This report contains four sectoral reviews in the areas of housing,
vocational training, infrastructure, and urban management. Each
sectoral review contains a list of findings and recommendations.
The second part of the report includes a number of project proposals
based on the findings and recommendations of the first part. The
report is based on a review of previously produced documents and
reports regarding these areas as well as interviews with key individuals.
The report was researched and compiled during January-February
1994.
Housing
Findings: Housing remains an area of acute and urgent need
in Lebanon. The government is focusing most of its efforts on
infrastructure rehabilitation, but nevertheless there are a number
of government-sponsored efforts in housingóespecially with reference
to the South and the displaced. Among the governmentís office
are the following. The Housing Bank was restructured and its capital
increased. A loan program for low and middle income groups through
the Independent Housing Fund was re-activated. The government
has also secured partial funding for reconstruction of destroyed
homes in the South and in the areas of the Shouf and adjoining
villages to which thousands of displaced are intended to return.
Recommendations: The main needs in this sector include the following:
Vocational Training
Findings: Vocational training programs are being carried
out by governmental departments, non-governmental organizations,
local associations, and private training institutes. Programs
offered, however, do not follow standardized and unified curricula.
In addtion, they often do not meet market needs.
Recommendations:
There is an urgent need for training in
construction-related skills in order to keep up with national,
regional, and local reconstruction timetables. Special emphasis
should be given to technical and management skills related to
construction, as these are rarely provided in current programs.
Training should be oriented more consciously toward market needs
and should increasingly be offered on the job and as part of ongoing
construction projects. Development of small and medium enterprises
and the encouragement of local vocational and technical training
for those enterprises should be given special regard as part of
an overall strategy of involving communities and the private sector.
Infrastructure
Findings: The devastation of Lebanon's infrastructure as
a result of the long years of war continues to negatively affect
the population's health and educational standards. The effects
of infrastructure problems touch virtually every household. In
the water sector, despite Lebanon is fairly abundant water resources,
problems in distribution, equipment, and management result in
serious water problems both for irrigation and household use.
Problems in financing, equipment, and management also negatively
affect solid and liquid waste disposal, especially in outlying
areas. In the energy sector, the government is pursuing a vigorous
national electric rehabilitation plan; small energy infrastructure
work, however, in villages and small towns often lacks attention.
The educational infrastructure suffers from problems of physical
structures, curriculum/materials, and human resources. The health
sector is receiving considerable government attention, but still
has acute needs in rebuilding its physical structures and integrating
local clinics and dispensaries within their regions and with the
national health care system.
Recommendations: Whereas several government agencies are
addressing the major national infrastructure problems, there is
a need for assistance in small infrastructural work in settlements
and villages that are being rebuilt. There is a need for urban
management training to help handle infrastructural planning ,
development, and maintenance at regional and local levels. Overall
assistance could also be offered in helping rebuild physical structures,
especially in the educational and health sectors. This help could
be in the form of technical assistance, training, monitoring,
and project management.
Urban-Rural Management
Findings: In Lebanon, rapid urbanization has out-paced
the capacity of the already weakened urban and rural authorities
to provide basic services and maintain a healthy rural and urban
environment. The centralized administrative system in Lebanon
has made cost-effective and efficient planning and management
on rural and urban levels difficult. The Taif Agreement has officially
mandated administrative decentralization and decreed that municipalities
and local authorities receive more responsibilities and authority.
In addition, a Ministry of Municipal and Village Affairs was established
to oversee this decentralization process. The Ministry, however,
still lacks basic organization, legislation, staffing, training,
planning, data-collection, and networking.
In addition, the over-600 municipalities around the country suffer
from lack of finances and equipment, and poor staffing, training,
planning, revenue-collection, and expertise.
Recommendations: Urgent technical and urban management
assistance should be offered to the Ministry of Municipalities
and a selected number of key municipalities around the country.
This assistance should be in the form of help in developing urban
management skills, training, planning, data-bases, and regional
and national networks. The Ministry should be helped to develop
its own urban management advising and training unit whose expertise
would then be available to all municipalities.
Project Proposals:
The Establishment of a Technical Habitat Advisory and Management
Unit.
This unit could provide management and monitoring services as
well as policy advice to the Ministry of Displaced, the Council
for the South (CFS), the Housing Bank, the Independent Fund for
Housing, the Ministry of Housing, the Council for Development
and Reconstruction (CDR), and other agencies involved in housing
construction. This Unit could be established independently or
as part of the Ministry of Displaced or the CFS. This Unit would
also offer vocational training programs and advice in on-going
construction projects.
The Establishment of an Urban Management Unit.
This Unit would assist the Ministry of Municipalities and
various municipalities And various municipalities around the country
enhance their urban management skills and improve their delivery
of basic services and their management of revenues and local development.
In direct coordination with CDR, this Unit could operate on two
levels; with the Ministry of Municipal and Village Affairs on
one level, and a selection of several other municipalities (such
as Saida and Zahrani) on the other level.
Conclusion
Through all the needs listed in the findings, there is a common
thread of need in
Habitat could play an important role in this area, and a number of local government and local non-government agencies have indicated a willingness to cooperate with such a Habitat effort.