TOKTEN — UNDP's Diaspora Knowledge-Transfer Programme for the Palestinian Territories

TOKTEN (Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals) is a UNDP mechanism, first launched in Turkey in 1977 and since applied in around 30 countries, that places skilled diaspora professionals as short-term volunteer consultants (roughly one to six months) inside public institutions in their country of origin. In the Palestinian Territories the programme has run continuously since 1994, implemented by UNDP together with the Palestinian Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, deploying experts mainly into health, information technology, macroeconomic planning, city planning, academic curriculum development and cultural-heritage projects such as the Bethlehem 2000 restoration effort.

A 2001 academic evaluation (Hanafi, European University Institute) documented more than 178 Palestinian diaspora experts contributing under TOKTEN by that point, drawn mainly from Jordan (37%), the United States (27%), France (8%) and Canada (6%). One notable case: TOKTEN consultants helped build and open Gaza's international airport, and nine of them stayed on afterwards to form the backbone of its operating staff. Consultants also helped reform kidney-disease treatment protocols and guided early macroeconomic planning frameworks for the nascent Palestinian Authority.

On retention, the same evaluation found that 34 of 160 tracked TOKTEN experts (about one in five) remained permanently in the Palestinian Territories after their assignment ended -- a notably higher resettlement rate than the comparable TOKTEN programme in Lebanon (roughly one in six), attributed to strong family and community ties among diaspora Palestinians in Jordan and the US.

The evaluation is equally frank about the programme's limits: TOKTEN consultants were typically paid three to four times local salaries for comparable work, which sometimes created friction with local counterparts; benefits accrued mostly to government ministries and public institutions, with only marginal reach into the private and NGO sectors; and the pool of volunteers skewed toward a highly educated, English-speaking, upper-middle-class segment of the diaspora. The programme has continued to operate through subsequent crises, including a 2023-launched expansion (with the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation) focused on rebuilding Gaza.

Read the full analysis: https://www.tokten.ps/about