Esdc

The Economic and Social Development Center of Palestine (ESDC) is a registered NGO (RA/2267/B), which is operating in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since 2003. ESDC is a development-oriented NGO in Palestine with vast experiences in the field of development cooperation. ESDC works with farmers to restore their agricultural activities, and to mitigate the negative impact of Israeli occupation and unfavourable natural crises on their socio-economic conditions and food security. ESDC is a well recognized at the national level for their work in developing and building the capacities of cooperatives and the cooperative sector. Not only does ESDC build the institutional capacities, but also develops the capacity of cooperatives, CBOs and working groups in natural resources management, agriculture and food security, and social economy. The staff is based in the 3 offices of ESDC, 2 of which are located in the West Bank (Ramallah and Tubas) and 1 in Gaza. In 2013 ESDC targeted 122 localities and 49 cooperatives (95%) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs), through our different projects. ESDC has been working in the field both emergency support to herders and livestock's breeders, as well as in herders community and livestock's cooperatives development since 2003, including women building capacities as women-based organization and individuals. Prioritised cross sector issues are gender equality, sustainable development and democracy. ESDC greatly emphasizes the importance of community ownership and participation. During the previous 10 years, ESDC has well developed systems for project planning, partnership cooperation, follow-up and evaluation. Humanitarian assistance projects have successfully been integrated in this system. ESDC has considerable experience in development projects, including building the institutional and production capacities of mainly agriculture cooperatives, CBOs and working groups. ESDC institutional capacity of the cooperatives, CBOSs and working groups is built and sustained through: updating strategic and business plans to coincide with their business, adapting proper production systems and developing their marketing capacities. Further, ESDC has accumulated 10 years of expert experience in land reclamation (over 5,000 dunums). ESDC also has considerable previous experiences of agricultural humanitarian assistance, and backyard agro-production interventions, in both West Bank and Gaza within Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP), Humanitarian Emergency Response Fund (HERF) and other channel of funds. Most recently, ESDC has been working on early recovery projects to assist farmers' shift from humanitarian to early recovery projects in improving access and efficiency of irrigation water for farmers in the Seam Zones of Tulkarem and Qalqiliya.