Bisan Center for Research and Development is a progressive non- profit, non- governmental, democratic organization aiming to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and building up a strong Palestinian civil society.
Bisan seeks to do so by promoting a participatory model of development, which is based on the principles of social justice, democracy, equality, human rights and respect of individual and collective freedom. To realize this the Center aims to analyze and criticize development approaches as currently applied by both national and international actors in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt), which are often based on the misguided interpretation of the political context as a "post-conflict" setting.
Bisan Center’s key tool to elaborate an alternative model of development is participatory action research, a form of inclusive bottom-up knowledge production, in which research and social action reciprocal inform and guide one another. Thus the voice of community actors, and especially marginalized groups, is made heard and furthermore their steadfastness is increased by building their capacities to better represent their needs and interests and equip them with strategic means to secure their basic rights.
