This report concerns the results of a survey on children’s literature and the promotion of reading in Palestine as represented by the West Bank and the Gaze Sector. Emphasis is placed on a number of axes regarding children’s literature;; including policies and legislation;; programs and institutions;; libraries;; elementary schools and universities;; and the publishing and distribution of children’s books. Upon analysis of the state of children’s literature in Palestine;; this report identifies certain trends regarding child culture. It also identifies a number of problems facing the promotion of reading among children;; including financial constraints;; the quality and availability of libraries;; and the overarching challenges influenced by Israel occupation.

This report concerns the results of a survey on children’s literature and the promotion of reading in Syria. Emphasis is placed on a number of axes regarding children’s literature;; including policies and legislation;; programs and institutions;; libraries;; elementary schools and universities;; and general information regarding children’s books. Upon analysis of the state of children’s literature in Syria;; this report identifies certain trends regarding children's literature. It also identifies a number of problems facing the promotion of reading among children and makes a number of recommendations for the development and improvement of children’s literature.

The study aims to evaluate the concepts of water;; energy and solid waste that exists in the curriculum and the manner in which they are tackled by mapping the current textbooks based the three themes of the study – water;; energy and solid waste. The report is based on a comprehensive study of 104 school textbooks from grades 1 – 10 in fourteen subjects. The survey finds that the environmental education concepts were vastly covered in all subjects of he study in a total of 1777 concepts;; and most of them focused on scientific facts and information with repetitive energy concepts and lack of sequential flow. This research was conducted as part of the Public Action for Water;; Energy and Environment Project (PAP);; which aims to encourage water and energy conservation and to support behavior change towards more conservation and efficient practices both at the household level and in the commercial;; industrial and civil society arenas using social marketing behavioral methods. Based on the finding that there is little space allocated to the synthesis and application of information and knowledge and therefore the concepts remain superficially tackled;; the report recommends that support material should be prepared for the different grade levels and training programs should be developed for the teachers as real agent of change and role models.

The report explores the level of knowledge;; attitudes held and practices observed by young people towards environmental issues related to water and energy conservation and sold waste management. It maps out available resources;; programs and learning opportunities in the informal and non-formal education sectors;; through which positive environmental attitudes can be encouraged and promoted. The survey of the report assess the knowledge;; attitudes and practices of young people aged 7 -24;; educations;; staff and youth workers to identify strengths and areas for improvement through capacity building and explore existing resources;; programs to evaluate their effectiveness. This research was conducted as part of the Public Action for Water;; Energy and Environment Project (PAP);; which aims to encourage water and energy conservation and to support behavior change towards more conservation and efficient practices both at the household level and in the commercial;; industrial and civil society arenas using social marketing behavioral methods. The study concludes that there is a need for more “green” programs that involve youth in a proactive way and therefore;; it recommends that programs targeting youth need to remain positive;; dynamic and in context. The recommendations of the report include development of environmental resources in the Arabic language;; the youth-led;; peer-led programs that involve participatory learning opportunities;; and social media tools to raise interests;; awareness and creation of environmental education task force.