AM QATTAN FOUNDATION | ANNUAL REPORT 2013-2014

Five Challenging Years Ahead

In early 2014, the Foundation’s entire staff, as well as two of our trustees, met in the occupied city of Jericho to develop a five-year strategic plan for the years 2014-18, with most Gaza colleagues joining in via videoconference. Over three days, the complex task of organising a meaningful discussion between ninety-five ambitious, highly intelligent and imaginative individuals, endowed with a tireless energy for debate, was not always easy. Indeed, discussions were occasionally heated and tense, even acrimonious! Yet I am certain that we all came out with a clearer sense of our limits and capabilities and were better able to produce a lucid, realistic but ambitious plan and prepare the solid, fertile ground upon which to implement it.

A few weeks later, a similar exercise was conducted in London by the Mosaic Rooms’ team, which came out with their own specific plan based on the Foundation’s wider one.

No major changes were introduced to our vision, mission statement or core values. However, the significant growth in the size and scope of the Foundation’s work over the last five years on the one hand and, on the other, the grave deterioration of the political situation in the region, were two factors that brought out, on analysis, a series of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats which will directly affect our strategic plan for the next five years. The following is a summary of these four vital elements.

To begin with, the team identified that the Foundation’s financial and programmatic independence as one of its main strengths, as well as the trust that it enjoys among the general public and its beneficiaries. This allows it to develop long-term partnerships and high quality programmes based on the needs of its beneficiary communities. Moreover, it has accumulated significant human, material and technical resources during its fifteen years of activity in Palestine, and five years in Lebanon and the UK, and can call upon these resources with maximum effect. The team also considered that their Board of Trustees supports management and staff to a good degree, and that it has made them feel comfortable and secure in their positions. They also praised the Foundation’s seamless and efficient financial systems, its decentralized organisational structure, which allows individual programmes to enjoy a great degree of autonomy, and its progressive positions on issues of culture and education. Other strengths are its geographical spread within historical Palestine, Lebanon and the UK, and its numerous partnerships with individuals and institutions in these countries and elsewhere. These have helped consolidate its presence in new areas and strengthened its international and regional reputation. It was also felt that the Foundation had succeeded in creating inspiring programmatic models that have had a positive effect on other local, Arab and international organisations, and that it had opened up new opportunities for the many individuals and groups who have benefited from its support. Finally, colleagues praised the Foundation’s internal institutional culture, which is built on open and regular review processes in a way that has helped it to better identify its errors and improve performance.

As for its weaknesses, the team agreed that the Foundation suffers from relatively weak internal and external communication and from the absence of a clear local and international media strategy. The team also highlighted the absence of incentives, bonus, training and career development policies, as well as a confusing evaluation system that has created dissatisfaction among some colleagues. Some also warned of the lack of understanding among some colleagues of the Foundation’s core mission. Others expressed anxiety about the difficulties inherent in evaluating some of our programmes, while some wondered why the Foundation was reluctant to advocate more actively in favour of the causes in which it believes. The team spoke at length of the inadequate use made by the Foundation of its intellectual and technical capital, which has also led to the absence of a modern information management system. Some warned of the lack of clear succession plans for key posts and complained that the Foundation was occasionally late in taking key decisions. On the programmatic front, everyone agreed about the need for greater coordination between our two programmatic tracks – educational and cultural development. This, we all felt, has weakened the holistic dimension of our work and undermined the Foundation’s belief that education and culture are part of one and the same process.

Based on these discussions, the team identified the following opportunities, which it believes should underpin our work for the next five years. The most obvious opportunity is the existence of scores of groups and individuals among teachers, artists, children and parents who have become an inseparable part of the Foundation and who share its values with enthusiasm and commitment. These groups offer us an invaluable base upon which to build and spread our work further afield. The team also identified the readiness of several Palestinian ministries, most notably the Education and Culture Ministries, and numerous town and village councils in Palestine, to embrace reform and investment in culture and education, recognize the key role that the Foundation plays in these two fields and seek its support and cooperation. We also considered that demand for our services is on the increase among different social groups, including within the Green Line and in Lebanon where there are now real opportunities to develop new partnerships. These opportunities should be invested to expand our media presence, most importantly in order to deepen the effect of our programmes on our target beneficiary groups. The growth in attendance figures at the Mosaic Rooms and the increase in its collaborations with other institutions in London and the UK creates new opportunities for international UK-Arab world cooperation, particularly for artists. The team agreed that the increased international support for the Palestinian cause has encouraged many international artists, teachers and others to launch collaborative projects with Palestine and that the Foundation’s existing facilities should be geared to receive and support these initiatives in order to raise its international profile and attract expertise which may not exist in Palestine.

