The Reality of Municipalities at Gaza Strip in Scientific Research: An Analytical Study

Municipalities are the main supplier of several services provided to the society in its daily life. This study aims to clarify the extent to which Palestinian municipalities at Gaza strip get benefits from scientific research conducted on them. Around 70 master theses were conducted during 2004- 2022, distributed on three Palestinian universities. This study reached several conclusions. The most important ones are as follows: the absence of the role of Ministry of local government or municipalities in determining the real needs of the issues to be addressed or investigated through scientific research. The results showed that the roles of Ministry of local government or municipalities are completely absent in arbitration of questionnaires in terms of feasibility of the dimensions and questions raised in the questionnaires. However, arbitration is limited to the academic aspect. The results also reflected that the results of studied addressing more than one municipality were analyzed for research purposes as if they were one community. This study introduced several recommendations, such as: there must be a clear strategy and real coordination between ministry of local government, municipalities, and universities to determine a set of vital issues to be investigated. The study also recommended that universities should encourage researchers to invite the ministry and municipalities to participate in arbitrating questionnaires, without limiting arbitrating process to academic level. The study also recommended that the ministry should establish a committee to follow up the outcomes of scientific research to get benefits from their feedback.


Introduction
There are several universities in Gaza that offer post-graduate programs (master degree). Actually, municipalities are among the national institutions that are usually the subject matter of scientific research. Moreover, Gaza strip includes 25 municipalities. After scanning all educational institutions that grant master degree, the researcher concludes that the most prominent educational institution s in terms of antiquity and the number of approved theses are as follows: the Islamic University, Al-Azhar University, and Management and politics academy for Graduate. The researcher found that 70 master theses have targeted municipalities at Gaza strip. This study attempts to reveal the realities of municipalities, and to discover the extent of attendance for Ministry of Local Government and Municipalities in this field in terms of feasibility, real needed approved addresses, size of the real benefits and feedback gained from this treasure of knowledge, and the contribution of Ministry of Local Government and Municipalities in the arbitration of the main study tool (the questionnaire).
Since 2004, more than 70 scientific studies targeting municipalities have been carried out. Their recommendations are still repeated. in addition, the percentages of their results still range around the average level despite all the internal reforms inside the municipalities, directives of Ministry of Local Government and its direct supervision on performance, the influence of political parties, the transparency of recruitment processes, increasing the percentage of representativeness of youth at supervisory jobs by half, adopting strategic plans as a way of life since 2010, increased percentage of holders of post-graduate degrees, contributions of Municipal Development and Lending Fund, etc. Despite all these, the researcher noticed that evaluations are still the same. As a result, a question arises: how can we explain this?
This study aims to introduce a detailed answer for the following main question: To what extent do the Palestinian municipalities at Gaza Strip get benefits from the scientific research conducted on them? To answer the study question the study highlighted on several aims of this study, as follow: • introducing an inventory of scientific research dealing with issue related to Palestinian municipalities at Gaza Strip. • categorizing scientific research that deal with Palestinian municipalities at Gaza Strip based on issues investigated. • exploring whether the suggested titles of academic theses arise from the real needs of municipalities or not. • exploring the extent to which the Palestinian municipalities at Gaza Strip get benefits from scientific research targeting them? • clarifying the extent of participation for Ministry of Local Government or municipalities at arbitration phase of the study tools for approved research.

The Importance of the Study
Municipalities are considered one of the most vital components of the service public sector. Actually, they are the main provider of diverse services provided to citizens because these services are greatly linked with daily life. in addition, municipalities work hard, with their various administrative and executive staff and within available capabilities, to develop the local environment to provide a dignified life and to increase life standards throughout developing various service, economic, and social aspects, providing a clean and beautiful healthy environment, and consolidating cultural values to build a bright civilized face for modern cities. Thus, they keep pace for scientific development in diverse aspects using all possible and effective ways to achieve the goals of local development (Jouda, 2015: 3) The importance of this study arises from the topic addressed to determine the extent to which municipalities at Gaza strip get benefits from the scientific research dealt with by the targeted universities. It has been divided importance of the study in two stages, as follow:

The Importance of the Study for Municipalities
The researcher attempts to introduce a real picture for the extent to which municipalities at Gaza strip get benefits from the scientific theses targeting them during 2004 to 2021. He also tries to determine the shape and type of the feedback provided by the educational institutions that grant these theses by reviewing the list of scientific research, and the extent of contribution of Palestinian Ministry of Local Government as a governmental body authorized to manage and control municipal affairs.

