US embassy cable - 05AMMAN6832

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 08 AMMAN 006832 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR PRM/ANE FROM REGIONAL REFUGEE COORDINATOR 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/24/2015 
TAGS: PREF, PREL, KPAL, EAID, IS, JO 
SUBJECT: MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF PRM'S COOPERATIVE 
AGREEMENT WITH SEEDS OF PEACE 
 
REF: A. KRANTZ-KANESHIRO E-MAIL 06/18/05 
 
     B. KANESHIRO-WARD E-MAIL 01/27/05 
     C. KIRBY-KANESHIRO E-MAIL 12/17/04 
     D. 04 AMMAN 1721 
     E. 03 AMMAN 1477 
 
Classified By: CDA Christopher Henzel for Reason 1.4 (d) 
 
1. (U) Following is a monitoring and evaluation 
report for PRM's $100,000 cooperative agreement 
(SPRMCO04GR131) with the non-profit organization 
Seeds of Peace, which is designed to extend that 
NGO's conflict resolution program to Palestinian 
refugee youth residing in the West Bank, 
Jerusalem and Gaza.  Seeds of Peace (SOP) has 
been implementing similar agreements for PRM 
since 2002. 
 
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SOURCES 
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2. (U) Per refs A-B, Amman-based regional 
refcoord met Seeds of Peace's Jerusalem- and 
Ramallah-based program managers and staff at 
their East Jerusalem offices (i.e., Seeds' 
"Jerusalem Center for Co-Existence") three times 
between September 2004 and July 2005 to monitor 
SOP's three PRM-funded sub-programs: 
 
-- On January 26-27, refcoord reviewed the 
management turnover SOP is undergoing in its 
Jerusalem office and its related decision to 
alter the year-round activities it organizes for 
former summer camp participants from its 
Jerusalem Center with partial PRM funding (see 
paras. 5-7 for details) with interim Jerusalem 
Co-Existence Center Director Timothy Wilson and 
former Co-Existence Center Administrative 
Director Dr. Reuven Barneis, whom Wilson has 
retained as his private consultant.  (NOTE: SOP 
has also retained Wilson in his former position 
as Director of SOP's summer camp facility in 
Otisfield, Maine.  As explained in para. 8, 
Wilson has been absent from Jerusalem since March 
due to health problems.  Senior Program Officer 
Ariel Huler was appointed Deputy Center Director 
in February and has been acting as Center 
Director in Wilson's absence.  END NOTE.)  She 
also reviewed SOP's three PRM-funded sub-programs 
with the following staff responsible for day-to- 
day implementation: Center Supervisor Sami Al 
Jundi, who recruits Arab and Israeli youth to 
participate in the summer camps SOP operates in 
Maine, SOP's "Olive Branch" Magazine Editor Seth 
Wilkis, who has overseen this NGO's two-year-old 
effort to create an Arabic-language publication, 
senior program officer Ariel Huler, who has 
retained responsibility for implementing the 
traditional follow-up seminars SOP organizes for 
former Israeli and Palestinian campers, and new 
staff members Lena Yehia and Zaqloub Said, whom 
Wilson hired in late 2004 to develop a new 
community service/outreach program for Jerusalem 
and West Bank refugee camps using current PRM 
funding (see para. 7). 
 
-- Refcoord reviewed PRM-funded activities again 
with Huler, Al Jundi, Wilkis, Yehia and Said 
again on May 12. 
 
-- Refcoord carried out a final monitoring visit 
on July 21, meeting with Huler, Al Jundi and 
Wilkis to focus on SOP's unexpected request for a 
no-cost grant extension (para. 4). 
 