As for the threats that we face, since our 2009-2013 plan and until summer 2014, Israel’s occupation forces have invaded the Gaza Strip three times and wreaked destruction upon its people and infrastructure at an unprecedented and devastating scale. During this period also, division has dominated the Palestinian body politic and the Arab world has been turned upside down in a whirlwind of violence, destruction and dispossession that none of us could ever have imagined possible only a few years ago. This deterioration and profound insecurity, coupled with the internal divisions between the two main Palestinian parties, the breakdown of the Palestinian national project in the face of relentless Israeli colonization of the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the geographical and social fragmentation of Palestine – all these grave developments threaten any individual or organisational intent on working in the region. More seriously still, we simply do not know where events are leading us.

Within Palestinian society itself, the team considered that the increasing dominance of conservative ideology will no doubt hamper our work, in addition to the likely increase in the level of professional emigration and the deterioration of school and university standards. We also considered that ideological interventions in the fields of culture and education by both Palestinian governments was likely to negatively affect schoolchildren and professionally and intellectually restrict our work with their teachers. Last but not least, the deterioration in the local economy will also affect the uptake of our services, particularly among children.

As a result of these lengthy deliberations, the team has decided to pursue the following strategic directions during the period 2014-2018:

• Capitalise on our accumulated experience, publications and resources and maximise their utilization;
• Develop the Foundation’s institutional culture, policies and organisational structure;
• Achieve greater integration between the Foundation’s work and programmes and enhance the holistic character of its work;
• Develop the Foundation’s vision, knowledge-base, plans and practices to deepen the impact of its work and programmes; 
• Employ cutting-edge technology in the Foundation’s work and programmes;
• Continue to expand its work by creating inspiring models, within available resources;
• Promote a spirit of giving and sharing among beneficiaries, and a spirit of volunteerism among various segments of society;
• Increase the involvement of local, Arab and international communities in enhancing the Foundation’s material and moral resources.

In light of these strategic directions, the following five general objectives were set:

Objective 1: To support society in attaining greater self-reliance in the fields of education and culture by:

• Creating sustainable and inspiring programmatic models;
• Creating and consolidating partnerships, expanding networks and using available resources efficiently; and
• Promoting the values of giving, voluntary work and community service.

Objective 2: To contribute to the education and teaching process in a holistic, qualitative and creative manner;

• Building capacity among target professionals working in education, culture, the arts and childhood.

Objective 3: To deepen social dialogue and action in the fields of culture and education;

• Contributing to the reform of educational and cultural policies;
• Achieving greater public appreciation of culture and education.

Objective 4: To strengthen Palestine’s regional and international presence in the fields of culture and education:  

• Consolidating the regional and international presence of the Foundation’s programmes;
• Encouraging and promoting cultural and educational exchange between Palestine and the rest of the world.   

Objective 5: To develop the Foundation’s institutional environment:

• Raising the production values of our documentation, publishing and media outputs;
• Enhancing administrative and operational efficiency;
• Promoting and developing the principles of good governance;
• Developing our IT infrastructure and technological resources;
• Ensuring the Foundation’s sustainability and financial independence.

These objectives mean that the Foundation plans to launch or complete a number of major new projects over the next five years, in addition to its existing programmes. These include the construction and opening of the Foundation’s new cultural centre and office building in Ramallah, which will house its Palestine administration, new educational and training facilities, an art gallery, a small cinema/theatre, a large artist’s studio, rehearsal rooms, a multi-purpose hall, two guest apartments and a terrace/restaurant; a new cultural centre in the city of Jenin in the northern part of the West Bank, inspired by the Qattan Centre for the Child in Gaza City (in cooperation with Jenin Municipality and the Welfare Association); a fully developed plan to build an interactive science museum in Palestine in collaboration with a number of other institutions; a new arts and educational space in Gaza city; an expanded cultural and educational programme in Lebanon; and a feasibility study for the creation of a model Palestinian school. It will also create comprehensive staff training, internship and volunteering programmes. Internally, it will invest in cutting-edge IT and knowledge management systems, expand its board of trustees with the introduction of new members and the creation of a board of advisors, set up more integrated media, publishing and technology departments, while also developing its current HR policies.

Full details of this plan, including the Mosaic Rooms’ specific plan, are available on the Foundation’s website.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all colleagues and partners who accompanied us through this painstaking planning process, particularly Dr Samir Baidoun in Ramallah and Mr Alaa Ghalayini in Gaza. I hope we accomplish all our ambitious projects with the same level of excellence and innovation to which our public has grown accustomed, despite all the overwhelming challenges facing our country.

Wishing you all a highly successful five years!

Omar Al-Qattan

Chairman of the Board of Trustees    

• Management Report
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  Culture & Arts Programme
• |
  The Mosaic Rooms
• |
  Centre for Educational Research & Development
• |
  Centre for the Child

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