This article is an example of my technical writing. It was written as part of my job as the Capacity Building Officer at my current employer (a Quasi-Governemental Institute in Ramallah) and was supposed to appear in July's issue of THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE; however, "issues" with the publication caused my employer to decide against writing for them. Enjoy.
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| Children at Deir Ammar village, now part of the amalgamated al-Mutahida (the United) Municipality from my flickr account here |
It all started with an idea. Just like a story from Arabian Nights (1001 Nights), the king announces a competition between his 42 city-states, each one of the three winners will marry one of the kings’ three daughters and will have a majestic community center built for their people. The little kings across these 42 city-states start running in all directions to win the competition and the papa king stays amused throughout this race. Well, this is how things pretty much looked from our offices at the Municipal Development and Lending Fund (MDLF) from the moment the Ministry of Local Government announced a competition for the three best Strategic Development and Investment Plans (SDIPs) amongst the 42 municipalities currently receiving support to prepare their own unique SDIPs. Things did not exactly start out from where I mentioned; and of course the whole democratic process of the SDIP is not driven by the fact the there is a prize by the MoLG. Also, I do not know if Arabian Nights mentions anything about a competition between 42 city-states (I am actually reading the 252nd night in Arabic where the two queens who happened to be married to the same king have pervertedly fallen in love with each other’s son) but things started to look interesting from the point where the competition was announced and on, and we at MDLF have been watching in amusement.
The SDIP process is perhaps the most progressive and democratic experience facing the Palestinian local government units since their establishment. Based primarily on public participation and public consultation currently 42 municipalities are applying terms of good governance and democratic principles during the process of developing their SDIPs, while intensely competing to win one of the three prizes for the best SDIP: the prize includes having one of their proposed community priority projects funded by the MoLG for implementation. In order to win this competition each municipality must come up with the best SDIP. A good SDIP has several requirements, but perhaps the most important of them is that it answers to the urgent strategic priorities of the people. In order to answer for the strategic priorities of the people, they must be gotten involved in the process of the preparation of the SDIP. In order to make sure the entire spectrum of the society is involved (the stakeholders) public meetings must be held at set dates and times which will simply get the people actively involved in the process.
So far, some municipalities have amazed those of us directly involved in the “monitoring” process. While things seem to be moving slower at some municipalities that are simply following certain steps from the SDIP manual and guidelines to promote their SDIP preparation process, the process was developing in a unique way for each municipality. For instance, older municipalities such as Nablus which is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world (and established as a modern municipality in 1869) were going about the process in an old fashioned way. After assessing their initial needs it seemed obvious they were comfortable with where they were standing.
Other younger and smaller municipalities were going about the process differently. Eager to establish their position as strategic while strategically planning, these municipalities have excelled in their methods of publicizing the work they have done with their SDIP. Smaller, newer, younger, and not yet placed on a world map, these municipalities are drilling their way to the top tirelessly. Municipalities such as Kufor Ra’ie (which mean the ‘Shepherd’s Village’), Jenin, Samu’e, Anabta, Deir Dubwan (Humorously sometimes known as St. Duboins), and many others have been coming up with great methods to introduce their SDIP preparation to their residents: From paid commercials to a running news ticker during peak hours on television, from electronic billboards to speaking on national and local radios, to Facebook.
While it is probably becoming no secret that half of all of the Palestinians across the globe choose “Palestine, Texas” as their home location on Facebook, abusing the tiny Texan town’s ability to have its real residents connect on this social media. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip feel strongly about their connection to their towns and villages and feel a sense of pride and belonging. Kufor Ra’ie’s younger and energized community has established so far the larger Facebook group to promote their SDIP process. While only less than 300 members (at the time of writing this article, now 368, the Jenin Municipality has since taken over with 538 members), it is still growing. Towns like Kufor Ra’ie and Jenin are leading the path for others to learn from their unique approach in using social media to promote a single event and turning out with hundreds of residents for Public meetings.
Amaar Ya Falastin (Prosperity to Palestine) has been the motto. Each municipality adopts the first two words and replaces the word Falastin with the name of their town: Amaar Ya Nablus, Amaar Ya Jaba’a, and so on. The title is then hung on banners for months hovering over each town. People memorize the words and get involved with their ideas or participate actively at one of the many committees jointly established between stakeholders and the municipality. While the SDIP process in general has sparked enthusiasm at the local government units, the competition spiced things up and is proving to be an excellent tool in mobilization and motivate each municipality to come out with their best performance.
Young committees are sometimes formed to promote the planning process, usher events, and conduct public questionnaires. At other municipalities, women who felt were being kept out demanded to have an exclusive public meeting to address their needs and to speak freely. “What can we say, our women are strong!” said a member of the core-planning committee at Deir al-Ghusoun (better known as Dr. Salam Fayyad’s village) when only nine women overpowered the other 50 male members in making everyone adopt the issue of women and children as one of the three priorities at their municipality.
So far, those of us who are directly involved in the process, either as members of the SDIP National Working Group (The SDIP project is being implemented in a partnership of MOLG , Ministry of Planning, MDLF, selected municipalities and is supported by GIZ-LGP and other development partners) or as consultants supporting the municipalities in preparing their SDIP, have been lucky to be part of this experience as we watch Palestinians eagerly creating their plans and democratically getting everyone involved: to see Palestine choose prosperity, and in a way have each municipality define itself in terms of its unique vision.
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