Focus on performance of Protection Cluster during first half of 2015

Cluster continues to be an ongoing challenge

During the first half of 2015, the Protection Cluster and its sub-groups have made positive progress towards achieving its two cluster-specific objectives:

• Increase respect for human rights and international humanitarian law;
• Prevent and mitigate the impacts of abuses and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and of the armed conflict.

Beyond progress achieved through the implementation of projects, cluster members have effectively advanced the rights of affected communities, mainly through improving preparedness and crisis response plans; strengthening monitoring, reporting and advocacy; and ensuring a widespread protective presence to prevent violations.

In the Gaza Strip, emergency preparedness capacities have been strengthened in line with the oPt Contingency Plan. These included the establishment of an action plan for shelter protection committees which will be activated in the event of an emergency, as well as a situation monitoring framework and other tools.  In addition, protection focal points were assigned for each governorate; and In terms of imminent life saving activities, UNMAS has cleared approximately one third of the 7,000 explosive remnants of war (ERW) contaminating Gaza after the 2014 hostilities. It has also responded to all 596 ERW risk assessments from UNDP rubble removal teams.

In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the provision of legal aid and counselling continues despite ongoing Israeli practices of demolition and seizure of donor-funded structures that create a coercive environment on the communities affected. According to the Legal Task Force (a working group of the Protection Cluster),  99 per cent of the  households that are subject to demolition and eviction orders in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,  and which received legal aid are temporarily protected from displacement due to legal proceedings in the Israeli court.

In addition, the provision of a protective presence for vulnerable communities which are subject to threats such as forced displacement and possible forcible transfer and settler violence, proved to be a very effective tool in physically protecting such communities over the past years; for instance, the recent coordinated protective presence arranged for the Palestinian community of Susiya in the southern Hebron governorate whose residents are at risk of forcible transfer.  The cluster’s advocacy work, thus far, has also helped to prevent these communities from being forcibly evicted.

The lack of funding for the Protection Cluster is an ongoing challenge, which jeopardizes the full implementation of all planned protection activities in the oPt. In the 2015 Strategic Response Plan (SRP), the Protection Cluster has requested US$ 52 million to cover 45 protection related projects targeting 1.46 million persons in the oPt. As of the end of the first half of 2015, only 51 per cent was funded and xxx persons were reached. In an attempt to cover unfunded humanitarian projects including in the SRP, the Humanitarian Pool Fund (HPF) launched its first call for proposals in June. Two of the 26 unfunded high priority projects recommended by the relevant clusters and approved by the HPF address critical protection needs for a total funding of $352,478. The Protection Cluster will continue to advocate for the full funding of all of its projects.

Apart from the financial issues, there is a need to enhance operational focus and planning, together with a stronger and meaningful participation by national organizations, human rights organizations and local authorities as indicated in the findings of the recent cluster review.  To address these issues, the Protection Cluster will focus its work during the second half of 2015 to ensure the proper functioning of all its working groups and further strengthening their ability to provide common analysis, ensuring complementarity of actions and responses, avoiding duplication and streamlining the flow of information and data collection.

War trauma of Gaza women addressed in humanitarian assistance

The Aisha Association is a Gaza women's organization established in 2009 to empower marginalized women through providing economic empowerment and psychosocial support.  The Aisha Association identified the need for psychosocial support (PSS) and mental health services for women affected by the hostilities in Gaza in 2014. With funding of US$ 237,978 from the Humanitarian Pooled Fund (HPF) , the organization provided PSS to women from neighbourhoods that experienced intensive Israeli attacks and heavy losses (Beit Hanoun and Ash Shuja'iyeh)

The project supported approximately 4,600 married, divorced, widowed, abandoned and disabled women, residents of Beit Hanoun and Ash-Shuja'iyeh areas, over a period of six months (November 2014-April 2015). These women had experienced loss of family members, loss of their homes and/or were abandoned by their husbands during the summer 2014 hostilities. Many mothers who have lost their children experienced depression during the war. Their loss was associated with feelings of "guilt" for their failure to protect their children while surviving the war themselves.

"Kefaya", a 40-year-old woman with nine children, was abandoned by her husband at an UNRWA shelter immediately after the 2014 Israeli offensive. Since then, she had been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and experienced significant trauma symptoms. She said "after participating in the sessions I decided to repair my damaged house and I started to think how I can start my own small business. Those sessions were the light at the end of the tunnel for me; the start to save my life and my family’s life from loss and fragmentation. Aisha Association staff also helped me to contact the Ministry of Social Affairs to obtain my share of the Ministry's aid which is registered in my husband’s name."

The project followed the "integrated individual empowerment approach" which was developed by Aisha after the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip in 2012, to better respond to the multiple needs of women with symptoms of trauma and PSTD. The approach combines PSS with protection and empowerment interventions. It ensured outreach to women who were most in need of PSS and faced obstacles in accessing such services whether due to economic reasons, care responsibilities, disability or old age. This was undertaken by partnering with Community Based Organizations in those communities to identify beneficiaries. The project also included mobile clinics to reach women in their communities and incorporated recreational activities that benefited children as well.

Another characteristic was the integration of a referral system to a range of services to ensure the wellbeing of beneficiaries, such as immediate humanitarian assistance, legal counselling, and economic assistance through Ministry of Social Affairs programmes. Specialized mental health counselling and treatment was provided for 100 women with severe cases of PSTD through the Gaza Mental Health Programme. Based on statistics from the pre-post assessment conducted by Aisha, a significant positive change in the psychological wellbeing of targeted women was detected over the six-month project implementation period.

* This item was provided by the Protection Cluster and is part of a series of overviews about the performance of clusters against the objectives set out in the Strategic Response Plan.