Civil society campaign: Aid should meet local needs

Palestinian civil society groups have launched a campaign calling for better aid delivery to Palestinians, a press statement said Saturday. The Dalia Foundation, a community foundation based in Ramallah, will bring their message to the international meeting on aid effectiveness in Korea on Nov. 29. "Palestinians' rights to self-determination are already denied by occupation, colonization and dispossession," the foundation's acting director Saeeda Mousa said in a press statement. "International aid, which is supposed to help, should not be delivered in ways that further undermine local priorities, capacities, ownership and rights." The campaign includes petitioning for better aid delivery, short films, and working donors and other non-governmental organizations to improve development. Dalia Foundation found that civil society groups in Palestine complain that donors "fund relief, not development" and "impose agendas rather than respond to local ones," the statement said, referring to recent research. "The campaign aims to raise awareness among Palestinians and internationals that we do have rights in the aid process and that respect for these rights is tied to development effectiveness," Mousa noted.