Urgent support to vulnerable farmers and fishers most affected by the recent 11-day hostilities in Gaza Strip The planned action is fully in line with the 3rd reserve allocation objectives: Providing emergency and recovery food assistance, including cash, electronic voucher and in-kind commodities (Objective 1) and Restoring productive capacities and livelihoods of small-scale herders, farmers, and fishers (Objective 2). In addition, it contributes to the achievement of FSS’s (food Security Sector) objectives 1 amp 2 for HRP2021 respectively: Livelihoods of vulnerable households are protected, and their resilience, food security and productive capacity restored/enhanced Households suffering from limited access to food and to income opportunities are able to meet their basic food needs.

The action is built on recent needs assessments that were conducted in May and June 2021 by PUI, PARC, UAWC through surveys and FGDS with the different vulnerable groups. It was also designed based on the continuous consultations with the Food Security S ector (FSS) and relevant technical Ministries (MoA, MoSD, MoL), key community leaders, and local partner Community-Based Organizations (CBOs). 

This project aims to urgently respond to the current essential needs of the vulnerable households of farmers and fishers, affected by the recent 11-day hostilities, in order to enhance their access to food and other basic needs, as well as restore their livelihood capacities. PUI and its national partner NGOs (PARC and UAWC) will identify and select the most vulnerable households among the following affected livelihood groups based on a combined household (HH) vulnerability and technical assessment: small-scale open-field vegetable farmers, greenhouse farmers, and fishers.

Through this project, PUI and its national partners namely PARC and UAWC will target 675 HHs (3,713 individuals) , including 375  vegetable farmers, and 300 fishers from Gaza, Khan Younis, Rafah. 
1) 275   small-scale open-field vegetable farmers through conditional cash support for livelihood. Each farmer will receive a total amount of 3,000 ILS in 2 installments to restore and/or enhance production capacity of open-field farming (2 dunums). (PUI+UAWC)
2) 100 vegetable greenhouse farmers through conditional cash assistance for livelihood restoration. Each farmer will receive a total amount of 3,000 ILS into 2 installments to restore and/or enhance production capacity in one dunum of greenhouses. (PUI+PARC)
3) 300 vulnerable fishers through one-off emergency multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA), amounting to 878 ILS to address essential basic needs. (PUI+UAWC)

This urgent cash support will allow vulnerable HHs to have flexible, reliable, and timely financial support to address their urgent needs, restore their livelihoods, build resilience and enhance their production capacity. Cash installments will be disbursed to beneficiaries using the “cash over counter” payment modality through the Bank of Palestine (BoP), which has the widest geographic coverage and is highly accessible by beneficiaries with branches in all governorates. 

It is worth mentioning that PUI has closely coordinated the planned Action with FSS, Cash WG, Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Ministry of Labor (MoL), ACTED, AAH, Oxfam, CARE International, PARC, UAWC, and other key stakeholders working in the area of intervention. PUI will be directly involved in the coordination, supervising the implementation of activities, and MEAL process with the support of the three local partner CBOs.

Additionally, PUI will promote community ownership, accountability, and participation throughout the project through baseline assessments, orientation sessions, Post Distribution Monitoring, and its Complaint and Feedback Mechanism, while also mobilizing key local partner CBOs to ensure that the identified vulnerable HHs are deeply engaged in the different implementation stages.