The impact of the Syrian Crisis on Lebanon has reached an unprecedented scale in the history of complex, displacement-driven emergencies. In April 2012, 32,800 Syrian refugees were registered or awaiting registration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Lebanon. By October 2018, the Government of Lebanon estimated that the country was hosting an estimated 1.5 million refugees, a quarter of the total Lebanese population.[1] The refugee crisis places tremendous pressure on Lebanon’s services and resources, particularly at the decentralized level. Municipalities face challenges in providing adequate housing, ensuring quality public services, and in creating jobs for both host communities and displaced/refugee populations. Furthermore, localities with the highest concentration of displaced people from Syria, which include all large cities of Lebanon and their suburbs, consistently suffer from heightened insecurity, higher levels of tension and more exposure to violence than other areas in Lebanon.[2] The above situation is further exacerbated by the current economic, political, and health crisis. Lebanon is facing one of the gravest economic downturns since the end of the civil war in the early 1990s. The World Bank estimates that in 2020 real GDP contracted by 20.3 percent, on the back of a 6.7 percent contraction in 2019. In fact, Lebanon’s GDP plummeted from close to US$55 billion in 2018 to an estimated US$33 billion in 2020, while GDP per capita fell by around 40 percent in dollar terms[3]. Public debt stands at 174 percent of the gross domestic product.[4] The latest rapid unemployment assessment by ILO found that unemployment stood at 37 percent in 2020. According to the UNESCWA, in 2020 more than half of the Lebanese people lived in poverty (55.3 percent), up from 27.4 percent in 2011-2012.[5] Amid economic uncertainty and an extremely protracted crisis, challenges continue to deepen for many displaced, refugees, and Lebanese who face long-term poverty. Both Lebanese and refugees perceive those long-standing inequalities are deepening and competition for shrinking job opportunities and dwindling resources and services remain drivers of tension at the local level. On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a pandemic and on March 15, the government of Lebanon issued the governmental resolution on the General Mobilization. The first case of COVID-19 in Lebanon was confirmed on 21 February 2020. As of 7 March 2022 in Lebanon, the total number of cases rose to 1,084,114 cumulative cases of Covid-19, and 10,200 deaths have been reported.[6] This complex situation puts tremendous pressure on the subnational authorities to deliver quality services and to create income generation opportunities for their communities. Project Background The “Strengthening the Long-Term Resilience of Subnational Authorities in countries affected by the Syrian and Iraqi Crises” is a project funded through the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis ‘Madad Fund’ and jointly implemented by UNDP/UN-Habitat in Lebanon and Iraq over a period of 48 months. The main objective of the action is to improve the resilience of host and refugee population in communities impacted by the Syrian crisis, through strengthened local multi-level governance systems, and improved access to basic services, affordable housing and income. In Lebanon, the action is implemented through the ‘Municipal Empowerment and Resilience Project’ (MERP) – a joint UNDP and UN-Habitat initiative, in partnership with the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities (MoIM). The Project’s geographic areas of intervention include three unions: the Urban Community Al Fayhaa, the Federation of Municipalities of the Northern and Coastal Metn, the Union of Tyre, and 92 of their member municipalities. The Project aims to benefit host communities, Syrian refugees, and displaced people in the three targeted Unions of Municipalities, taking into accounts gender and the needs of vulnerable groups. District | # Of Municipalities in the district | Targeted Union | # Of municipalities in the Union | Tripoli | 4 (Qalamoun, Mina, Beddaoui, and Tripoli) | Urban Community Al Fayhaa | 4 (Qalamoun, Mina, Tripoli, and Beddaoui) | Metn | 54 | Federation of Municipalities of the Northern and Coastal Metn | 33 | Tyre | 62 | Union of Tyre Municipalities | 55 |
Project objectives, outcomes, outputs The overall Project goal is to Strengthen the Long-Term Resilience of Subnational Authorities in countries affected by the Syrian Crisis. The objectives and corresponding indicators and outputs of the Project are listed below: Objective 1: Subnational authorities have enhanced capacities to engage in holistic, area-based planning and consider different scenarios that respond to the needs of host, refugee and IDP populations - Output 1.1: Efficient & timely municipal work processes to address impact of crisis are strengthened through an enhanced administrative interface
- Output 1.2: Greater Understanding and awareness by all local actors of their role in managing the impact of the crisis achieved
- Output 1.3: Strengthened sub national government capacity on raising revenues and financial management
Objective 2: Service delivery is increasingly responsive, and generates greater social stability outcomes, based on the needs of host, refugee and IDP populations - Output 2.2: Priority basic services interventions are identified and implemented
Objective 3: Subnational authorities are empowered to facilitate local economic development and have better access to municipal investment that benefits the extension of safe public services and economic opportunities for host, refugee and IDP populations - Output 3.1: An Enabling Economic Environment is Created with active engagement of Local Authorities, the private sector and LED associations
- Output 3.2: Capacity at local level to identify develop, design, and implement interventions with an economic multiplier impact improved
Overall, the Project aims to contribute to achieving the indicators of the below-mentioned frameworks: United Nations Strategic Framework (UNSF) (Lebanon): | Core UN Priority 3: Lebanon reduces poverty and promotes sustainable development while addressing immediate needs in a human rights/gender sensitive manner. | Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP): | Outcome 1: Strengthen the ability of municipal, national, and local institutions to alleviate resource pressure, reduce resentment, and build peace | Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) | Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere Target 1.4: By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance. Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Target 5.5: Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life. Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Target 16.6: Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels
Target 16.7: Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels. Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable Target 11.3: By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries. |
[1] Government of Lebanon and the United Nations, Lebanese crisis response plan 2017-2020 (2019 Update), Beirut, (https://www.unhcr.org/lb/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2019/04/LCRP-EN-2019.pdf), Accessed December 2019 [2] The 251-vulnerability map identifies the most vulnerable localities in Lebanon. They host 87 per cent of the displaced from Syria and 67 per cent deprived Lebanese. Lebanese crisis response plan 2017-2020 (2019 Update) [3] Lebanon Economic Monitor, World Bank, Spring 2021. [4] Lebanon Economic Monitor, Spring 2021, World Bank. [5] UNESCWA Policy Brief No 15/2020: Poverty in Lebanon. [6] WHO Lebanon COVID-19 Daily Brief for 7 March 2022.
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