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Social IssuesSep 29, 2023
Zahle Report - Lebanese Municipalities and Syrian Refugees: Building Capacity and Promoting Agency
- Dima Mahdi, Mona Harb, Mona Fawaz, Ali Kassem, Diala Makki, Petra Samaha
In the context of Lebanon being a refugee-hosting country and municipalities placed at the forefront of addressing refugees, this study examines challenges and coping mechanisms pertaining to the unfolding refugee presence faced by local level stakeholders and Lebanese host communities and Syrian refugees in Halba, Saida, Zahle and Hermel. The findings of this report are based on quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. In Zahle, the qualitative data collection includes thirty-three qualitative interviews conducted between July and September 2017, with local stakeholders including seven with the mayor, Ministry of Social Affairs, representatives of United Nations (UN) agencies, and local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs and INGOs), and a religious institution, and twenty-four with Syrian refugees and two with Lebanese residents. In addition, the Living Condition Survey of Refugees and Host Communities in Lebanon survey conducted in 2018 in Saida, Zahle and Halba with a total of 1,556 households (785 Lebanese, 701 Syrian and 70 Palestinian Refugees from Syria (PRS) households), out of which 526 are in Zahle (285 Lebanese and 241 Syrian).Dima Mahdi is a former researcher at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies whose work focuses on socio-political issues concerning Lebanese, as well as refugees residing in Lebanon. She has conducted and contributed to research covering the lessons learned and ways forward for Syrian refugees’ protracted displacement in Lebanon; the political environment regarding the presence of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and the increased calls for their return to Syria; coping mechanisms of Syrian refugees and local communities; perceptions of corruption in the Lebanese public sector; and the development of lagging regions by examining institutional, economic, and social stability factors. She is currently enrolled in a master’s program in Conflict Resolution and Governance at the University of Amsterdam and holds a BA in Political Science and International Affairs from the Lebanese American University.Mona Harb Mona Harb is Professor of Urban Studies and Politics at the American University of Beirut where she is also Research Lead at the MSFEA Beirut Urban Lab. Her ongoing research investigates matters of governance in contexts of limited statehood and displacement, configurations of public life in contested cities, and intersections of urban activism and oppositional politics.Petra Samaha is a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Studies at Sciences Po Paris. She is initially an architect and urban planner. Her work focuses on public space, housing, land and property, mobility, and climate change. She has presented her research in several venues and published in the Journal of Transport Geography and Jadaliyya, in addition to the American University of Beirut, UNDP, and UN-Habitat/Global Land Tool Network (GLTN).