Musharaka: Progress Report - September 2011

Progress Report

Youth Partnership for Improvement of Governance in Municipalities

So far, the project was launched in 11 areas in Lebanon. These areas are distributed equitably among the 5 governantes. These cities/villages are namely the following:

·         South Lebanon: Harouf &  Kifarrouman

·         North Lebanon: Mrah Al Sfireh, Beit El Fakes, & Berkayel

·         Northern Bekaa: Rass Baalbeck, Brital, Al Kaa

·         Western & Central Bekaa: Majdel Anjar, Al Rawda, Kobb Elias.

·         Greater Beirut: Beirut

However, the project will be launched during the upcoming 15 days (First two weeks of September) in the following areas:

·         Rass Al Maten ( Mount Lebanon)

·         Kornayel ( Mount Lebanon)

·         Saida ( Southern Lebanon)

It is interesting to mention that two municipalities took the initiative of carrying out the project’s activities without being shortlisted by LTA program team. The municipalities are that of Al- Sharkiye (located in Nabatiyeh District), and Der Al Ahmar (located in Baalbek district). Mayors of these municipal councils showed interest in the project goals and objectives and hence set a working plan with the local NGO’s found in these villages as to proceed with the project activities.

Directly after the kickoff in the targeted municipalities was held, series of training sessions were conducted in an effort to familiarize youth on the following concepts/themes:

·         Corruption & Good governance

·         Leadership & Communication skills

·         Proposal writing

Initially, the training meant to target 60 youth in each of the targeted municipalities. However, and due to several factors pertaining to limited size of population in some villages, the project staff recruited 40-50 youths. Below is a success story.

► Success story: The trainings in Britel started right after the kick-offs and were conducted ahead of schedule. 52 young individuals -32 females and 20 males- were trained on the above-mentioned topics by the 2 trainers who conducted 8 sessions over 2 days for two groups to cover the training curriculum.

The trainings were delivered through presentations and interactive methods to stimulate participants’ feedback on certain concepts. One of the most interactive activities was during the training on communication skills where the participants were asked to come up with different scenarios on people having different conversations aiming at examining each other’s beliefs and attitudes before convincing them on various concepts. On the question of how much does the tone, content, and facial expressions constitute of the overall communication process between two individuals, more than 80 % of the participants were not aware that facial expressions constitute 60 % of an effective communication process, while the other two factors constitute the remaining 40%.

Following the trainings, the youth were subject to an examination whereby the project team developed 7 questions intended to test youth’s knowledge on the training material. The results of the exams, along with other factors such as the level of activism and interest shown in the project, will constitute the basis to which youth will run the electoral lists. Furthermore, the youth involved in the project started to conduct the needs assessment survey which was developed by the project team. The survey asks the respondents to quantify the level of efficiency of public services and to priotorize community needs. Examining the community needs will help the youth in developing an electoral platform. Finally, it is to note that the number of needs assessment conducted with the inhabitants of the city and/or villages ranges from 80 to 150 (depending on the size of the population).

Where do we stand now?

During September, the youth will be done with the needs assessment forms. From the second week of September and onwards, the youth groups will form (2) electoral lists and well need to develop an electoral campaign. The groups will need to advertize for their lists through various forms of campaigning such as: flyers, pamphlets, billboards, and any other available outlets.

This work had already began in some regions, but the pace of this process is somehow slow in other regions as they did not organize yet the training sessions.

Finally, please note that elections will commence during the first week of October and by that, we will achieve our first objective (as stated in the project proposal): establish Shadow municipal councils that will monitor the performance of the elected municipal council, especially their transparency of financial & administrative operations.