On March 6th, the NIS 330 Million “Excelling Arab Localities Program” was kicked off by the Authority for Economic Development of the Arab Sector at the Ministry of Social Equality, together with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Finance. This program is one of the backbone initiatives of the historic five-year Economic Development Plan for the Arab sector that was approved earlier this month, and the first to be officially implemented.
The “Excelling Arab Localities Program” aims to strengthen the capacity of 16 Arab localities that met participation criteria. It includes two major components – enhancing the managerial and financial capacities of the localities, and creating “engines of economic growth” within each locality. In its outline of the Plan, the Ministry of Interior states that “many Arab localities suffer from economic hardships and scarcity of resources and local income generating assets” which create “ongoing dependence” on governmental subsidies and “repetitive recuperation processes” that enhance socio-economic gaps and undermine the ability of these localities to provide services to their residents”. The Program’s goal is therefore to reduce the participating Arab localities’ dependency on government subsidies, help them build financial strength and assist them to become service providers to their residents.
In each of the participating Arab locality, a special coordinator will be hired to oversee the program’s advancement, monitoring and implementation., The coordinators will also prepare strategic development plans for each locality on both issues – identifying ideas to enhance own revenues and economic development, and enhancing capacity building and managerial skills within the local staff. The budget for each locality for this process is around NIS 17 million. In addition, after two years of implementation, and depending on performance, a bonus budget of up to NIS 5 million to enhance economic development will be available for the participating localities.
The 16 excelling Arab localities were selected based on a number of criteria, including size (over 9,000 residents) and financial stability (tax collection rates of at least 75-80%, as well as minimal debts). They include large localities such as Nazareth (80,000 residents) and Rahat (56,000 residents), medium size localities such as Kfar Qassim, Sahnin and Baqa El Gharbiya (between 20,000-30,000 residents) and smaller localities such as Hura and Dir-el Asad (between 10,000-15,000 residents).
All selected localities are rated at the 2nd and 3rd lowest socio-economic rankings on a scale of 1 through 10 by the Ministry of Interior. In general, 80% of Arab localities are rated at the lowest three socio-economic rankings (as opposed to 4% Jewish localities).
The Ministry of Interior will be in charge of the implementation of the Excelling Arab Localities Program, and a steering committee of the participating governmental bodies will oversee progress.