Lebanon

What we do / Democratic Governance

The overarching concentration of the Governance Programme in Lebanon is on public sector institution-building and capacity development. This includes enhancing the national debate on responsive governance and participation leading to the consensual formulation of broad-based national policies. Services include technical support for public institutions to develop, formulate and implement economic, administrative and financial reform policies and legislations, and to support national dialogue and assist in the formulation of policies related to governance, participation, and empowerment.

The UNDP Governance Programme is strategically co-located inside the Prime Minister's Office, key ministries, parliament and other public institutions. This positioning, has allowed UNDP to play a greater and much-needed role in policy dialogue with Ministers and enhancing the role of civil society in the shaping of public policy. These projects have provided functional capacity for the respective ministries and with local governments and civil society organizations. UNDP's approach has been to identify and lead specific programme areas within each project given the extensive, widespread and expansive nature of issues addressed by each project.
Recently, in addition to the continued capacity development focus of the portfolio, the governance programme added several project on inclusive participation. In 2005, the Technical Assistance to Electoral Law Reform was launched to provide Technical support for the Special Commission on Electoral Law Reform which led to the legislation of a new electoral law. In 2008, a new project with the Ministry of Interior was launched to provide technical assistance for fair and free elections. Also a project in support to the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee was launched in 2007.  A special emphasis is being placed on international human rights principles and a stronger understanding of international human rights standards in national legislation. UNDP is supporting the Human Rights committee in the Lebanese parliament to develop a National Action Plan for Human Rights in Lebanon. In the Ministry of Justice project, the objective is to enhance access to justice, as well as enhance the capacity of legal professionals in order to strengthen the quality of available legal services, especially for the most vulnerable groups and women. Gender equality is also emphasized throughout the portfolio, and specific activities such as gender audit for the UNDP office and gender mapping of NGOs were conducted, and a project on Lebanese women rights to nationality is launched in 2008. Several awareness activities with business and religious leaders (both men and women) on HIV AIDS were also carried out in 2008.