3. (U) In addition to these visits, refcoord met 
William Millsap, a consultant with the Reston- 
based firm Social Impact who is conducting for 
USAID the first systematic survey of attitudinal 
change among Seeds participants, on January 27 to 
review his findings on SOP targeting/management 
in Jerusalem.  She also met UNRWA Education 
Department Director Kabir Shaikh and West Bank 
Field Director Anders Fange at UNRWA's Amman HQ 
on June 14 to review SOP's coordination and the 
potential overlap between SOP's PRM-funded 
programs and the new PRM-funded phase II 
"tolerance project" UNRWA is implementing in its 
West Bank and Gaza schools.  Due to limited 
security escort availability, refcoord failed to 
carry out a planned site visit to evaluate the 
new SOP community service activities in or near 
refugee camps in Jenin, Ramallah and Shufat Camp 
in East Jerusalem. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
OVERALL OPERATING ENVIRONMENT AND PERFORMANCE 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
4. (SBU) As was the case with its previous two 
PRM agreements, SPRMCO04GR131 calls for Seeds of 
Peace to increase the number of Palestinian 
refugees attending the three-week summer camp 
sessions it started organizing in the U.S. in 
1993 to teach tolerance and conflict resolution 
techniques to youth from the Middle East, and to 
secure their participation in the year-round 
follow-up activities its Jerusalem Center for Co- 
Existence organizes for former campers' until 
they reach age 24, through a joint-funding 
arrangement (currently 125,000 from PRM and 
$25,000 from private donors).  SOP's camp 
recruitment access problems eased as a result of 
the improvement in the political situation that 
followed the February 2005 meeting between 
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Abbas and 
Israeli Prime Minister Sharon and the subsequent 
cease-fire.  The PA lifted its three-year-old 
boycott of Seeds of Peace shortly after the Sharm 
el Sheikh meeting, enabling SOP to resume working 
with the PA Education Ministry to recruit 
campers.  As a result, SOP was able to recruit 
refugee youth from Gaza for the first time in its 
history -- a long-time program goal.  (COMMENT: 
In 2001, when PRM first started funding SOP's 
refugee recruitment efforts, SOP was only able to 
identify and secure travel permits for refugees 
who held Jerusalem IDs.  In refcoord's view, SOP 
could overcome its access problem and improve 
targeting of refugees further if it included 
UNRWA officials in its selection committees. END 
COMMENT.) 
 
5. (SBU) However, the extensive permit system and 
network of road blocks and checkpoints that 
limits the movement of Palestinians -- combined 
with former Palestinian campers' continued 
reluctance to participate in activities held at 
SOP's Co-Existence Center in the French Hill area 
of Jerusalem -- has perpetuated the access issues 
that have made it difficult for SOP to 
effectively implement follow-on activities over 
the past two years (refs. D-E).  As it did in 2004, 
SOP responded by supplementing the four joint 
Israeli-Palestinian seminars it was able to schedule 
(as of July 30) with additional "uni-national" 
activities in Ramallah.  However, its new management 
team decided in late 2004 to shift the majority of 
the $34,870 PRM has provided to secure the 
participation of 80 refugees in SOP follow-up courses 
into a new refugee camp service/community outreach 
program in February (ref. B). 
 
6. (C) SOP has left the design of new programming 
based in refugee camps to new local staff who 
have no prior experience working with Palestinian 
refugees due to the unexpected absence of the 
Jerusalem Center Director for the past five 
months.  Their reliance on local NGOs and UNRWA 
community-based organizations for access has 
diluted the co-existence content of PRM-funded 
follow-up programming.  While SOP's new refugee 
camp-based activities could facilitate SOP's 
summer camp recruitment by providing supplemental 
English language training to refugee youth (a key 
SOP selection criteria) and by overcoming 
community distrust of SOP as a U.S.-based 
organization, its approach could potentially 
duplicate services that UNRWA and other NGOs 
provide.  Lack of managerial oversight (combined 
with inadequate Arabic language capacity among 
its editorial staff) also appears to account for 
the problem SOP continues to have finalizing its 
third PRM-funded subprogram: publishing an 
Arabic-language youth magazine.  Nine months into 
its second year of funding, SOP has limited its 
production goals to one edition.  Although it has 
entered into discussions with UNRWA to introduce 
the magazine in its schools, it has yet to secure 
a distribution agreement. 
 
