Relief & Social Services
We promote the development and self-reliance of less-advantaged members of the Palestine refugee community – especially women, children, people with disabilities and the elderly.
What We Do
807
RSS staff
61
Women's Programme Centres
38
Community Rehabilitation Centres
25
Community Managed Fund Schemes
To support the Agency’s mission of helping Palestine refugees achieve their full human development potential and a decent standard of living, the UNRWA Relief and Social Services (RSS) programme provides a range of direct and indirect social protection services. We have three main goals:
- We provide social safety net assistance, on a quarterly basis, to the most impoverished Palestine refugees. Of the some 5.9 million Palestine Refugees registered with UNWRA, it is estimated that 1.2 million live in absolute poverty, and 700,000 in abject poverty, unable to meet their most basic food needs. As of the beginning of 2020, approximately 156,000 people received cash-based transfers and 98,000 received food assistance as per the social safety net assistance under the programme budget funded Social Safety Net programme (SSNP), which provides basic food commodities along with modest supplemental cash assistance.
- We maintain, update and preserve Palestine refugees' records. More than 17 million documents, including birth certificates, property deeds and registration documents, some of them dating back to pre-1948 Palestine, have been scanned and preserved. A new, Agency-wide Refugee Registration Information System helps determine Palestine refugees’ eligibility for UNRWA services and allows them to submit important amendments and changes to their records.
- We empower the Palestine refugees we serve. Our programme partners with community-based organizations to promote the development and self-reliance of marginalized groups, including women, children, youth, elderly people and persons with disabilities.
Major achievements
Of the five UNRWA fields, four are employing a poverty-based targeting system using a proxy means test formula. This represents a change from the practice of assigning benefits on the basis of status, as in the past, to determining eligibility for benefits on the basis of a household’s position in relation to the relevant poverty line.
The web-based, Agency-wide Refugee Registration Information System has created a centralized, secure system where Palestine refugees’ records are protected, updated and accessed to assess eligibility for UNRWA services.
