Human Rights Programme Palestine 2018-2023

The main purpose of the Human Rights Programme is to strenghten the respect for human rights and international law in Palestine. The programme´s main purpose is expected to be attained by providing core support to human rights organizations that have demonstrated that they have the skills and capabilities to contribute to a real and sustainable change for an effective realization of respect for human rights and international humanitarian law in Palestine. The organizations that will receive support are expected to work in accordance with human rights and have an IHL based approach in their implementation, as well as a clear mandate, a long-term strategy and a performance framework with relevant, realistic and measurable goals.The organizations that will be included in the programme will be selected by Sweden and evaluated by the Programme Implementor to ensure that they meet the criteria for obtaining funding from Sweden. The NGO Development Center (NDC) is proposed to act as the Implementor of the programme. NDC is a Palestinian civil society organization that has two strategic goals; 1) Improve the capacity of civil society organizations to provide more sustainable services and contribute to socio-economic development. 2) Contribute towards the development of civil society organizations so they are more responsive, open and accountable.The organizations proposed to be given the opportunity to become part of the programme have all previously been supported by Sweden and other countries through other programmes, and are thus well-known and recognized actors in the field of human rights. In total, eight organizations are proposed to be invited to participate in the programme, four of which are Palestinian and four are Israeli. Apart from being well-known, the organisations meet the demands set by Sweden for civil society organisations to receive core support: 1) Legally registered as a non-governmental organization in either Israel or Palestine. 2) Maintains non-violence and non-discrimination in their work and statutes. 3) Has a management structure with clearly defined and divided roles and responsibilities. 4) Has documented administrative capacity and organizational distribution of responsability. 5) Has a bank account managed by more than one person (for joint signing). 6) Has annual financial statements reviewed by a qualified external auditor for the past three years.In addition to the above-mentioned general criteria, there are also specific criteria to ensure that the organizations´ work long-term and strategically with human rights in Palestine, such as; 1) Have a long-term (at least three-year) strategic plan and/or clearly stated intervention logic and a clear results framework. 2) Be able to demonstrate documented advocacy capacity and/or other methods to achieve real and concrete results. 3) Have a documented and clear strategy for coordinating and collaborating with other CSOs, state or international organizations and actors in Human Rights/IHL. 4) Have a local outreach work in order to reach local targeted groups. 5) Covering a thematic area in human rights that contributes to the overall objectives of Sweden's development strategy for Palestine.The Implementor will review the need for financial resources for the eight invited organisations planned activities. After a financial assessment has been made by the Implementor, the result is presented to Sweden, who takes a decision on which organizations will ultimately be included in the programme, and also decides about the size of the financial support that will be granted to each of the organizations. The organizations that have been selected to participate in the programme are; Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, BADIL, DCI-PS, B´Tselem, Breaking the Silence, Gisha and Yesh Din. No further forwarding of funds from these organizations will take place, whereby risks in the management and control of disbursed funds have been minimized.