The EU is providing 350,000 Euros to support the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) in conducting the Palestinian Expenditure and Consumption Survey (PECS). This survey is a crucial tool that provides key socio-economic and poverty statistics regarding the Palestinian population. President of PCBS, Ola Awad, and the EU Head of Cooperation, Ibrahim Laafia, signed the new grant agreement that will support a number of selected activities in the Palestinian Expenditure and Consumption Survey (PECS). The last version of this biennial survey was done in 2017. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the severe fiscal crisis facing the Palestinian Authority, the PCBS was unable to conduct a new survey since then. This year, the Palestinian Authority and international donors joined efforts to allocate the pound 1.1 million budget required for conducting this survey. The Palestinian government will cover around 40% while the international donors including the EU, UNICEF, World Food Programme, and the World Bank will cover the rest. The EU grant will cover costs related to the field survey, data analysis and dissemination of findings. During the signing ceremony, Awad expressed her appreciation to the EU’s longstanding support to the PCBS. ‘This is a true partnership that demonstrates the Palestinian European cooperation. It has helped us in building the capacity of the PCBS and the provision of updated regular official statistics in various economic and social areas,’ she added. From his side, Laafia said: ‘Statistics are a critical tool for national policy development, planning, budgeting and monitoring. For development cooperation partners, socio-economic and poverty data are essential to ensure that their support to the duty-bearer is ‘leaving no one behind’, as well as to have well-informed policy decisions and properly implement social protections interventions.’ ‘Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the recent rounds of violence in Gaza and the ongoing fiscal crisis, these statistics are crucial for Palestine to adjust its sustainable development goals targets for 2030. In this context, we will continue our engagement and support to the PCBS as a fundamental institution of the future independent Palestinian State,’ he added.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency