INTERVIEW
UNRWA COMMISSIONER-GENERAL KAREN KONING ABUZAYD

MARIA V. DWEGGAH, WHO

You have been working for UNRWA since 2000, and since 2005, as UN Under-Secretary General, appointed as Commissioner General overseeing operations in a very volatile political environment. What have been your most difficult challenges, your greatest achievements?
There have been many challenges. While in office I have seen an organization, whose contribution to peace and stability in the Middle East region is through its human development work, constantly having to respond to desperate emergencies, usually caused by conflict. The fighting at the Nahr el bared refugee camp in Northern Lebanon in 2007 and the conflict that began in Gaza on 27 December last year are good examples. There have been many others in my time here, many related to the Israeli occupation now in its fifth decade. I cannot omit mentioning as well the funding challenge – our constant struggle to raise each year even our basic operational expenses for primary education and primary health care, paying the salaries of our 29,000 staff.

On the other hand, we have launched some remarkably innovative programmes – gender and schools of excellence work in Gaza, human rights education in all five of our fields (West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria), vocational training and youth initiatives in Syria, quality health initiatives in Lebanon. Through the UNRWA@60 campaign we have engaged more widely in the field of advocacy, at our Marcel Khalife concert in Vienna in June and our High Level Event in New York in September where governments paid tribute to UNRWA’s achievements. These events are evidence of something important that has taken place in UNRWA. We hung a banner on the outside of the General Assembly building in New York, six stories high and full of the smiling faces of Palestinian children. It carried the words “Peace Starts Here”. That was a proud moment for me, a sign that I was leaving UNRWA a confident organization with a strong sense of what it is, where it is going and with the courage and self-belief to tell the world proudly what it stands for.

UNRWA was created in 1949. This December you are commemorating the 60th anniversary. In your view, what impact did UNRWA have on the lives of the Palestine refugees? What could be done better?
The impact of UNRWA on the lives of Palestinians through six decades is incalculable. More than any other UN humanitarian agency, we are an organization which is fully identified with the full range of activities that make up the lives of its beneficiaries. UNRWA has become part of Palestine refugee identity itself. Look at just one issue, gender. From the earliest stages in the life of UNRWA we have been making an impact and shaping Palestinian society. We achieved gender balance in our schools by the 1960s, a remarkable feat when you look at the issue even today in the Middle East. We opened the first women’s’ vocational training centre in the Middle East, in Ramallah. Our award-winning Micro-Finance Department has seen women’s participation grow three-fold in the last three years. Of course we could have done many more things even better if we had sufficient funds. This links into my first answer. Consider Gaza today, Nahr el Bared and the other camps in Lebanon, or the highly restrictive environment of the West Bank. We work under great pressures in these places which prevents us from maintaining standards we achieved decades ago.

UNRWA has 30,000 local staff working in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza, many of whom live in over-crowded camps, in poor socio-economic conditions, often facing restrictions or even working under threat to life. How do you manage to keep all the services and programs running?
With great difficulty! We are under pressure from so many different actors – donors, host countries, staff unions, our beneficiaries – because of who we are and how we function, which is the result of our unique history. To begin with, as you say, we employ 30,000 people who are themselves refugees. This immediately gives us an added responsibility. We are no ordinary employer even though we face the same pressures of ordinary employers. Though it doesn’t always reach the headlines in Europe, we are in a state of what feels like constant negotiations with the staff unions. On the other hand, our donors are still feeling the pinch of the global economic recession. They are always looking for efficiency savings and to this end we initiated a three year programme of root and branch reform which is coming to an end. We are now looking hard at how we sustain the momentum of these changes. We have already shown that we are much more efficient at targeting the most needy and of course we are being forced to prioritize. At the same time, we are under pressure from our host governments who look very carefully at our operations and become very nervous when they feel that we are planning any sort of service reduction. Finally, and by far the most important actors are the refugees. They are the people who ultimately feel the impact of decisions about the services in the camps and it is the refugees who are at the centre of our decision-making.

UNRWA has no political mandate. But personally, what would your wish, your vision be for the Palestine refugees?
That’s easy. At least it’s easy to say and much harder to do. My wish and vision would be a Palestinian state, strong, viable and with the full support of the international system, politically and financially, including the government of Israel. This would be a state which protects and allows the complete enjoyment of rights and I mean the full range of rights, civil and political, economic, social and cultural. It would be a state in which Palestinians felt proud to participate and one which allowed them to put behind six decades of exile and dispossession. This all sounds very idealistic in the present circumstances, but it remains a hope and a dream for many. You are right that UNRWA has no political mandate which is why we look to the peace-makers to provide a framework. I have always said that humanitarian work without a meaningful political framework is merely a figleaf. Take the recent Gaza confl ict. So much of our human development work was literally destroyed in the twentytwo day conflict. Then there are the West Bank restrictions which make life so tough for ordinary people – and indeed UNRWA – and also illustrate the perils and frustrations of humanitarian work in the absence of a political framework. This has been one of my most serious regrets while in office. UNRWA, like the refugees themselves, is very disappointed by the lack of political progress.

Commissioner-General, your mandate is reaching the end. What are your plans?
Looking back at my schedule for the last years, I have spent about half of my time on the road, traveling around the world raising funds and advocating for Palestine refugees. It has been very satisfying, but being slightly less itinerant is certainly one of my plans. That said, I certainly will continue to travel and speak out, in support of UNRWA and the rights of the refugees. It has been an honour to work for an organization which has made such an extraordinary contribution to the peace and stability of this region, so I can’t see myself letting go so easily. I also hope to spend some time, perhaps in academia, processing my experiences and finding the time to reflect, analyze and write. Finally, I recently became a grandmother and I fully intend to work “grandmotherhood” into my plans for my post UNRWA life.