------------------------------- 
SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE INDICATORS 
------------------------------- 
 
7. (C) SUMMARY: As of July 21, SOP had fully met 
one out of the three objectives contained in its 
current agreement: it increased the number of 
refugees in its summer camp program in Maine from 
12 to 17.  On May 28 (ref. A) Jerusalem-based SOP 
staff informed refcoord that SOP would need a 
no-cost extension through September 2005 to meet 
its second objective of producing/distributing a 
youth magazine in Arabic.  In late 2004, SOP 
significantly altered the content of its 
follow-up program (its original proposal was to 
include 80 refugee youth in year-round co- 
existence courses).  In addition, SOP maintains 
no database that can identify whether participants 
hold refugee status, making it difficult to confirm 
whether SOP has met its final, original objective. 
Since February 2005, SOP has provided remedial 
English-language courses and communication workshops 
to at least 80 refugee youth, but these courses are 
aimed at facilitating SOP's recruitment for its 
summer camp program and have no direct 
tolerance/co-existence focus.  A summary of the 
specific activities SOP performed between 
September 2004 and July 2005 follows: 
 
OBJECTIVE A - 17 REFUGEES ATTEND SOP'S MAINE CAMP 
============================================= ==== 
 
As it originally planned, SOP has used partial 
PRM funding (i.e., $49,300 to finance the 
selection process and the participation of 
campers in a three-day pre-departure seminar) to 
help it expand the number of refugees attending 
its Maine camp from 12 in 2004 to 17 in 2005.  Of 
the 80 Palestinians SOP recruited this year, 17 
appear to hold refugee status (two are from 
UNRWA's Shufat Camp in East Jerusalem, three are 
from Jenin Camp, one is from Bethlehem's 
Deheisheh Camp, and 11 are from Rafah Camp in 
southern Gaza).  (NOTE: SOP does not use UNRWA 
registration to verify the refugee status of its 
participants.  Instead it uses residency in UNRWA 
camps as its working definition of a refugee.  Al 
Jundi estimated that an additional 15-17 
Palestinian participants living outside UNRWA 
camps could be registered refugees.  END NOTE.) 
All 17 received Israeli travel permits and 
participated in the sessions that ended August 9. 
In addition to meeting its numerical target, SOP 
met its long-standing goal to recruit refugees from 
Gaza this year.  Center Supervisor Al Jundi 
attributed this to the PA's agreement to lift its 
boycott of SOP, and the particular support of PA 
Minister Dahlan, who served on SOP's Gaza selection 
committee along with the PA Education Ministry 
representatives.  Para. 13 describes SOP's 
selection criteria/process. 
 
OBJECTIVE B - PRODUCTION OF ARABIC MAGAZINE 
=========================================== 
 
PRODUCTION DELAYS: SOP's current agreement 
provides an additional $8,000 to assist SOP in 
finalizing production of its first Arabic- 
language youth magazine.  Under its FY 03 
agreement, SOP received $20,000 in PRM funding to 
produce Arabic translations of SOP's quarterly 
English-language "Olive Branch" magazine for one 
year.  During her January monitoring visit (ref 
B), refcoord learned that SOP Editor Wilkis had 
been forced to halt production in late 2004 after 
Palestinian staff at the Co-Existence Center 
objected to the poor quality of the Arabic- 
language translation, which Wilkis (a non-Arabic 
speaker) had reportedly out-sourced to an Israeli 
firm using the full $20,000.  Given limited 
remaining funding, Wilkis told refcoord in 
January that he had abandoned SOP's original plan 
to produce quarterly Arabic translations in favor 
of producing one "best of" edition, aimed at a 
ninth-grade audience, by March 2005, with the aid 
of four volunteer former campers.  On May 28, SOP 
Jerusalem informed refcoord that it would seek a 
no-cost extension through September 2005 to finalize 
production.  Huler explained during refcoord's July 
monitoring visit that some original contributors had 
voiced objections to re-printing their articles. 
However, Wilkis informed refcoord on August 14 
that the "best of" edition had been finalized and 
would be sent to the printers on August 18. 
(NOTE: A copy has been pouched to PRM/ANE. END NOTE.) 
 
