World Bank approves $10m grant to fund jobs for Palestinians amid pandemic

The financing will help in creating an additional 1,500 jobs

A masked child sits next to packs of humanitarian aid in Gaza City. The Covid-19 crisis has profoundly affected employment in an already faltering Palestinian economy, the World Bank said. AFP

The World Bank approved a second grant of $10 million to help create more jobs for Palestinians during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has deepened the woes of an already struggling economy.

The programme, known as Finance for Jobs II Second Additional Financing, or F4J II, is aimed at further stimulating private investment in sectors with high job-creation potential, the Washington-based lender said on Tuesday.

Private sector companies and workers, start-ups and small and medium enterprises are bearing the brunt of the health crisis, the World Bank said. Job prospects are even more grim for women and youth.

"Covid-19 crisis has profoundly affected employment in an already faltering Palestinian economy ... it is crucial to identify ways to bring sustainable transformational impact on the livelihoods of the Palestinian people," said Kanthan Shankar, World Bank country director for West Bank and Gaza.

"The additional funding will support job-creating investment opportunities identified from the private sector, with a focus on vulnerable workers and at least 30 per cent employment for women."

Palestine's economy had one of the sharpest contractions on record in 2020 and only a modest recovery is expected this year as its overwhelmed healthcare sector struggles to control the spread of the virus.

The economy shrank by 11.5 per cent last year and is only expected to grow by 3.5 per cent this year as social distancing measures affect growth in sectors such as tourism, restaurants and construction, in addition to denting the prospects of workers that depend on jobs in Israel, the World Bank said last month.

Palestine had 187,309 Covid-19 cases while the death toll stood at 2,063 as of Tuesday, according to data by Worldometer, which tracks the virus. About 168,763 people have recovered.

The World Bank's F4J II initiative is part of a series of projects worth $24.5m that are aimed at creating jobs through private investment.

The financing will scale up the Investment Co-Financing Facility, a risk-sharing programme that provides financing to private sector projects in Palestine that are commercially viable but would otherwise not proceed due to the high risk, fragile and conflict-ridden environment, according to the World Bank.

It aims to create an additional 1,500 jobs and mobilise an additional $18m in private capital by supporting an expected 10 to 15 investments in mostly medium-sized companies. It will also provide technical assistance to help companies adapt to the Covid-19 crisis.

"One of the key principles underlying this intervention is that creating jobs, especially in times of crisis and economic slowdown, will generate benefits that go beyond the individual gains that result from increased earnings," said Abed Khatib, senior financial sector specialist at the World Bank.

"Hence, capturing not only the number but also the nature and quality of these jobs remains to be a critical underpinning for this intervention."

The financing will also help to contribute to the mitigation of climate change by focusing on investment that helps improve environmental sustainability.

One example is the Gaza Rooftop Solar Power Project that supports the installation of photovoltaic  panels on rooftops of factories and warehouses in the Gaza Industrial Estate.

This allows the estate to offer stable and cheaper electricity and meet tenants' power needs, both of which could lead to job growth and climate-change mitigation.