The report was prepared by the OECD Public Governance Directorate (GOV) under the leadership of Elsa Pilichowski, Director. It was developed under the strategic direction of Martin Forst, Head of the Governance Reviews and Partnerships Division in GOV, and of Miriam Allam, Head of the MENA-OECD Governance Programme.
Sara Fyson, Jeroen Michels, and Johannes Klein (Part I), and Daniel Trnka, Richard Alcorn, and Yola Thürer (Part II) co-authored the report and were responsible for the data collection and analysis. Valuable feedback was received by Laura Völker, Andrea Uhrhammer, Camila Saffirio, Amira Tlili, Jean-Jacques Hible, Guillaume Biganzoli and Yusuf Ashmawy. Support in the data-collection and review was provided by Ra’id Malki and Nadia Abu Alia. Ciara Muller with the support of Francesca Romani prepared the manuscript for publication and controlled the quality.
This Review would not have been possible without the significant commitment and support of the Palestinian Prime Minister’s Office. The authors are particularly thankful to Dr. Estephan Salameh, Advisor to the Prime Minister for Planning and Aid Coordination, for facilitating all exchanges between the OECD and different PA institutions in order to collect and verify data.
The authors also express their gratitude towards the following institutions for completing the OECD Questionnaires administered for the purpose of the review: the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO); the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers (GS); the Office of the President (OoP); the General Personnel Council (GPC); the Ministry of Justice (MoJ); the Official Gazette Bureau (Diwan); the Ministry of Finance (MoF); the National School for Administration (PNSA); the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC); the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD); the Ministry of Labour (MoL); the Ministry of Tourism and Archeology (MoTA); the Ministry of Transportation (MoT); the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA), the Ministry of Education (MoE); the Ministry of National Economy (MoNE); the Ministry of Interior (MoI); the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA); the Ministry of Local Government (MoLG); the Attorney General Office (AGO); and the Ministry of Health (MoH).
They thank all employees of these respective institutions that participated in the interviews and data collection process, notably Mahmoud Attaya, Muyad Taleb Suwaiti, Nida Salameh (PMO); Rami Husseini, Shatha Qarshouly, Saja Terawi and Rumoz Jumhour (GS); Kholoud Faroun, Mai Mustapha and Nadi Shawareh (OoP); Maysa Naim and Mohammed Hijazi (GPC); Suad Abu Mashayekh, Areej Asfour, Lina Shalaldeh and Samah Naser (MoJ); Reem Abu Alrub, Samah Sawalhah and Haya Musleh (Diwan); Imran Salahat and Fidaa Musa Abu Hmeid (MoF); Wafaa Hamayel (PLC); Khouloud Abdel Khalik (MoSD); Samer Salameh and Buthaina Salem (MoL); Amin Al-Khatib (MoTA); Farouk Abdel Rahim (MoT); Hanna Nakhleh (MoWA); Mohamad Matar and Assem Qadous (MoE); Bashaer Rabah and Iyad Jaber Assi (MoNE); Ghadeer Abu ElRub and Samah Shaker Joudeh (MoA); Eyad Matakh (MoI); Uhod Enayeh and Islam Zeidan (MoLG); Anas Oury and Nithan Ramadan (MoH); Mustafa Khawaja (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics - PCBS).
They would also like to extend their gratitude to other public institutions who participated in the various capacity-building activities organised as part of the project, which also helped inform the Review, notably the Palestinian Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC); the Administrative and Financial Control Bureau; the Energy Authority; and the Monetary Authority.
A number of peers from OECD and other MENA countries participated in the fact-finding missions and capacity-building activities, providing invaluable insights that were integral to the present analysis. The authors wish to warmly thank:
Ms. Anna Skrjabina, Project Leader, Court Administration of Latvia
Mr. Manuel Cabugueira, Coordinator of the Technical Unit for Legislative Impact Assessment and Senior Consultant, Portuguese Centre for Planning, Policy and Foresight in Public Administration
Mr. Ricardo Matias, Program and Project Manager in Portugal’s National Press
Mr. Charfeddine Ghazala, Director General, Office of the Legal Advisor to the Tunisian Government
Mr. Gianluca Forlani, Judge, Permanent Representation of Italy to the European Union
Mr. Pétur Berg Matthíasson, Deputy Director, Department of Policy Coordination, Iceland’s Prime Minister's Office
Dr. Rab’ah AL-Ajarmeh, former Minister of State in charge of Public Administration Development, Jordan
Dr. Francesco Sarpi, Head of Unit for Rationalisation and Improvement of Regulation, Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italy
Mr. Peter Kováč, Senior Counsellor, Secretariat of RIA Commission, Ministry of Economy, Slovakia
Dr. Heba Shahein, Director of Egyptian Regulatory Reform and Development Activity (ERRADA), Egypt
They would also like to thank the European Union for its financial support to the “Support the Palestinian Authority to enhance Governance and the Rule of Law” project, which made this Review possible, and the Office of the European Union Representative (West Bank and Gaza Strip, UNRWA), notably Gerhard Krause, Head of Cooperation, Joris Hereen, Head of Section: Support to Civil Society, East Jerusalem and Governance Issues, and Simona Gallotta, Rule of Law Programme Manager, for their continuous support and their valuable comments. The OECD will develop a complementary Review, as part of the separate “Supporting the Palestinian Authority in Public Administration Reform” project also financed by the European Union, in order to look at other stages of the policy-making process, including policy delivery, monitoring, and evaluation. This project is led by Odoardo Como, Head of Section: Macroeconomic Support, Social Development and Institution Building, and Shereen Abu Eid, Public Administration Reform Programme Manager.
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Xavier Sisternas and Timo Ligi, Senior Policy Advisors within the SIGMA Programme, for their comments.
Finally, they wish to thank the representatives of private sector, civil society and academia who have been active in supporting the project’s fact-finding missions and capacity-building activities. These include: Amal Faqih and Omar Rahhal (Human Rights and Democracy Media Center - Shams); Khadijeh Zahran (The Independent Commission of Human Rights - ICHR); Rwa’ Jaber and Faten Bolivia (Paltrade); Haitham Zoubi (Exchange Market); Hassan Qustantini (Bethlehem University); Abdallah Hammad (Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid); Majed Aruri (ISTEQLAL); and Mohammed Khader (Birzeit University).