DISTRIBUTION STATUS: Ref D reported that SOP 
planned to distribute its Arabic language 
magazine to schools in the West Bank and Gaza 
through UNRWA and UNDP.  However, SOP has not yet 
pursued distribution with UNDP and is still in 
the process of securing the cooperation of UNRWA. 
UNRWA HQ Education Program Director Kabir Shaikh 
told refcoord June 14 that UNRWA continues to 
have concerns about its content.  On August 14, 
Wilkis informed refcoord that he had secured the 
provisional agreement of the UNRWA West Bank 
Field Education Director to distribute the 
magazine in its schools.  However, Wilkis is 
planning to leave SOP in September, and has 
indicated that he is turning over responsibility 
for finalizing SOP's distribution plan to his 
successor.  Huler told refcoord July 21 that it 
was unlikely SOP would start recruitment for a 
new magazine editor before September, when Wilson 
is scheduled to return to the region. 
 
OBJECTIVE C - 80 REFUGEES ATTEND ONGOING COURSES 
============================================= === 
 
TRADITIONAL CO-EXISTENCE ACTIVITIES:  SOP's 
original proposal was to include 80 refugees in 
the follow-up co-existence courses it organizes 
through its Jerusalem Center.  SOP is facing 
increasing difficulty securing travel permits, 
but it has managed to maintain the joint Israeli- 
Palestinian seminar program it restored in 2003, 
scheduling three ongoing discussion groups for 
Jerusalem residents focused on film, language and 
culture and media out of its Jerusalem Center. 
It also scheduled an intensive dialogue session 
for its former 2003-2004 year campers in Nevit 
Shalom in December 2004, two seminars on civil 
rights and education issues in Tanteu in February 
and June 2005, and one lecture on the current 
political situation with a panel of Palestinian 
and Israeli officials and journalists that 
included Saeb Erakat.  As was the case in 2004, 
SOP supplemented these joint meetings with two 
"uni-national" seminars for Palestinians on the 
PA elections and co-existence issues in Ramallah 
this year.  However, SOP has not used PRM funding 
to deliberately target the participation of 
former campers' with refugee status, and thought 
the numbers of refugee participants were likely 
to be low during refcoord's three monitoring 
visits.  (NOTE: SOP's current database does not 
permit it to track its summer camp and/or seminar 
participants by refugee status.  SOP's past 
calculation that 50 percent of participants in 
its follow-up courses have been refugees was 
based on the fact that roughly half the 
population of the West Bank are registered 
refugees.  END NOTE) 
 
NEW CAMP-BASED COMMUNITY SERVICE ACTIVITIES: 
Since February, SOP has used the bulk of the 
$34,870 it requested to secure the participation 
of refugees in its follow-on programming to 
instead implement new community outreach 
activities targeting refugee communities in East 
Jerusalem, Ramallah and Jenin.  Unlike its 
aborted 2003-year program (ref D), SOP hired two 
new full-time staff in October/November 2004 
(using non-PRM funding) to develop separate trial 
programs for Jerusalem and the West Bank focusing 
on UNRWA's Shufat Camp in East Jerusalem and 
refugee camps/communities in the Ramallah and 
Jenin areas.  Both programs have centered on 
SOP's summer camp recruitment by promoting the 
English language and communication skills that 
remain SOP's core selection criteria.  As of June 
21, SOP had conducted 40 remedial English classes 
for 25 Jenin refugee camp youth and two English 
language classes for an unspecified number of 
Shufat camp youth, hiring part-time instructors 
(see para 15 for staff qualifications.)  SOP has 
left the design of other activities to its new 
staff members.  The staffer in charge of the West 
Bank outreach program was formerly a head 
counselor at SOP's Maine Camp, and has attempted 
to retain a co-existence focus to his 
programming, working with the Ramallah-based 
Ta'awon Palestinian Conflict Resolution Institute to 
schedule two workshops in Ramallah with PRM 
funding designed to promote communication skills 
and "self-confidence."  SOP's Jerusalem program 
staffer also conducted one three-day 
communications workshop for refugee youth in 
April, but has also agreed to provide adult 
English language courses and summer 
camp/lifeguard services suggested by the UNRWA 
Women's Program Center in Shufat Camp, apparently 
as part of an agreement she reached to run SOP's 
camp outreach program from this women's center. 
 
