Strategic Plan Project 2012-2015

The development of economic and social life lately forced us to change our life style here our daily needs increased, and what has been considered luxurious and extravagant in the past has become necessitous, indispensible , crucial and vital today. Similarly, the spread of globalization phenomenon has changed a lot of human habits and consumption, and this change can be attributed to blind imitation and resulted in an increase on the demand of commodities and services in general. Despite the PNA interest to establish the Ministry of Planning , the human element does not win the sufficient portion of interest in respect with his needs over time, in a manner that his various and different needs will be met, either his needs are commodities or services, taking into consideration that the population needs vary between males and females.

Similarly, the needs vary according to the age group factor. For example, the needs of children differ from the needs of youth or adult, and the same thing can applied on old-aged people. Besides, the population needs relatively vary from one region to another. For example, the needs urban regions differ from the needs of rural areas or the needs of camp residents. Moreover, the needs of healthy people differ from the needs of the diseased people. In light of the population data, the annual rate of population growth at its minimum for the coming years is 3%. The land is limited and citizens are not allowed to extend or to build beyond the master plan, but the needs are increasing year after year. They need strong infrastructure and public facilities, and this will lead to a population explosion if the situation remains the same. The explosion will be more dangerous in the overcrowded towns which could not resist the needs of people and extension.

From above, it becomes clear that the fulfillment of population needs from commodities and services at present and in the future necessitates preparation in an integrated manner from all miniseries and parts concerned. For example, we have housing, educational, hygienic, social, judicial and security needs, mention not the daily requirements from foodstuff, water, medicine, clothes, gas and electricity. It is worthy to mention that these requirements should be associated with high quality and reasonable prices in due time.

Under the patronage of the Ministry of Local Government and the Municipality Development Fund, and within the framework of "Municipalities Development" to support the preparation of strategic developmental plans for 41 municipalities in the southern and northern governorates (West Bank and Gaza Strip), Taffouh Municipality held several workshops about the strategic planning and reinforcing capacities between April to September 2011.The mayor, members of municipal council, a number of municipality employees in addition to the strategic planning committee, representatives of concerned committees and specialized committees coordinators participated in these workshops, supported by a team of advisors from BeirZeit University (Continuous Education Center). This resulted in the preparation of a strategic development plan aiming at the development of Taffouh Municipality, in addition to the strategies adopted to execute a group of projects according to their proprieties from the perspective of local society who actively participated in this process.

The preparation process of town strategic plan adopted the active participation style through forming work teams which exchange ideas ,think together and reached to conclusions, concerning the subjects of discussion. Then, the whole work teams met together in one group to discuss the outcomes of each work team and they elaborately discussed all the subjects and agreed upon the most urgent projects. Then, the real situation of the different development fields has been diagnosed and analyzed . The most important development issues and the urgent strategic aims have been determined, then indicators of performance to measure to what extent these urgent aims have been achieved, are drawn out. This is done by proposing a group of developmental projects and programs that matches municipality vision, " Forward Taffouh, a progressed town in all domains of life: in science, in industry, in health, in environment and in agriculture, conserving its originality, full with love and security , and an example for communal participation, affiliation and bounty.". 15 urgent developmental projects and a group of main projects, valued (US$ 16,579,000) have been proposed as strongly urgent needs.

  1. Difficult access and obtainment of the handicapped to get better services inside and outside the town.
  2. Low quality of basic and secondary education.
  3. Current infrastructure services in the domains of drainage ,water network, solid waste, electricity, roads and transportation do not meet the citizens' needs.
  4. Water resources in terms of quality, quantity, efficiency and consistency do not meet citizens' needs.
  5. Decrease in the level of public awareness about the importance of youth and women role in social and economic development.
  6. Unemployment and unavailability of opportunities for graduates.
  7. Increasing the risks of pollutio resulted from seepage pits, quarries and all.
  8. Available primary health services inside the town do not meet the emergency needs and the primary care of citizens.
  9. Weakness and limitation of living standards for the poor and the marginalized families and the weak mechanisms to obtain the basic services such as education, health and economic participation.
  10. Weak mechanisms of building planning in the town.
  11. Limitation of concern with agricultural sector as an economic sector to improve food security.
  12. Poor current services related to security, crises management and poor communal mechanisms to deal with emergency cases.
  13. Little interest with cultural, athletic, touris, and antiquated (antiquities ) development.