1. Conditional Cash Assistance to build
resilience against water scarcity
• Specific risks and vulnerabilities: Lack of access to water resources and
risk of losing land to expropriation
• Target group: 500 poor small and mediumscale herding and farming families
relying completely or partially on agriculture and livestock production for their
own food security and livelihoods.
• Coping mechanism prior to project: Selling productive assets and buying
water via tanker trucks at inflated pricesfor supplementary crop irrigation
• The idea: Rainwater harvesting through construction and rehabilitation of
cisterns to secure availability and access to water for domestic and agricultural
use while safeguarding land access/rights.
Location: Jenin and
Hebron governorates of
the West Bank
Donor:
In coordination with:
Palestinian Ministry of
Agriculture
Training: Local
Palestinian NGOs
Budget: USD 2 million
Duration: 16 months
(11/1/11–2/28/13)
Since the conclusion
of this project, this
best practice has been
replicated across the
West Bank under a
variety of donors and
projects.
In 2014 alone, 660
cisterns were established
and rehabilitated
• The Benefits: Household water cisterns allow water purchasing in large
quantities at a cheaper price saving beneficiary families up to USD 2,400/year
• Supervised Cash-for-work scheme providing 15 days of additional income to
2200 beneficiaries, injecting cash directly into affected communities.
• Cost effective and timely method for large-scale project with wide geographic
scope.
• Community in-kind contribution up to 40% of the estimated cost with unskilled
labour is an asset for future maintenance of beneficiaries' cisterns
• Water harvesting contributes to soil and water conservation, preserving
communities' natural resources.
• Protects and promotes land access/use in a manner preventing expropriation
Women: 80% of agricultural work is usually
done by women as part of their household
duties, while men primarily make decisions
regarding family finance. Women participated
in the project's cash for work scheme (32% of
the total number of beneficiaries).
Project contribution to strengthen resilience related
capacities at different levels of the society
SO5: Increase the resilience of livelihoods to
threats and crises
WATCH TO SAFEGUARD
• Data gathered for beneficiary
selection also used to identify
trends and inform programming
PREPARE AND RESPOND
TO CRISES
• Recurrent drought
• Unemployment
• Protects land
ownership/access
GOVERN RISKS AND CRISES
• Supports the MoA’s agricultural sector strategy
target to build 10,000 water harvesting cisterns
APPLY RISK ANDVULNERABILITY REDUCTION MEASURES
• Cash injection, multiplier effect
• Sustainably increased low-cost water availability
• Income diversification
• Protection of ownership rights
Increase
resilience of
livelihoods to
shocks
Absorptive capacity Adaptive capacity Transformative capacity
Household
• Cash injection
• Water availability
• Land ownership
• Savings
• Vegetable gardens: nutritive
food and additional income
• Reinforcing women ‘s role in
income generation
Community
• Cash injection = boosts local
economy
• Multi-stakeholder
engagement reinforces social
capital
• Community engagement +
technical support =
sustainability
• Community training on cistern
use, building knowledge base
• Environmental management
• Mitigates restricted access to
water resourcesNation
• Protects national land base
available for agriculture
• Supports government plan to
build resilience against water
scarcity
• Increases agricultural
outputs and incomes
• Reduces aid dependency
