Support in the Formulation of a Nation-Wide Urban Policy Tender, Palestine - 50966713

Procurement Summary

Country : Palestine

Summary : Support in the Formulation of a Nation-Wide Urban Policy

Deadline : 14 Mar 2021

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 50966713

Document Ref. No. :

Financier : European Union (EU)

Purchaser Ownership : -

Tender Value : Refer Document

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Tender Details

Request for proposals are invited for Support in the Formulation of a Nation-Wide Urban Policy.



UN-Habitat

Tender Description

UN-Habitat is seeking to identify and enter into Agreement of Cooperation (AoC) with one or more non-profit, nongovernmental organisations, and academic institutions with relevant experience, technical abilities and resources to support in the formulation of a nation-wide urban policy. Organisations must deliver technical and financial submissions separately in electronic format addressed for the attention of UN-Habitat (in two separate documents clearly titled) at: unhabitat-palestine@un.org by the deadline of 14 March 2021. The financial offer needs to be in a separate document.

Organisations that submitted their applications after the first advertisement will be considered here for the evaluation process.

Attachments:

Call for Proposal_NUP_Palestine_English.docx

Call for Proposal_NUP_Palestine_Arabic.docx

LocationRamallah

Deadline14, Mar

Call for Proposals: Scope of Work



National Urban Policy for Palestine


Within the ambit of the project entitled:
“Achieving Planning and Land Rights in Area C, West Bank, Palestine”






Managed by: United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in Palestine






In partnership with: Ministry of Local Government (MoLG)



Funded by: The European Union





January 2021


Table of Contents

1. General background 2
2. Overview 4
3. Scope of the agreement 5
4. Objectives 6
5. Methodology 6
6. Responsibilities of MoLG 9
7. Responsibilities of the implementing partner 9
8. Timeline 10
9. Deliverables (Reports) 11
10. Required qualifications of the implementing partner 11
11. Annexes 12
Annex (1): Technical and Financial Appraisal 12
Annex (2): Payment Schedule 13
Annex (3): Form of activities and tasks for the consultant team 14
Annex (4): Financial Offer Form 14


Abbreviations and Acronyms

PA Palestinian Authority
AoC Agreement of Cooperation
COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus
ICA Israeli Civil Administration
LGU Local Government Unit
MoLG Ministry of Local Government
NSP National Spatial Plan
NUA New Urban Agenda
NUP National Urban Policy
oPt Occupied Palestinian territory
PCBS Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
PEA Political Economic Analysis
SDG Sustainable Development Goal
USD United States Dollar