The Importance of the Study for Researchers
The researcher hopes that this study becomes among the main references interested in issues of Palestinian municipalities. Actually, this study introduces a detailed review of classifications and clarifies the extent of participation of Palestinian Ministry of Local Government and municipalities in arbitration stage of the questionnaire. Moreover, this study is considered as a tool to help researcher review the study results and recommendations with the possibility of taking in consideration some recommendations which the researcher sees them important for future researchers to overcome any academic gaps in similar studies or any related fields. According to the researcher's best knowledge, this study is a pioneering study that sheds the light on a subject that connects between the extent of scientific research attributions in developing Palestinian municipalities' performances.

Methodology
This approach is one of common research approaches used in most of research in social, human, and administrative fields. The researchers investigate the current situation for a specific phenomenon. Then, they describe it in general since they describe the phenomenon or reality under study as it is. After that, they introduce a detailed and accurate description of it. This method is seen as a suitable method for most of human and social fields (Al-Najjar et al., 2015).
To achieve study aims, the researcher relies on the analytical descriptive approach to study the phenomenon. This studied phenomenon exists in reality, and he is thrilled to introduce an accurate and detailed description of it and to express it qualitatively and quantitatively. From on hand, the qualitative approach describes the phenomenon, and clarified its characteristics, whereas the quantitative approach introduces a numerical description that clarifies the value of the phenomenon, its size, or connectedness degree with other phenomenon. It also describes the size of relationships and their effects accurately by numbers (Cooper & Schindler, 2013: 208). Alyan (2011) defined descriptive research as "a method and a mechanism to study scientific problems or phenomena by describing scientific problems or phenomena using a scientific way, aiming to reach logical explanations supported by proofs and evidences" (p. 93). They enable the research to set specific frameworks and controls for the problem. All of these are used to study the research results.
The analytical approach relies on analyzing and deconstructing the basic elements of the studied topic. Then, these elements are investigated using a deep and accurate method. Based on this, rules and provisions are drawn. Then, researchers can make generalizations that contribute in solving social and human problems using these rules and provisions. Actually, this approach is a complement to other approaches (Creswell, 2018: 183).

Studies Targeting Municipalities at Gaza Strip
The researcher relies on master theses conducted at Islamic University of Gaza, Al-Azhar University, and Management and Politics Academy because of the following reasons: These universities are among the most universities that allow the visitor to download scientific theses via their websites. Also, these are among the most prominent universities that offer business administration programs since a long period. The number of master theses which the researcher obtained is 70, distributed as follows:  (1), Jabalia (1), Wadi Gaza (1) Total 70 100.0% According to the topic of the scientific thesis, the classification is categorized into 10 categories as follows: Table 3 Classification of scientific theses based on focus field. # Classification Number of thesis 1 Human resources 15 2 Financial 13 3 Institutional/service performance 12 4 Censorship / Audit 6 5 Engineering/Projects 6 6 Technology 5 7 health and environment 4 8 Sustainable development 3 9 Law 3 10 Community participation 3 Total 70

The Extent of Real Needs for the Suggested Titles
Based on reality and research related to the topic, municipalities do not receive any messages from these universities to state the real needs of issues that municipalities want to address or study (except Management and Politics Academy for Post-Graduate Studies, and only for one time before 2013). However, the municipalities received several calls to facilitate researchers' tasks during conducting research about topics chosen by university in agreement with the student during his/her discussion of research plan. In addition, Ministry of Local Government does not play any role in approving, rejecting, or suggesting any of these research topics.

Data Collection Tool (questionnaire)
The vast majority of master theses are filed or applied studies (in other words, they mainly depend on questionnaire as a data collection tool, except 5 theses). Some researchers currently depend on electronic forms (google) as a means of filling out the questionnaire by circulating a web link via WhatsApp groups for municipalities. However, these forms are a double-edged sword since one person can respond one time or more as a result of the following reasons: • out of dissatisfaction: the respondent fills in a very low rates compared with the real situation of municipality or overestimates the value. • this method enables the respondent to impersonate another employee working at another municipality. Then, s/he gives a bad impression about the evaluation (choosing a municipality name other than the municipality in which s/he works). • this method enables the researcher to perform unlimited entry operations, which give false results and percentages.

Regarding questionnaire arbitration and the extent of meeting the required purpose
Municipalities or the ministry did not participate in questionnaire arbitration, except in 16 scientific theses. The ministry participated in questionnaire arbitration in only three scientific theses. This is indicated in the appendix of the (70) theses.

