Improving Public Health and Basic Hygiene in Gaza

The project fits within the overall strategy of the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), with the caveat that there is currently no overall strategy being implemented due to the situation. The project established a steering committee which operated effectively, brought together different essential constituents (including Municipalities, UNRWA, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health), and ensured the fit of the interventions with their respective agencies? concerns.

 

The project design and early implementation benefited from a baseline household and environmental survey, which unfortunately was not repeated at the end of the project. It however proved useful to mobilize constituents.

 

In terms of deliverables, the project provided access to water to 610 households or 6,110 residents (targeted: 460 households or 7,000 residents); installed 13 fire hydrants (targeted 14); and provided 240 solid waste containers to 15,000 residents (above target). The removal of solid waste from the now available containers will be integrated within Municipal Plans, and benefit / be subject to the same level of effectiveness of waste removal as other neighborhoods of the two municipalities.

 

The technical review verified the technical appropriateness and soundness of the engineering interventions. The final evaluation verified that the last elements pending completion were generally completed and added on during Phase 2 of the project.

 

In terms of Public Health interventions, the project has achieved all the deliverables established in its agreement and plans.

 

This included the following:

 

- Five Child-to-Child communication groups were formed, comprising a total of 40 girls and 32 boys. These groups followed a sequenced approach of six steps, each group focused on a specific topic. Through their efforts, 986 children-participants were reached (63% girls).

 

- Health Workers conducted a total of 240 Health Awareness activities, reaching out to 4,284 women-participants.

 

- 954 children-participants were also reached through these activities, as well as special day celebrations and 400 individual children participated in Summer Camps, which included health promotion and communication efforts.

 

The analytical findings from the evaluation can be summarized according to the following six key messages:

 

1. The project was designed to address effective needs of underserved communities. It filled a small part of a strategic but currently unimplemented overall WatSan plan for Gaza. In doing so it targeted achievable objectives and feasible interventions within a very constraining context.

 

2. MAP and PSCF have essentially achieved all their objectives and delivered on all the outputs committed to at the onset of the project, delivering benefits to 15,000 underprivileged residents of the two municipalities. This was achieved during months of turmoil and chaos for Gaza, within budget over a short nine-month period.

 

3. Community members, notably women, were involved in reaching out to neighbors, establishing priority messages for health education sessions, and supporting children activities. For an ?emergency project?, this shows high consideration for community participation. From a developmental perspective, however, this approach has faced some limitations.

 

4. The Child-to-Child and general outreach activities conducted by PSCF on the ground displayed a high level of motivation for citizen education, childhood development, and gender awareness. Many activities seem to have been led with a genuinely celebratory enthusiasm.

 

5. While the project carried out energetically many worthwhile activities around health topics and issues of varying importance, it did not have and did not implement a public health behavior change strategy, and it generally lacked focus in the conduct of health awareness activities.

 

6. The project was managed effectively, involving partners and making needed adjustments along the way. Monitoring of activities was meticulous and detailed.

Lessons learned are summarized at the end of this report, and recommendations are made both in terms of immediate needs for Gaza in the WatSan sector, as for MAP and PSCF in order to increase the impact of their future Public Health interventions.