------------------------------- 
ISSUES AFFECTING IMPLEMENTATION 
------------------------------- 
8. (SBU) MANAGEMENT TURNOVER: SOP is undergoing a 
protracted management turnover in its Jerusalem 
offices that is affecting its PRM-funded 
activities.  When SOP dismissed Jerusalem Center 
Director Jen Marlowe (the architect of SOP's 
original grant proposal) in mid-2004, reportedly 
to respond to allegations that Co-Existence 
Center staff were introducing biased programming, 
it brought in Tim Wilson (long-standing director 
of SOP's summer camp facility in Otisfield, 
Maine) in September to serve on an interim basis. 
Wilson told refcoord in January that he had begun 
to re-orient SOP's traditional regional 
programming from joint dialogue sessions/academic 
seminars to "Peace Corps-type" community based 
service activities demanded by former campers, 
arguing that this would help SOP address the 
severe problem it faces in meeting its goal of 
retaining the participation of former campers in 
SOP activities until they reach age 24 (ref B). 
 
9. (SBU) Wilson's subsequent five-month absence 
from the region, however, has forced 
comparatively inexperienced staff to design and 
implement SOP's two PRM-funded ongoing 
subprograms: the development of Arabic language 
materials and courses designed to ensure refugees 
participate in ongoing co-existence courses. 
Acting Director Huler maintains regular contact 
with SOP HQ and has been extremely responsive to 
refcoord requests for updates on SOP's programs, 
but has a "hands off" management style, meeting 
with staff responsible for PRM-funded programming 
once every two weeks.  With only two years at 
SOP, he appears reluctant to offer former 
colleagues guidance on the content of their new 
activities and has not met with UNRWA officials 
to coordinate SOP's new camp-based programming, 
despite repeated urging from refcoord.  The new 
local staff SOP has hired to develop its refugee 
camp community service programs, particularly the 
SOP staff member in charge of its Jerusalem 
program, are turning to the UNRWA community-based 
organizations and NGOs in Shufat and Ramallah 
that have agreed to house their refugee camp 
outreach programs for programming suggestions. 
This has diluted the content of SOP's co- 
existence content to date, and could result in 
SOP duplicating services that other NGOs can 
provide.  It also increases the risk SOP will 
inadvertently align itself with a politicized 
group.  (NOTE: SOP staff's lack of lack of 
familiarity with the political factions operating 
in camps in Bethlehem forced SOP to abandon its 
community service program in 2003 (ref D).  END 
NOTE.) 
 
10. (SBU) TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS: SOP Jerusalem 
staff report that they are having more difficulty 
obtaining the Israeli travel permits Palestinian 
youth need to travel to SOP's workshops and 
seminars.  SOP is aware that the completion of 
the security barrier around Jerusalem will 
exacerbate the problems it is having maintaining 
its East Jerusalem Co-Existence Center as a 
seminar site, and is considering opening a 
satellite office in Ramallah in response.  To 
reduce staff travel, SOP has already provided 
housing in Ramallah for its staff member 
responsible for implementing its trial West Bank 
refugee camp outreach program using non-PRM 
funding. 
 
------------------------------ 
ACCESS AND COORDINATION ISSUES 
------------------------------ 
 
11. (SBU) SOP has traditionally relied on 
regional governments to help it identify its 
summer camp participants.  While SOP has restored 
the PA's participation, UNRWA continues to have 
no role in SOP selection processes.  UNRWA's 
absence from SOP selection committees probably 
limits ability to identify program beneficiaries, 
given that the majority of SOP's target 
population attends UNRWA schools.  (NOTE: SOP 
claims to have invited local UNRWA West Bank 
staff to participate in its selection committees 
in the past, but it has not yet approached 
education program mangers from UNRWA HQ, nor its 
West Bank and Gaza Field offices.  END NOTE.) 
 
