Palestine’s Economic and Social Development Centre (ESDC) provided sterilisation materials for 26 cooperatives, to be used in production and other places with daily operations and customer interactions. To enhance food security, ESDC participated in a national campaign to create home gardens by delivering 100,000 seedlings to 1000 cooperative members. A survey was conducted of families/ farmers/ workers affected by the lockdown which resulted in lost incomes. As a result, a voucher project was implemented to provide relief to the most vulnerable families, and consumer cooperativess provided food baskets to the poor and offered basic food supplies at lowest prices.
The Agricultural Cooperatives Union of Palestine (PACU) bought produce from farmers’ and women’s cooperatives affected by COVID-19 restrictions and provided food baskets for families in need. PACU is also lobbying for the diversion of funds from halted export and import activities to conducting trial shipments of PACU products to potential buyers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
