The overall goal of the Programme is to contribute to improving the health and livelihoods of marginalized communities (women, children and families) in the occupied Palestinian territory through improving nutritional status among Palestinian children in targeted schools, achieving sustainable income for targeted women centers and increasing community acceptance of women’s involvement in non-domestic economic activities. Throughout the three year Programme cycle 28 Women Centers will produce affordable nutritious food and snacks sold at the school canteens in 230 schools. It is estimated that more than 85.000 students and approximately 420 women will benefit directly from this Programme.
The Program will involve the training of women from the Women Centers in rural marginalized areas spread across the West Bank through a holistic training program that targets such skills as marketing, costing and accounting (business enterprise training) as well as how to produce nutritious affordable food for students and how to run school canteens. Some subsidies for rent of canteens will be covered as well as small investments at the schools and at the Women Centers involved in order to provide proper facilities and build the capacities for future sustainability. Student extra-curricular activities will be included to promote awareness. Through this program women will receive wages for work, become income earners, and in the long run, the empowerment of the women will contribute to advancing the human rights of women and eliminating gender inequality through mobilizing women groups and providing economic security. The technical and financial support to the previous schools and Women Centers involved in the pilot phase will be limited focusing on ensuring sustainability of the activities, while the new schools and Women Centers will be provided with the full scope of capacity building and financial support for the first year. A baseline study was be prepared during the pilot phase and will be used as a monitoring an evaluation tool at the completion of the program.
The Norwegian contribution is approximately 2,25 million USD and the in-kind contribution from UNIFEM and MEHE has a value of approximately 230,000 USD.