Project
Youth Partnership for Improved Budgetary Governance in Lebanese Municipalities: Musharaka
- Lebanon
- October 2014
The project was a follow-up to an earlier initiative that targeted 15 municipalities in the six Lebanese governorates. Under the UNDEF grant, the project was an extension of the initial programme, more focused on the areas of Western and Northern Bekaa to ensure a greater impact at the country level. The aim of the project was to empower youth, and tje wider community through them, to render municipal councils of Western and Northern Bekaa more transparent and accountable. The project was divided into two phases: in the first phase, five democratically elected Youth Shadow Councils (YSCs) received thematic and technical training on good governance, advocacy strategies, conducting needs assessments, access to public services, and budget analysis. In the second phase, the elected council was responsible for training another group of participants in order to disseminate the principles of transparency and accountability and motivate citizens to advocate for reforms and get involved in their community’s development process. The project mobilized and trained 200 young women and men aged 17-29 in the municipalities of Der El Ahmar, Baalbeck, Taalbaya, Saadnayel, and Sawireh. It had a relevant and well-defined strategy with concrete indicators that facilitated the monitoring of achievement levels.
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- Youth engagement
- Lebanon
- October 2014
While many of the young participants have gone on to create their own organizations to implement local initiatives, this may not be sustainable. Given the challenges for grassroots organizations to survive and the lack of local backing, it may be more effective to channel the energy and investment of youth into collective alternatives working with existing structures that are more likely to survive and have a longer lasting impact.
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- Youth engagement
- Lebanon
- October 2014
Since the project was designed to strengthen democratic processes, the workshops for the beneficiary groups should have provided more detailed information on rights. The project’s main priority was a needs-centered approach. What was absent was the perspective that access to public information, the monitoring of transparency in public administration, and good governance are the inherent rights of citizen that do not depend on the good will and acceptance of local authorities.
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- Youth engagement
- Lebanon
- October 2014
Working in the Municipality offices gave young participants an insider’s view of how the institution operates and a better understanding of its role. Similarly, Municipality officials said that their interaction with the Youth Shadow Councils had allowed them to see and appreciate the young people’s contribution, gradually leading them to view the young people as colleagues instead of interlopers.
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- Youth engagement
- Lebanon
- October 2014
The project involved a specific activity on how to conduct elections. This resulted in the democratic election of five Youth Shadow Councils which has boosted the culture of democracy among the citizenry and the beneficiary groups alike.
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- Youth engagement
- Lebanon
- October 2014
The project had a clear impact in building the capacity of youth in the areas of good governance, accountability, and transparency. Creating the Youth Shadow Councils had a very positive impact on the beneficiary populations in the Bekaa region, particularly because it promoted interaction among youth of different faiths and political persuasions. The young people consider the project to have been an initiation in social activism that enabled them to “do something together”.