FAO.org

Strengthening agricultural producer organizations (POs) and cooperatives has been recognized as a key way forward to support farmers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS) and, in turn, promote food security, income generation and private sector development. Agriculture in the WBGS is characterized by smallholdings; there are just over 110 000 of these, and 90 percent are classified as small or medium-sized. The annual report on states that have limited or absent governance capability and are vulnerable to conflict or collapse. Yet, few would deny the extreme fragility of the WBGS given the conflict situation, a deadlocked political process and failing state and institutional performance. Access restrictions to natural resources, movement restrictions affecting goods and people, a longstanding economic food-access crisis, high unemployment rates, the breakdown of livelihoods, the COVID-19 pandemic and insufficient institutional capacity to respond have all negatively impacted the lives of the population. The key challenge is therefore how to increase the effectiveness of support for POs in an environment where citizens do not suffer only from poverty, economic exclusion and inequality but experience high levels of repeated or cyclical violence amidst weak support institutions and poor governance capability.