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Conference on Sustainable Development and Human Security and their relationship to Civil Peace

Panorama‘s Gaza office conducted a conference on sustainable development and human security and their relationship to civil peace.  Approximately 140 people participated in the conference, including representatives of international institutions, civil and legal persons within the project, and finally the coordinators of the program.
In a working paper presented by the project coordinator at the Center for Development Studies at Birzeit University Ghassan Abu Hatab, said that sustainable development is incomplete and reduced under occupation, adding that economic indicators have been negatively affected since 2000, especially with the continuing closures and siege, disabling any forces of production.
The study certified that 74% of the children in the Gaza Strip believed that civil peace is not verified within Palestinian society. Also 70.2% of the children believe that human security is verified in the Palestinian community and that they seek to strengthen civil peace, reconciliation and national harmony.  Abu Hatab‘s study illustrated that rates of poverty and unemployment, contributed significantly to food insecurity in the Palestinian territories, recommending the development of a national strategy or ability to meet the challenges and end the state of division that would remove any chance of civil peace.
Director of the Islamic Relief in Palestine, Mohammed Soussi stated that the situation of one million and half Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have become worse than ever since the occupation in 1967 where the unemployment rate increased to 40%.
Soussi also noted that plans for Palestinian development in their implementation depend on foreign aid from donor countries that have not dedicated to pay all its commitments to the Palestinian National Authority.  Soussi said that, based on a study conducted by the Institute of Development Studies in the Gaza Strip, the types of institutions, especially informal played a pivotal role in maintaining the sustainability of livelihoods of the poor, calling to activate the role of official bodies, donors and the local community in the promotion of civil peace.  Basil Nasser a representative of the United Nations Development Program discussed the risks that threaten human security in the Arab world, focusing on the important role of the international organizations.  He added that the role is limited to providing enough economic deficits, but extends to contribute to reducing the impact of conflict in real time.
Nasser added that the exercise of pressure on the Israeli government to open the crossings would develop the process of sustainable development, which will contribute to civil peace.  It was important that this conference came within the activities of the civil peace project for children in the Gaza Strip in partnership with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, founder of Twitter and Ghassan Kanafani Foundation, Rafah Service Club - Women‘s Department and the Association of Yebos Forum Science, Technology and Association for the Development of Women and Children.

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