12. (SBU) Lack of coordination in the field, and 
potential overlap with UNRWA's own tolerance 
program, is a growing issue.  SOP managers have 
not met with officials from UNRWA's HQ or West 
Bank Field to discuss their new refugee camp 
service programs, despite the fact that SOP has 
located its Jerusalem program in an UNRWA 
community based organization in Shufat Camp (with 
the approval of UNRWA's Shufat Camp Director) 
and hopes to expand activities to other UNRWA-run 
West Bank camps.  UNRWA West Bank Field Director 
Anders Fange told refcoord June 14 that this 
coordination gap would not lead UNRWA to limit 
SOP's access.  However, SOP's strategy of aligning 
itself with local NGOs/UNRWA community service 
groups already working in or near UNRWA camps to gain 
access/facilities puts it at risk of serving as 
adjunct staff for those organizations.  There is 
also strong potential overlap between SOP's 
effort to produce Arabic materials and the phase 
II tolerance project UNRWA's Education Department 
has just started to implement, which is partially 
designed to expand the conflict-resolution 
teaching materials it has already started 
introducing in its West Bank and Gaza schools. 
 
------------------ 
SELECTION CRITERIA 
------------------ 
 
13. (SBU) SOP continues to use English language 
skills, academic excellence, and demonstrated 
leadership and social skills as selection 
criteria for its summer camp program.  SOP staff 
readily admit that their heavy reliance on 
English language ability inadvertently led them 
to target wealthy Palestinians during the PA 
boycott of its program, relying on private 
schools with strong English language programs, 
such as Al Quds University to identify potential 
participants for the past three years.  However, 
they are consciously working to target low-income 
youth.  SOP has done a good job establishing gender 
balance in its summer camp caseload; 51 percent 
of its past summer camp participants have been 
male and 49 percent female.  However, SOP's 
ability to target refugees in its follow-on 
programming is limited by its own record keeping: 
SOP's database does not identify the refugee 
status of its former summer campers.  SOP 
actively involves former campers its programming 
decisions. 
 
------------------------------------- 
SPHERE STANDARDS AND CODES OF CONDUCT 
------------------------------------- 
 
14. (U) Seeds of Peace does not use SPHERE 
standards to design its programming, but is 
willing to do so if requested.  SOP has a Code of 
Conduct and advises project staff of their 
obligations to report any suspected sexual 
exploitation and abuse of beneficiaries by its 
facilitators and escorts.  No such cases were 
reported as of July 21. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
STAFFING, WORKPLACE CONDITIONS AND CONTROLS 
------------------------------------------- 
 
15. (SBU) STAFFING: Seeds of Peace currently has 
four full-time employees working on its three 
PRM-funded sub-programs on a part-time basis. 
(NOTE:  SOP does not use PRM funding to support 
its full-time staff, but has hired two part-time 
English teachers with BA-level credentials and 
has compensated several workshop leaders to 
implement its refugee camp outreach program.  END 
NOTE.)  Staff work five days per week.  Center 
Supervisor/camp recruitment program manager Al 
Jundi and Olive Branch Editor Wilkis are based at 
the Jerusalem Center full-time.  SOP's two 
refugee camp outreach program staff spend one day 
per week at the Jerusalem Center and the 
remaining four days working out of the Shufat 
Camp Women's Program Center or the apartment SOP 
rents in Ramallah.  Al Jundi appeared fully and 
gainfully employed during refcoord's monitoring 
visits.  Wilkis was absent on two occasions. 
Refcoord was unable to conduct site visits to 
SOP's Shufat and Ramallah programs.  The 
qualifications of SOP staff are mixed.  Al Jundi 
is a long-time Jerusalem Center staffer who has 
conducted summer camp recruitment for SOP for 
over five years.  SOP's new Ramallah-based staff 
member, a former head counselor at SOP's Maine 
Camp who holds a BA degree from Earlham College, 
appears cognizant of the political dynamics of 
refugee camps.  However, SOP's new Jerusalem 
program officer has no prior experience working 
with Palestinian refugees.  Olive Branch Editor 
Seth Wilkis, who has been responsible for 
implementing SOP's PRM-funded Arabic translations 
since October 2003, is not fluent in Arabic, 
forcing SOP to rely on out-sourcing or volunteer 
former campers. 
 