The Extent of Getting Real benefits from Scientific Theses
The scientific theses have reached a real scientific treasure in terms of results and recommendations. The municipalities are supposed to get great benefits from these results throughout workshops and focus groups to identify points of weaknesses to introduce remedy plans and to determine points of strength to invest and sharpen them. However, this study cannot measure the extent of getting benefits.
Some of the negative observations indicating that municipalities do not get any benefits from these results are as follows: • 15 master theses out of 70 ones targeted the five major municipalities (Gaza, Khan Yunis, Jabalia Nazla, Rafah, Deir al-Balah). However, their results were taken for research purposes only throughout highlighting measurements and evaluations of the major five municipalities together. In other words, one of dimensions measured can be very high in a particular municipality, while it is very low in another municipality. At the same time, the overall result of the five municipalities together can be " moderate". Thus, the real evaluation for each municipality is not accurate, and the results are limited used for research purposes. • Most of recommendations are very general, and are not specified for a particular municipality without taking into consideration assessment variation between municipalities.

Feedback
• The researcher did not observe any indication related to the existence of feedback from municipalities or any message from the ministry to inquire about the results of any master thesis. • some mistakes were committed in writing the titles of two theses addressed " Khan Younis municipality". The error was in write the municipality name as "Khanyounis" instead of "Khan Younis". The two titles were as follows: i. "The effect of using local authorities for digital content marketing in developing the relationship with the public (a case study of Khanyunis Municipality)" by Muhammad Mahmoud Siam 2021. The error was also repeated in all the questions of the questionnaire, noting that the researcher has modified what is documented from the website of Khan Yunis municipality about the establishment of the municipality by writing (Khanyounis) instead of (Khan Younis) pg (39,40). ii. " The impact of determining factors of the foreign funding policy on the volume of funding for municipalities operating in Gaza Strip: A field study: Gaza municipalities, Khan Yunis, and Rafah" by Ahmed Shaat 2019.

Conclusions and Recommendations
• Since 2004, more than 70 master theses have been carried out on municipalities at Gaza strip. However, their recommendations are still repeated the same in most cases (according to study classification). In addition, the percentages for results are still ranging at the "moderate" level despite all internal reforms carried out by municipalities under the light of directives of the Ministry of Local Government and its direct supervision over performance, the influence of political parties, the transparency of recruitment processes, increasing the percentage of representativeness of youth at supervisory jobs by half, adopting strategic plans as a way of life since 2010, increased percentage of holders of post-graduate degrees, contributions of Municipal Development and Lending Fund, ... etc. Despite all these, the researcher noticed that evaluations are still the same. As a result, a question arises: how can we explain this? • the role of the Ministry of Local Government is absent in determining the real needs for the issues to be addressed or studied throughout scientific research. • the role of Ministry of Local Government is not existed at all in stage of arbitration of questionnaire in terms of feasibility of the dimensions and questions raised in the questionnaires, but the nature of arbitration is limited to academic aspect only. • the results of studies addressing more than one municipality were analyzed for research purposes as if they are one community. The real evaluation for each municipality is not clarified. Actually, the community of municipalities in scientific research has its own peculiarities that differ from other communities ((Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, University,… combining more than one municipality in a single study is similar to someone who combines more than one institution or organizational entity at the same time. Thus, based on what is existed in combining municipalities together in analyzing the questions of the questionnaire, the results are in a state of injustice and dispersal). Each municipality has a separate board of directors from the rest of the municipalities, an independent financial disclosure, a different organizational culture, and a classification and structure that do not coincide with other municipalities.

Recommendations
• a clear strategy and an agreement should be existed between ministry of local government and universities to approve a set of vital issues for investigation. This set should be updated during a period that does not exceed three years (suggested topics with real needs). • addressing universities with the necessity of obligating researchers to invite municipalities and the ministry for participation in arbitrating questionnaires because arbitration from an academic perspective is not enough.

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Preventing the use of electronic questionnaires when the study population is more than one municipality.

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The applied scientific theses in which the questionnaire is used should be directed toward one municipality. When the researcher desires widening the study community to include more than one municipality, the results should be clarified for each municipality separately so that there is a practical benefit for each municipality. In this way, points of strength and weakness are identified for each municipality. the results will be separated from other municipalities addressed in the same research. • committee from the ministry should be existed to follow up the outcomes of the research studies and to introduce feedback needed.