UNRWA in Focus
UNRWA in Focus
Briefing Paper 1 describes the evolution of UNRWA’s mandate from its establishment in 1949 to the present day. It focuses on the questions of economic integration and refugee protection within the mandate alongside UNRWA’s funding model and outlines the attitudes of the UN General Assembly towards the UNRWA.
Briefing Paper 2 analyses the nature of the United States of America’s relationship with UNRWA over the past decade. It highlights the conditions of American funding to UNRWA and the monitoring requirements which UNRWA must satisfy. It summarises the funding cuts made by the Donald Trump administration and outlines the early prospects for the relationship in the Biden administration.
Briefing Paper 3 compares the World Health Organisation with UNRWA. It takes as its focus points the mandate, size, and budget of the two organisations and analyses the relationship between the two agencies as a whole.
BP 4 – Comparing UNRWA to INGOs
Briefing Paper 4 compares three international non-governmental organisations (World Vision, Save the Children and Oxfam) to UNRWA. It focuses on their mandate, size, budget, structure, and impact. Additionally, there is a case study comparing a different health programme run by each organisation, in terms of budget, size and impact.
BP 5 – Criticisms 1 – UNRWA Perpetuates the Israel-Palestine Conflict?
Briefing Paper 5 examines the criticisms of UNRWA usually made from an Israeli perspective, building from the headline accusation that UNRWA perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It outlines the commonly proposed solution which follows this criticism of dismantling UNRWA and giving its duties to the UNHCR and assesses the veracity of the arguments overall.
BP 6 – Criticisms 2 – UNRWA the Pacifier?
Briefing Paper 6 examines the criticisms of UNRWA usually made from a Palestinian perspective, particularly surrounding the accusations that UNRWA does not do enough to help Palestinians and that it operates as a palliative rather than finding a solution to the problem. It outlines some of the causes of these criticisms and some assessment of their validity.
BP 7 – UNRWA and the Arab Gulf States
Briefing Paper 7 examines the relationship of UNRWA with the Arab Gulf States of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait. It tracks the relationship between the Gulf States and Israel and shows the links between the Gulf Countries and Palestinian Refugees, before charting the contributions of the Gulf States to UNRWA’s budget from 2014 to 2020.
BP 8 – UNRWA as a Small-Sized State: Comparison with Lesotho and Eritrea
Briefing Paper 8 compares the UNRWA with the African states of Lesotho and Eritrea. It provides an overview of the governance, education levels, health services, and international standings of the two nations and compares this with that of the UNRWA. It concludes by analysing how closely UNRWA performs the role of a small-sized state.
BP 9 – UNRWA and Palestinian Refugee Demography
Briefing Paper 9 examines the demography of Palestinian refugees and identifies trends of an overall population increase, a growing youth population and an ageing population. This paper explores how these demographic changes impact upon the demands for certain services provided by UNRWA such as healthcare and education.
BP 10 – UNRWA and Humanitarian Aid
Briefing Paper 10 examines UNRWA’s current financial structure and outlines the organisation’s main donors and budgetary requirements. It explores the global context of humanitarian aid distribution in light of changing priorities among donors and discusses how UNRWA may seek to diversify its sources of funding, such as by continuing to make partnerships the private sector.
BP 11 – Diversification and Development of Funding Sources
Briefing Paper 11 builds on briefing paper 10’s evaluation of the pressures on UNRWA’s existing financial structure and expanding budgetary requirements. Three areas of financial diversification and development are discussed: a loan from the World Bank, Islamic philanthropy, and investment partnerships with private corporations.
BP 12 – UNRWA and the Climate Emergency
Briefing Paper 12 examines the impact of climate change on Palestinian refugees in the Middle East and presents the current and future responses to these climate-based challenges being pursued by UNRWA. The relationship between the climate emergency and conflict is also explored in relation to specific issues facing Gaza.