1. General background
The reality of present-day Palestine is one of territorial fragmentation due to the prolonged Israeli occupation and constrained financing due to a volatile rate of revenue collection, a complex internal system of distribution of revenue between the local and national governments, the ongoing political impasse between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas, and a weak economy that is dependent on the Israeli economy, since economic development could not grow beyond a specific structural level as it could not access critical inputs of natural resources and free of transport of people and goods. To varying degrees, the aforementioned factors are either caused or exacerbated by the occupation, the continuing blockade of Gaza, and the recurrent armed conflicts. Within this complex context, the Ministry of Local Government (MoLG) and the international community has focused on enhancing service delivery at the local level, to provide tangible development benefits to citizens, and foster their resilience as well to strengthen the view of Local Government Units (LGUs) as credible government bodies. Progress has been notable despite the challenges noted above, and potential new areas of support are possible in order to further the aims of a strong local democracy, a rationalization of the multiple fragmentations within the local government sector, and overall state-building aims by fostering national-local collaboration.
The Government at the national level alone cannot address the complications of the unprecedented urbanization rates, where 77 per cent of the population is located in urban areas (71 percent in the West Bank and 87 percent in Gaza Strip) mainly in Area A and Area B of the Oslo designations (1995). This fact is creating growing pressure on land, infrastructure and resources. 8 per cent of the population in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) are living in refugee camps, which are characterized by high levels of informality and by and large considered of urban nature, thus making the de facto urban population in the oPt about 85 per cent, and the remaining 15 per cent are living in rural settings, referred to as Area C of the Oslo designations (1995). Urbanization in Palestine has been growing steadily, fuelled by high demographic growth rates and spatially concentrated development with limited space to expand. With a 3.2 per cent urban growth rate in 2015, Palestine was classified among the top 25 per cent of urbanizing countries. It is expected that the population in Palestine will reach 6 million people by 2030 of which 5.3 million will be in urban areas. The land scarcity and spatial fragmentation, combined with rapid urban growth and uneven development within Palestine, have increased pressure on local authorities.
Area C represents more than 60 per cent of the land in the West Bank and is considered a cornerstone in the establishment of the Palestinian statehood, since it contains valuable natural and historical resources. Nearly 300, 000 Palestinians in Area C continue to face issues related to territorial and administrative fragmentation and financial constraints. These conditions are intensified by the maintained matrix of control on the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, including the Separation Barrier, Israeli settlements, bypass roads, military and firing zones, etc. Currently there are 18, 711 Demolition Orders against Palestinian owned structures across the West Bank, of which 92.3 per cent are targeting Area C , and demolition of homes and infrastructure continues. Many Palestinians living in Areas A and B are affected as well, where they have property or a livelihood in Area C. Without planning permission from the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA), construction of any sort in Area C is viewed as illegal by the Israeli authorities and slated for possible demolition.
Unregistered private land is an obstacle to the development process; since the spatial plans prepared distinguish between the public and private land and incorporate these aspects in the participatory approach, but within the private land, the plans do not consider specific ownership and registration issues. This is an impediment to land development given that much of the public facilities and infrastructure will inevitably utilise private land, such as sewerage, storm water, and secondary roads and in many localities the lack of availability of public land may require collaboration between owners for larger scale investments.

Despite the many challenges that face the oPt, the notion of sustainable urbanization has moved to center stage in Palestine-s local governance sector. Moreover, even though Palestine is merely a non-member observer state at the United Nations, it signed on to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015, and thereby also adopted Goal 11 - “Make Cities and Human Settlements Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable”. Thus, Palestine has voluntarily recognized urbanization and city growth as a transformative force for development. By the same token, Palestine adopted the New Urban Agenda (NUA) in October 2016, thus once again agreeing to work towards more sustainable cities. The NUA resonates with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 11, and it identifies the critical means and tools by which cities may achieve Goal 11.
The central Government cannot effectively exploit the potentials in cities and towns that are characterized by high poverty rates, and lack of voice, or participatory mechanisms of policymaking. Therefore, there is a demand to new approaches to participatory governance, or more specifically to subsidiarity where decisions would be taken as near as possible to the affected citizens. This should be mirrored by devolution of spatial planning functions to the lower levels of governments to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. This implies strengthening functional linkages and cooperation between main Palestinian cities and towns (urban areas, predominantly in Areas A and B) with complementary strengths so that they can become more competitive and accordingly economic growth could be better shared with the rural hinterlands, predominantly in Area C. This would contribute to territorial economic development that is mostly needed especially after the novel corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic.
In addition to the public health and humanitarian implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis has delivered a negative shock to Palestinian cities and towns in terms of socio-economic development, putting at risk public welfare, employment and livelihoods, poverty and food security, social cohesion, financial and fiscal stability, and institutions. There is little doubt that the COVID-19 emergency threatens progress on the SDGs, the 2030 Agenda, and the NUA in the oPt and is exacerbating and deepening pre-existing inequalities, discrimination, and inequities.
In this undertaking, there is a need to formulate and endorse a National Urban Policy (NUP). UN-Habitat (2014) defines NUP as “a coherent set of decisions derived through a deliberate government-led process of coordinating and rallying various actors for a common vision and goal that will promote more transformative, productive, inclusive and resilient urban development for the long term.” It is a multi-sectorial, multi-level, multi-stakeholder and human development centred process aimed at the transformation of urban areas and other human settl

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