Registration
You will receive an email confirming your registration.
Presenter: Larry Garber, Director, US Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission for the West Bank and Gaza
Moderator: Thomas Carothers, Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment
On January 31, experts on the Middle East and democracy promotion gathered at the Carnegie Endowment for the second meeting of a special roundtable series examining the state of democracy in the region. Larry Garber, director of USAID's Mission for the West Bank and Gaza, and participants discussed efforts to promote development of Palestinian civil society. In his presentation, Mr. Garber described the current state of Palestinian civil society and enumerated challenges and issues that will affect its future development.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are more vibrant in the West Bank and Gaza than probably anywhere else in the Middle East. Nearly 1,000 registered Palestinian NGOs, ranging from large networks to small, community-based groups, work on issues such as human rights, health care, and education. Civil-society organizations employ tens of thousands of Palestinians, making them absolutely crucial to the local economy.
USAID has provided significant assistance through direct and indirect grants to dozens of Palestinian NGOs in recent years. All recipients have undergone audits to ensure transparency, and most have generally achieved their objectives, whether they be in civic education, advocacy, infrastructure, or health care.
Many Palestinian NGOs are well-established with long histories, though they had to considerably adapt to the creation of the Palestinian Authority in the 1990s. Even before the terrorist attacks of September 11th, USAID carefully identified aid recipients to ensure that beneficiaries were not connected to terrorists or organizations that encourage violence against Israel and/or the United States.
Civil society will not be a panacea for the problems of the Middle East, but NGOs have made important contributions to discourse and pluralistic tendencies at the macro level, as well done important service work within Palestinian society.
