ABSTRACT

Exploring the evolution of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), this book fills a lacuna in literature on the agency.

UNRWA and Palestinian Refugees employs recent fieldwork in order to analyse challenges in programmes and service delivery, protection, camp governance, community participation, and camp improvement and reconstruction. The chapters examine the way UNRWA is adapting to a changing social, political and economic context, mostly within urban settings – a paradigmatic shift from understanding the Agency’s role as simply a provider of relief and services to one comprehensively supporting the human development of Palestinian refugees.

Examining the refugee debate using new disciplines and research frameworks, this collection aims to emphasise the centrality of the Palestinian refugee issue for Middle East peace-making and to contribute a better understanding of a unique agency. This book will be a useful aid for students and researchers with an interest in Middle East Studies, Politics, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

part I|49 pages

Meeting challenges in programmes and service delivery

chapter 1|29 pages

Can the subaltern pay?

Realizing self-reliance through microfinance

part III|35 pages

Governance

chapter 5|20 pages

From chaos to order and back

The construction of UNRWA shelters and camps, 1950–70

chapter 6|13 pages

UNRWA as a “phantom sovereign”

Governance practices in Lebanon

part IV|44 pages

Civic participation and community engagement

chapter 7|18 pages

From beneficiary to stakeholder

An overview of UNRWA's approach to refugee participation

chapter 8|24 pages

Community participation and human rights advocacy

Questions arising from the campaign about the right to work of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon

part V|74 pages

Camp improvement/reconstruction and community development

chapter 10|15 pages

Talbiyeh camp improvement project and the challenges of community participation

Between empowerment and conflict

chapter 11|19 pages

Implementing the Neirab Rehabilitation Project

UNRWA's approach to development in Syria's Palestinian refugee camps

chapter 12|21 pages

The urban planning strategy in Al-Hussein Palestinian refugee camp in Amman

Heterogeneous practices, homogeneous landscape

part VI|32 pages

Palestinian refugees and durable solutions

chapter 13|21 pages

UNRWA as avatar

Current debates on the agency – and their implications