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STORY: UN / GAZA SOCIOECONOMIC IMPACT
TRT: 02:44
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 02 MAY 2024, NEW YORK CITY /
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
02 MAY 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room dais, Abdallah Al Dardari on screen
3. Wide shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Abdallah Al Dardari, Director, Regional Bureau for Arab States, United Nations Development Program (UNDP):
“The Human Development Index for Palestine in general - not just for Gaza, for Palestinian Territories, East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza - have regressed by 20 years. And for Gaza alone, it has regressed by more than 40 years. We are back in the 80s almost for Gaza. So, all the investments in human development in the Palestinian territories in the last 20 years and in Gaza in the last 40 years have been wiped out.”
5. Wide shot, dais, Al Dardari on screen
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Abdallah Al Dardari, Director, Regional Bureau for Arab States, United Nations Development Program (UNDP):
“When we say Human Development Index regressed by 40 years, we are talking about all the gains in schools, in years of schooling, in educational attainment, in health, in life expectancy at birth, and GNP per capita, having regressed to those levels of the 1980s. And in our estimate, these are almost an investment of $50 billion lost.”
7. Wide shot, dais, Al Dardari on screen
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Abdallah Al Dardari, Director, Regional Bureau for Arab States, United Nations Development Program (UNDP):
“The impact of the conflict will stay us for a long time, unless we quickly address temporary schooling, temporary health facilities, psychosocial support to the population, bringing back basic services like water and sanitation and electricity. So, the challenge has increased dramatically. The same for the West Bank and East Jerusalem in a sense, the economic recovery will take a long, long time and a lot of investments.”
9. Various shots, press room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Abdallah Al Dardari, Director, Regional Bureau for Arab States, United Nations Development Program (UNDP):
“We have today 37 million tons of debris that needs to be removed, managed, recycled, to allow space for those temporary shelters and other structures to be established in order to resume normal life. Some sort of normalcy for the Palestinians in Gaza.”
11. Wide shot, dais, Al Dardari on screen
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Abdallah Al Dardari, Director, Regional Bureau for Arab States, United Nations Development Program (UNDP):
“72 percent of all housing in Gaza has been destroyed. And 9 percent of all other commercial and other buildings have been destroyed. This is unprecedented. And we can we haven't seen anything like this since 1945, since second world war, that intensity in such a short time. And the massive scale of destruction.”
13. Wide shot, end of presser
A top UN development official today (2 May) said, “all the investments in human development in the Palestinian territories in the last 20 years and in Gaza in the last 40 years have been wiped out.”
Presenting an update of the joint initial rapid assessment titled ‘The Gaza War: Expected Socio-Economic Impacts on the State of Palestine’, Abdallah Al Dardari, who is the Director of Regional Bureau for Arab States at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), said the Human Development Index for Palestine, including East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza - have regressed by 20 years. And for Gaza alone, it has regressed by more than 40 years.
Speaking to reporters via teleconference from Amman, Al Dardari said, “we are talking about all the gains in schools, in years of schooling, in educational attainment, in health, in life expectancy at birth, and GNP per capita, having regressed to those levels of the 1980s.”
The estimate, he said, is that “almost an investment of $50 billion” has been lost.”
The UNDP official said, “the impact of the conflict will stay us for a long time, unless we quickly address temporary schooling, temporary health facilities, psychosocial support to the population, bringing back basic services like water and sanitation and electricity.”
The economic recovery, he said, “will take a long, long time and a lot of investments.”
Al Dardari said, “we have today 37 million tons of debris that needs to be removed, managed, recycled, to allow space for those temporary shelters and other structures to be established in order to resume normal life. Some sort of normalcy for the Palestinians in Gaza.”
He said, “72 percent of all housing in Gaza has been destroyed. And 9 percent of all other commercial and other buildings have been destroyed. This is unprecedented. And we can we haven't seen anything like this since 1945, since second world war, that intensity in such a short time. And the massive scale of destruction.”
According to the update to the joint initial rapid assessment, as war in Gaza enters seventh month, 1.74 million more Palestinians will be pushed into poverty across State of Palestine.
The joint initial rapid assessment, by UNDP and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission
for Western Asia (ESCWA) was released in November 2023 and estimated the impacts of the war on the State of Palestine and on Gaza, for the first three months.
The new updated assessment estimates the impacts at six months, with projections for seven-, eight- and nine-months scenarios.
