UNDP, Belgium announce $3 million development deal for Bekaa, North
The ART GOLD division of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the government of Belgium this week announced a $3 million agreement, entitled "Building Peace through Local Development."
The funds, donated by the Belgian government, will be targeted at citizens and institutions of selected pilot areas of North Lebanon and the Bekaa.
UNDP-ART GOLD LEBANON (UNDP-AGL) currently operates in South Lebanon, North Lebanon, the Bekaa area and the Southern Suburbs of Beirut. The agreement with the Belgian government will extend their operations into the regions of Baalbek and Hermel, which have as yet remained unaided by the program. "This is significant because the problems in those regions are maybe less known but not therefore less pressing than the problems in the South," said Johan Verkammen, the Belgian ambassador, at a news conference on Tuesday.
Several speakers at the conference underlined that this was the perfect moment for an injection of new funds and new projects into Lebanon”s regions. "It is with no doubt that the timing of this agreement is the most convenient to Lebanon," explained Sefeildin Abbaro, country director for the UNDP. "The UNDP is in the process of implementing the second phase of the socio-economic recovery in the aftermath of the July 2006 war." In the past two years, much of aid to Lebanon has been used to help communities recoup their losses during the summer 2006 war. Developers now believe they can implement progressive rather than merely restorative programs.
The overarching aim of the UNDP-AGL is to improve individual living conditions through increased access to employment, income, education, health and social integration. A crucial element of the UNDP-AGL program is its insistence that development should stem from the local population. "Twenty years ago, the UN used to send people in to carry out development. With UNDP-AGL, local actors are used, which increases the sustainability of the program," said Gilles Chevalier of the UNDP, who flew in from Geneva to attend the launch of the agreement.
Another important aspect of the UNDP-AGL program is its emphasis on decentralized co-operation. Local communities are encouraged to come together to achieve their strategic objectives, while communities in donor nations are encouraged to work directly with the beneficiaries, as opposed to through the relevant governments.
UNDP-AGL is a multi-partner, multi-million-dollar program: currently it is supported with funds from Italy, Spain, Monaco and now Belgium. The Canadian government is considering a $3 million injection into North Lebanon. Each contribution goes toward fulfilling specific strategic objectives in particular regions.
A key component of the Belgian government”s contribution is to effect development through rejuvenation of the local economy. To this end, two Local Development Agencies (LEDAs) will be created to administer the selected areas of North Lebanon and the Bekaa. The LEDAs will be composed of elected members of local government, public institutions, local NGOs and associations of producers. The aim of the LEDAs will be to support small- and medium-sized businesses, to promote technical innovation, to promote the local cultural, historical and natural heritage and to provide training and support where necessary.
The Belgian contribution is not just monetary. It is projected that partnerships will be set up with communities in Belgium who might be able to offer specific assistance to their counterparts in Lebanon. "Lebanese farmers often suffer from lack of knowledge on how to conserve and process their crops," explained Andy Detaille, first secretary of the Belgian Embassy. "There is a region in Belgium that is the biggest exporter of apples in Europe. I have contacts at the local city council; I will be speaking with them as to how they might help Lebanese farmers."
On Wednesday representatives of the Belgian government and the UNDP were taken to see projects that have been carried out using UNDP funds, in order to give an idea of the impact the Belgian assistance will have. Local area representative Walid Atallah took representatives to a cold storage plant at Deir al-Ahmar. The plant is used by 14 local co-operatives, with a combined total of 1,200 members. Currently it provides storage for apples and potatoes. Recently, an extra grant from the UNDP has funded a food-processing laboratory at the same site.
Nearby, in the village of Barqa, delegates were taken to see a schoolhouse where a medical annex has been built with assistance from the Knights of Malta. Newly constructed, it was to be inaugurated on Thursday. The annex houses an x-ray machine together with various examination rooms and will be visited by medical professionals such as dentists, dermatologists and ophthalmologists on a weekly basis. Such a center is crucial for isolated rural communities such as Barqa, where it is prohibitively costly in both time and money to access professional medical care.
Next door to the medical annex is an embroidery workshop. The UNDP provided funds for the building. Around 32 local women are employed at the workshop, where they produce lingerie items on their rattling sewing machines. Soon the UNDP will be providing them with money to buy machines to perform other, more specific tasks that will help expand the workshop”s capacity, and therefore create new jobs.
The first step for the regions covered by the new agreement will be to form regional working groups who will decide on strategic plans for their areas. Working groups are the basic tool used by UNDP-AGL to promote their aims of cooperation within communities and development on the local level. A variety of stakeholders will be brought together by the local area representative, including the head of the municipality, representatives of the local authority, local entrepreneurs and members of civil society associations. Together they will decide on the priorities for the region and decide how funds will be allocated.
These Regional Working Groups operate in coordination with the Lebanese government as represented by the Council for Development and Reconstruction. In this way the organizers hope the program will be sustainable within Lebanon”s long-term future.
"The era in which development co-operation”s main goal was to promote the image of the donor country lies luckily far behind us," explained Verkammen. "Only if we can say that we were able to make a difference in people”s lives, we will have been successful."