MA’AN Development Center was established in the year 1989 in Jerusalem, by a small group of professionals engaged in human and social development and united by the passion to contribute to the strengthening and steadfastness of the Palestinian society via developing and protecting its human and natural resources and its local institutions, in a way that supports the national liberation process, upholding Palestinians’ rights and ending the Israeli occupation.
After 35 years of work and accumulating experience jointly with local, national, and international partners in the fields of human, social, and economic development, MA’AN built and developed models and approaches that have proven effective in achieving local development. The center's developmental approach was successful in linking development and relief on the one hand and putting people at the center of the development process on the other hand, as foundations for access to social justice, as well as economic, social, and political rights, foremost of which is the right to Palestinian’s self-determination, the right to development, eradicating poverty, achieving gender equality and eliminating all forms of marginalization and exclusion for all groups without any discrimination.
MA’AN works in all governorates in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, specifically focusing on marginalized villages and neighborhoods. The center seeks to provide a package of interventions for families and individuals in key priority areas on the basis that comprehensive development is indivisible, where each dimension supports or compliments another, and entailing that social marginalization can only be ended when engaging in economic participation and vice versa.
The executive staff consists of 218 male and female employees with expertise in the fields of economic and social development, agriculture in its various branches and specializations, leadership, design and management of technical and food security programs, education, child and family development and protection, mental health, and program management. Females make up about 56% of the center’s total executive staff, due to the positive discrimination that the center uses in its hiring processes. Females have the priority in occupying senior management positions, including the Program Manager in the West Bank, the two deputy Financial Directors in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and the Procurement Director in Gaza, the Logistics Officer in the West Bank, the Director of Protection Program in the West Bank and Gaza, the Technical Supervisor of Psychosocial Support in West Bank and Gaza, the Director of Human Resources in Gaza, as well as monitoring and evaluation responsibility in West Bank and Gaza, etc. The majority of employees are located in the Gaza Strip due to the larger number of funded projects there during the years 2019-2021.
