The Dilemmas in Palestinian National Planning in Light of the War on Gaza

The strategic planning performed by the public sector directs financial, human, and material resources to achieve the overarching objectives set by countries’ governments. Designed to maximize utility (benefit) of these resources, public strategic planning helps to determine national priorities and direct efforts towards the most important sectors and areas. Moreover, strategic plans improve the performance-efficiency of governments, setting clear goals and directing efforts to achieve them, while exercising transparency and accountability in their work. By setting performance indicators and then monitoring them, the government provides a clear vision for the future. This, in turn, promotes political and economic stability, contributing to a better quality of public services provided to citizens through the adoption of relevant governmental policies and programs. Effective and thoughtful strategic planning allows for the formulation of plans to manage political, health, and economic crises, enabling governments to deal with such crises effectively, to reduce their negative impact through effective emergency plans and responses. Effective strategic planning improves the investment environment at the macro level, attracting foreign investment that contributes to economic development. 

Resultantly, one can observe that adopting strategic planning is not an option but a necessity for developing countries and businesses, especially in light of rapid technological development, and globalization that has significantly enhanced the intensity of competition between countries and companies around the world. These factors have resulted in major economic, social, and environmental upheavals, creating new challenges for governments. Herein, the major challenge is to manage economic resources and secure the required budgets to promote sustainable development, while containing occasional political and health crises. Therefore, strategic planning by countries and organizations is a vital tool in adapting to rapid changes, confronting crises, and moving towards achieving sustainable socio-economic development. Strategic planning mobilizes and directs resources towards priority projects and sectors, determining necessary budgets to enhance partnerships between various governmental institutions.

Following the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian National Authority (PA) offered a fragmented, weak, and fragile public services sector, limited (at that time) to health, education, and select economic services, while the economy suffered from a significant deterioration in infrastructure. Given its mandate to provide public services to citizens, the PA speedily established the first Palestinian ministries to facilitate the provision of basic services: the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Ministry of Social Affairs (now the Ministry of Social Development, or MoSD), the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education.

Official interest in strategic planning began with the PA’s establishment and the start of the development of official governmental structures. This was embodied in the creation of the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (1994-2014), mandated to govern the Palestinian government’s internal and external planning affairs and enhance cooperation with other countries across various fields. This enabled this public body to assume responsibility for developing policies and strategic plans for economic and social development in Palestine. However, the government’s strategic planning process did not reach the stage of organization and order until after 2007, or during the 12th Palestinian government, commonly referred to as the ‘caretaker’ government given internal political divisions. Initially, the Palestinian government decided to adopt a three-year planning process plan, then switched to a five-year planning model (by some ministries).

Macro strategic planning plays an important role in promoting economic and social development, and in introducing tangible improvements in public services and standards of living in Palestine. These have been largely affected by the punitive challenges imposed by the Israeli occupation, not to mention the tight siege and successive wars on  the Gaza Strip since 2006. This led to economic decline, further increasing social challenges. Over the past decade, the occupation has imposed a financial blockade on the Palestinian government under various pretexts, by continuously hijacking clearance funds. The end result is the suffocation of the PA’s ability to secure the necessary budgets for developing infrastructure and providing basic services to citizens. In mid-2023, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the General Secretariat launched intensive efforts to prepare the National Development Plan (NDP) for 2024-29, in partnership and consultation with numerous government departments. These efforts resulted in the preparation of the general framework for the NDP, and the completion of first drafts of strategic plans for ministries and government institutions for 2024-29. Planning processes conformed to updated planning methodologies approved by the Council of Ministers. According to the initial plan, subsidiary plans were to be completed by the end of 2023 and then approved for implementation in 2024. However, as a result of the war on Gaza and Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, work on these plans and the NDP has been suspended, with the government redirecting its efforts to emergency planning for 2024. Without a doubt, the current war has had major economic and social repercussions for both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In light of difficult economic and social realities, plans formulated as part of the government’s strategic planning process (for 2024-29) no longer respond to new realities following October 7, 2023. Politically, subsistence and resistance to occupation characterize economic policy challenges today. Formulated plans were built based on a different economic and social reality of resilience and building. Their content needs revision, in order to factor in the need to respond to dramatic changes. The form, structure, and mechanisms of strategic planning must also be reconsidered in light of new realities (political, economic, and social) resulting from the war: the mass destruction of infrastructure; runaway unemployment, poverty, and food insecurity; all coinciding with an unprecedented crisis in the PA’s finances.

The purpose of this background paper is to shed light on the reality of strategic planning in the government and within the public sector in Palestine, providing the historical background for the development of strategic planning, its duration, and challenges across each planning phase. The most prominent challenges that faced - and continue to face - strategic planning at the macro and sectoral levels are examined, given that these limit the ability of policymakers to implement strategic objectives and relevant programs and projects, within the timetable and budgets proposed by various public institutions.

The paper also discusses the direction of future strategic planning, in light of unprecedented difficulties and complexities in current economic and social realities, as a result of the destruction caused by the war. The question that this paper attempts to answer is: Are existing strategic plans and frameworks capable of responding to current realities that are witnessing a significant deterioration across all economic, social, and environmental indicators? Is there a need to reconsider future planning processes at government that combine the West Bank and Gaza Strip into one unit and that anchor spatial, sectoral, and local/regional planning in one planning framework and institution?