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[email protected] website: www.unrwa.org UNRWA Emergency Appeal Pro g ress Re p ort Destroyed housing, Khan Younis Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip 10 Tenth progress report covering September 2001 Emergency Appeal This is the tenth progress report in UNRWA’s emergency appeal series: flash appeal launched 4 October 2000, first emergency appeal launched 8 November 2000, second emergency appeal launched 22 February 2001, and third emergency appeal launched 22 June 2001. This progress report covers the period 1 – 30 September 2001 Background The UNRWA microfinance and microenterprise programme offers one barometer for gauging economics and livelihoods trends in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. During September, the situation of the programme in the West Bank, and the implications it holds in terms of livelihoods, were reviewed from the start of the present crisis in September 2000. Since the start of the crisis, the financial performance of the Agency's microfinance programme in the West Bank, like that of its sister programme in the Gaza Strip, was weakened by the economic shocks suffered by its borrowers and the recessionary forces squeezing the economy. During the financial years 1998 through 2000, the programme had been operationally self-sufficient, paying all expenditures from interest revenues. Despite the political and humanitarian crisis, it maintained full cost recovery until August 2001, when it incurred a small loss due to the slowdown in lending and mounting overdue payments by its clients. The following charts depict these effects on the operations of the programme and the increasing risk it has faced.