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Human development in Lebanon has been significantly eroded by armed conflicts and political instability. The country has suffered the devastating effect of several armed conflicts, including a 15-year civil conflict (1975‑1990), which caused tremendous human, physical, economical and psychological impact. In recent years, the 2006 July war and the 2007 conflict between the Lebanese Army and the radical Fatah Al Islam group in the Nahr el Bared (NBC) Palestinian camp exerted a heavy toll on the country. Furthermore, Lebanon is vulnerable to a number of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, fires and landslides. Lebanon lies at the boundary between the Arabian and the African continental plates, which makes it prone to regular earthquakes. In 2008, several earthquakes resulted in physical damages in South Lebanon. Also, the frequency and intensity of weather-related hazards has increased, due to unchecked urban expansion, deforestation and ecosystem decline.
UNDP has been working in risk reduction, recovery, and peace building for many years. For example, in the aftermath of the 2006 war, UNDP supported the High Relief Committee in organizing and coordinating the overall humanitarian response. UNDP also started the rebuilding process immediately after the cessation of hostilities, with support to rubble removal operations, the repair of small critical infrastructure, and to livelihoods generation. As the war also caused severe environmental damage, UNDP supported the Ministry of Environment with the cleaning of the oil spill along the coast. Following the crisis in NBC in 2007, UNDP also supported rubble removal in partnership with UNRWA, and supported early recovery interventions in the neighboring areas of the camp, in particular in relation to infrastructure repairs. UNDP also supported a number of initiatives, targeting journalists, high school teachers, young people, municipal officials, and NGOs, with a view to strengthening their contribution towards maintaining civil peace in the country.
Based on these achievements, in close collaboration with national counterparts, UNDP will continue to work towards strengthening local capacities for crisis prevention and recovery, promoting peace building initiatives and supporting recovery efforts. In particular, the support provided by UNDP will focus on the following areas:
I - Disaster Risk Management
Given Lebanon’s exposure and vulnerability to disasters, since 2010 UNDP is working with the Prime Minister’s Office to strengthen the institutional framework and system for disaster risk management, and to develop a comprehensive disaster risk reduction strategy, with a broader focus on disaster preparedness and mitigation. In the context of this initiative, with support from UNDP, the Government of Lebanon produced its first interim progress report on its achievements against the priority areas outlined in the Hyogo Framework of Action. The first step towards developing a national risk assessment was undertaken, in the form of a comprehensive inventory of existing capacities and resources on risk analysis in Lebanon. The “Resilient Cities Campaign” sponsored by UN ISDR was also launched in Lebanon in October 2010, in the framework of a broader awareness campaign on disaster risk reduction. So far, the municipalities of Beirut, Tyre, Saida, Tripoli, Byblos and Baalbeck signed the campaign.
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II - Mine Action
In response to the large amount of unexploded ordnance that still remains in Lebanon as a consequence of the armed conflicts that the country suffered from, UNDP together with the Ministry of Defense provides ongoing support to the Lebanon Mine Action Centre (LMAC) to manage the clearance of mines and cluster bombs throughout the country. This support extends to the Regional Mine Action Centre based in Nabatiyeh, which oversees operations in the south of the country. Furthermore, UNDP has been working with the Government of Lebanon and other national partners towards the ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions which was approved by Parliament in August 2010. The Convention on Cluster Munitions will enter into force in May 2011, while Lebanon was appointed to host and preside over the second meeting of State Parties, scheduled to take place in September 2011.
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III - Lebanese -Palestinian Dialogue
 UNDP works at the national and local levels on Palestinian-Lebanese issues. At the upstream level, since 2007 UNDP has provided technical assistance to the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee (LPDC) in supporting the development and implementation of policy reforms on the civil rights of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The LPDC was established in 2005 by the Council of Ministers, in response to the goal set by the Government of Lebanon to improve the living conditions of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. At the same time, UNDP has been supporting the recovery of the surrounding communities affected by the NBC conflict, in the aftermath of the crisis. This has involved support to livelihood generation for communities affected by the crisis, capacity development of municipalities and local CBOs to strengthen their role in the reconstruction process, infrastructure repair, and peace building initiatives involving Lebanese and Palestinian youth.
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IV - Conflict Prevention and Peace Building
UNDP currently works in North Lebanon to initiate work aimed at reducing tensions in selected areas. These include: i) Selected Palestinian refugee camps and their surrounding Lebanese population (starting with Nahr el Bared and Beddawi); ii) Marginalized communities in the Akkar area; and iii) the neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab Tabbaneh in Tripoli. These activities are undertaken in the context of a UN Joint Programme, funded by the global MDG Fund.
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Lebanon
