6

social assets

PALESTINE EMERGING recognizes that temporary solutions tend to last a long time; sites for short-term social assets must be chosen with care.

HEALTH, HOUSING, EDUCATION

Immediate humanitarian recovery actions carried out by the United Nations and other related agencies include provision for healthcare, housing assistance, education, and community services. 

Cluster social assets so they focus urban growth and help accelerate the delivery of permanent solutions across different sectors. 

Plan residential development in Gaza City, Deir Al Balah, Khan Yunis, and Rafah around clustered social assets to maximize pedestrian accessibility to community facilities, services, and employment. 

HEALTHCARE EXCELLENCE 

PALESTINE EMERGING supports the development of modern, tech-enabled healthcare infrastructure that integrates both public and private systems. 

Short Term

  • Focus on provision of basic, primary care
  • Invest in HealthTech pilot projects

Medium Term

  • Scale HealthTech pilots
  • Restructure secondary and tertiary care 
  • Introduce remote clinics.

Long Term

  • Consolidate private and public health systems
  • Standardize digital systems 

Healthcare recovery will emphasize collaboration between the private and public sectors (including aid agencies) to capture synergies and reduce duplication of investments. 

In the short term, we anticipate acute shortages of healthcare practitioners and diagnostic equipment; the private sector will play a crucial role to best position human resources and accelerate the importation/movement of healthcare equipment and medicine. Establish private clinics and a network of nurse practitioners. 

In the long term, construct healthcare assets with standardized and modular construction techniques. Cluster healthcare assets near other social infrastructure. Support quality healthcare education via hospital placements and exchange programs with regional hospitals. 

Digital innovations, including centralized, digital patient record systems and a telehealth platform, enable regional doctors to support patients unable to access formal healthcare facilities. 5G systems and investments into the ICT sector will support these digital enablers. Encourage financial institutions to launch a private national health insurance system for workers in formal employment. In the long term, lower the per-capita cost of healthcare delivery to increase access to health services. 

COMMUNITY LIVING

PALESTINE EMERGING promotes local neighborhood centers as a unit of resilience, integrating housing, healthcare, education, and cultural exchange. Establish Gazan-led initiatives to weave together work, life, and leisure with communal traditions and the ethos of Palestinian society. 

Short Term

  • Focus on occupancy assistance 
  • Establish a secure environment 

Medium Term

  • Transition into more permanent housing solutions 

Long Term

  • Develop mixed-use neighborhoods around community hubs
  • Expand urban boundaries by connecting to other community hubs

Resolve land disputes before starting formal development. Implement legal and financing mechanisms to support the acquisition of land. To encourage high-quality mixed-use development, allow original landowners to benefit from the redevelopment of their land. 

Accelerate neighborhood-scale development with high-density modular housing systems. Develop supply and manufacturing chains within Palestine and train local workforces in modular manufacturing to provide jobs and economic development. Deliver efficient smaller urban apartments that meet the demand of younger and more independent populations. Create low-interest financing products and subsidize upfront investments to accelerate community development. 

Neighborhoods are the units of social and environmental resilience. Strong neighborhood designs allow residents to access a wide variety of daily services within short travel distances; they feature public spaces and buildings with active street frontages to provide retail and social amenities and improve street-level security. 

See also: 

C40/ARUP’s ‘Green and Thriving Neighborhoods’

NEXT-GENERATION EDUCATION

PALESTINE EMERGING supports the development of a next-generation education system that trains students’ critical thinking and prepares them for employment with relevant technical skills. We anticipate acute shortages of physical facilities and trained teaching staff in the short term. Make educational facilities central to urban development. Develop specialized institutions that attract international interest and investment while building on Palestinian themes. 

Short Term

  • Develop hybrid/digital TeleEd systems to overcome the shortage of resources

Medium Term

  • Anchor urban developments with new/rebuilt educational facilities
  • Pilot new curriculum and digital delivery models 

Long Term

  • Develop specialized academic centers 

Physical and economic reconstruction will require vast amounts of local capabilities for years; train local students for reconstruction-related roles. Develop education hubs for business administration and public policy, to educate future leaders for the broader region. Incorporate digital training into the education system to prepare students for employment in a 5G/AI enabled economy. 

Expose Palestinian students to global perspectives; supplement local programs with selected Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), partnering with regional and international institutions. Support the translation of more foreign language books into Arabic, to breach language barriers and introduce new, constructive ways of thinking.

Norway launched the EduApp4Syria initiative in 2015, which addressed the educational crisis faced by Syrian children displaced by conflict. With smartphone applications like “Feed the Monster” and “Antura and the Letters,” the project demonstrated the potential of technology to aid reading skills and improve psychosocial well-being through engaging, open-source educational games.

GAMECHANGER 

TELEHEALTH PLATFORM 

Develop a centralized platform to provide remote healthcare consultations for communities in both the West Bank and Gaza, connecting them with healthcare practitioners. 

The platform will serve as a mechanism to engage with doctors and volunteers within and outside Palestine, enabling them to participate in the healthcare sector without having to be based in the region. It is part of a broader healthcare plan to digitize and upgrade the sector in Palestine and across the region.  

Initially, the platform will focus on three types of services: 1) mental health consultation 2) teleradiology and 3) telepathology, areas projected to have the highest level of unmet need after active hostilities have stopped.

Over time, the platform can be scaled across the broader West Bank and Gaza region and expand into other areas of medicine. The implementation of this platform will cut the cost of services by reducing patient transportation costs and optimizing doctors’ productive hours.

Globally, implementation of telehealth programs reduced health system costs in the short to medium term in 53% of cost minimization studies, 50% of cost effectiveness studies and 32% of cost-utility studies. The predominant reason for lower costs was the reduction or avoidance of health system–funded travel by patients and clinicians.

Snoswell, C.L., (2020).

GAMECHANGER 

Technical University of Reconstruction (TUR)

Develop a degree-granting institution that delivers a comprehensive suite of academic programs focused on Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Economic Development. The Technical University of Reconstruction will be the first purpose-built institution of its kind – geographically located at the core of one of the highest profile identity-based conflict areas in the world. 

This institution will anchor a new mixed-use quarter in a regenerated area of northern Gaza.  

STUDY AREAS

The TUR will integrate programs for researchers to examine the context of contemporary armed conflict and war, how peace advances at local and national levels, and analysis of domestic and international actors. Degree candidates will undertake fieldwork placements with critical reconstruction efforts, ranging from the deployment of modular housing to the creation and management of financial instruments that underwrite reconstruction.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING

The TUR will incorporate a major vocational program, training the local workforce to address aspects of post-conflict reconstruction. Students will develop skills related to physical challenges like ordnance clearance, built-hazard removal, environmental remediation, and family reconciliation. Students and graduates of this program will work alongside national and international aid agencies, and it will create informed and capable individuals able to undertake a wide range of value-added roles in the future. 

INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP AND EXCHANGE

The TUR will partner with international institutions and consultancies to facilitate knowledge transfer, help students build international relationships, broaden their perspectives, and increase access to global graduate job opportunities.

Durham University in the UK supports close to 17,000 jobs. Every pound received in income generates almost five pounds in economic impact. 

Durham University (2022).