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The importance of financial inclusion, globally and locally. Published in This Week in Palestine October 2022 issue Financial inclusion has led global …
Palestinian life is filled with cultural references that tie Palestinians to their “naturalenvironment.” The olive tree has become a symbol of Palestinian steadfastness, andhardly a day passes in Palestine without a reference to the land, sea, and air thatPalestinians have been denied. Despite the patriotic slogans, however, speaking aboutthe environment and climate challenges is considered to be a luxury in manyPalestinian communities. Decades-long occupation has clouded most of the discourse,with many Palestinians considering any other conversation to be secondary or “lessimportant” at best, and “imported” or “Western,” at worst. This understanding of the environment is extremely problematic, mainly because itignores the importance of environmental and resource sustainability to Palestinianliberation from occupation, dependency, and underdevelopment. While Palestine’scontribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is minuscule, the impact of climatechange in Palestine is expected to be severe. In Palestine and the region, thecombination of rising temperatures and decreased rainfall is expected to dramaticallyincrease demand for water, which is an already scarce resource, inflicting significantharm in agricultural production capacity. Combined with the impact of Israelirestrictions and settlement expansion on the water resources and land area availablefor agriculture, climate challenges are expected to have catastrophic implications forfood security in Palestine. For this reason, efforts that focus on improving food securityand sustainability in Palestine and the region are likely to intensify. Despite the absence of a clear and systematic approach to addressing environmentaland climate challenges at the national level, a number of renewable energy, watertreatment, and waste management projects have been developed with support fromthe Palestinian government and international donor organizations that today form theseed for environmental transformation. The development of these projects has mainlybeen driven by the need to ensure the sustainability of vital resources such as energyand water at an affordable cost. To build on existing efforts, more actors need to payattention to resource sustainability in the agriculture sector. Out of over 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, around a third (1.7million, mostly in Gaza) are food insecure, and a further 16.8 percent (841,000) aremarginally food secure.*1 Food insecurity is only expected to increase due to populationgrowth, increasing international commodity prices, and Israeli restrictions on trade(and associated costs), in addition to the reduced capacity for food production due toshrinking land area and water reserves. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza import most of their food, while their ability toproduce their food on their land is increasingly constrained. To ensure food security,Palestinians have little choice but to adopt technologies and practices that can radicallyimprove conservation of soil quality, water resources, and other agricultural inputs.This could enable the sector to grow sustainably to serve a growing population despitethe challenges. Adopting more advanced technologies and cultivation methods such ashydroponic farming, vertical farming, and fully controlled and monitoredenvironments (greenhouses), can help farmers produce three to six times the amountof produce, with significantly reduced water use and minimal levels of harmfulchemicals. Hydroponic cultivation, for example, can save up to 95 percent of the neededwater for growing greens and a range of vegetables, including widely consumed, water-intensive crops such as tomatoes and cucumbers. Plastic bags placed on arcuate faqqous grown in the town of Deir Ballout in the Salfit governorate. …
My colleagues and close friends accuse me of always managing to adapt my thinking and envision a positive outcome or a new status quo. Seldom is my ambitious thinking considered practical or expected to deliver the desired output. But I am sure that life is about doing the right thing while submitting to a journey that evolves naturally – not always leading straight to the imagined final destination. Palestinian society is made up of individuals who are categorized by their gender, age group, economic status, level of education, location, and numerous other categories and subcategories. These individuals have human rights that need to be ensured, respected, and protected. They have common basic human needs, as outlined brilliantly by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation.” Maslow’s hierarchy of needs represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom. On an individual level, we have a duty to demand and fight for our rights and completefreedom. In addition, we have a responsibility to work towards fulfilling our needs. Strong individuals make a strong society that then selects, informs, and guides a strong administration and governance body. Collectively, the individuals, society, and public governance establishment create a strong nation and state. This is a bottom-up development, and individuals carry responsibility, especially when a government has been weakened. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken our world. It has proven that countries and governments are incapable of sustaining economic cycles and worse, it has pinpointed the limitations of what could be done to upgrade and administer a crucial healthcare system. In the context of Palestine, the mission to minimize the repercussions is even more complex, given the abnormal starting point of the geo-socio-economic-political status of our occupied reality prior to the mega shock. Palestinian society was already suffering from a very high unemployment rate before the crisis. Our economy is small, consuming more than it produces and lacking self-sufficiency and independence across the spectrum of economic sectors. Nevertheless, our people have shown great resilience in the face of adversity. But perhaps we needed the pandemic nudge in order to take another in-depth look inward and adjust our planning to practically execute our agenda of putting our citizens first. I would like to argue that the facilitation of entrepreneurship awareness, education, and practice conjoined with the utilization of innovation and technology will play a significant role in the post-pandemic future of an even more resilient Palestinian society and nation. Progress is inevitable and it is driven by scientific research and advancement in technological innovation. In the past decades, long-established industries and traditional business models have been disrupted and remodeled. Artificial intelligence, automation, and digital transformation, whilst creating new specialized opportunities for income generation, are eliminating jobs for millions of others. When deliberating the ongoing trends and the future of job markets, we discuss the future freelance or gig economy. Millions of people are generating disposable income by selling products and services online. Indeed, e-commerce technology has reduced significantly the investment capital required to start a business, allowing entrepreneurs to create virtualrather than physical stores, and enabling them to market their services and products through various social media platforms while utilizing efficient, targeted sales and marketing tools. The market size is no longer limited by geographical borders, and the delivery of products is powered by a global logistics chain that is continuously upgrading to fulfill anyone’s needs – as long as he or she can afford it. …