16. (U) OFFICES AND EQUIPMENT: SOP established 
its Jerusalem Center for Co-Existence in 1999 to 
provide office space and a meeting site for the 
follow-up activities it organizes for 
Palestinian-Israeli camp graduates.  The Center 
is located in a clean and spacious private four- 
floor house in the French Hill area of East 
Jerusalem and was being used both as office space 
and a workshop/seminar site for former campers 
resident in Jerusalem during refcoord's 
monitoring visits.  Office equipment appeared in 
good working condition, but was not purchased 
with PRM funding.  SOP has not used any PRM 
funding to equip the Ramallah apartment its West 
Bank refugee camp community service program 
director works out of four days per week. 
 
17. (SBU) FINANCIAL CONTROLS: SOP's finances are 
handled by its Maine offices, but it employs a 
part-time accountant in Jerusalem and appears to 
have appropriate financial reporting and 
inventory controls. 
 
---------------------- 
PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY 
---------------------- 
 
18. (SBU) SOP's Jerusalem Center currently has 
the technical capacity to maintain Palestinian 
refugee youth targeting in its summer camp 
recruitment efforts, although it would probably 
need to establish a working relationship with 
UNRWA to improve its access and ensure refugee 
status remains one of its program criteria.  It 
is unlikely that SOP would be capable of 
targeting refugees in its follow-on programming 
without external assistance, particularly if SOP 
continues to maintain a database that fails to 
track the refugee status of its former campers. 
SOP does not currently have the capacity to carry 
out in-house Arabic translation activities: it 
lacks editorial staff fluent in Arabic. 
 
---------------------------- 
RECOMMENDATIONS/OBSERVATIONS 
---------------------------- 
 
19. (C) Refcoord has reviewed the new $100,000 
project proposal SOP submitted to the Department 
on July 22 which asks PRM to continue supporting 
the same three activities it implemented this 
year (i.e., recruiting refugees for its summer 
camp, implementing community service programs in 
UNRWA refugee camps, and producing Arabic 
language tolerance materials).  Given that 
funding for NGOs is limited and that SOP has 
struggled to fully implement the two year-round 
components in its current agreement, refcoord 
recommends that PRM consider scaling back future 
agreements to support SOP's effort to recruit 
more refugees to participate in its summer camp 
in Maine.  The new refugee camp-based activities 
that are now the focus of SOP's attempt to 
include refugees in its year-round programming 
may facilitate SOP's summer camp recruitment 
efforts, but its reliance on UNRWA and other 
local NGOs to secure access has diluted the 
conflict-resolution focus of its year-round 
program.  In some instances, the activities SOP 
is undertaking in UNRWA refugee camps appear to 
primarily serve to rehabilitate SOP's reputation 
as an "American NGO."  In addition, PRM has 
recently agreed to fund a phase II tolerance 
project that may make SOP's publishing activities 
redundant.  That said, UNRWA wants to introduce 
new activities under its phase II tolerance 
project, such as establishing summer camps in its 
West Bank schools, that could probably be 
implemented effectively by SOP.  If SOP were 
willing to revise its proposal/approach to year- 
round refugee programming, UNRWA Education 
Program Director Kabir Shaikh has indicated that 
he would be willing to work with SOP as an 
implementing partner.  This partnership would 
provide SOP with the strong managerial oversight 
and broad access to refugee camps that it 
currently lacks, and would maintain its tolerance 
and co-existence focus.  Refcoord does not 
support funding SOP's Arabic language program for 
a third year.  Apart from duplicating texts UNRWA 
has in production, SOP has done little work to 
distribute its publications outside UNRWA 
schools, and has no current plan to hire Arabic- 
speaking editors or translators that would reduce 
its dependence on expensive out-sourcing. 
HENZEL