan thanked all participants, municipalities, and partner CSOs.

10

Final draft sa_forum_khan_younis_13_10_2013

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