• Local governance

Local governance

This research paper attempts to identify and disseminate relevant lessons for local government in post-conflict situations, using the Lebanon post-2006 war experience as a case study. It looks at the experience of municipalities in the country in responding to post-war needs, especially in:

• recovery service delivery;
• local planning and decisions making; and
• community reconciliation and peace building

Development theory and practice has generally advocated using non-state providers for the delivery of basic services in countries that have suffered from conflict and have weak state capacity or ruined infrastructure. This study, however, explores a case that supports the growing consensus that municipal service delivery has a role to play in building the capacity and legitimacy of local government structures.

Evidence from Lebanon suggests that supporting local government directly can contribute to the long term sustainability of post-conflict recovery efforts.

There are several concrete ways that local government structures have served as channels for post-conflict relief and development assistance in Lebanon. These include rubble removal, rehabilitation of key municipal infrastructure, assessment of post-war damage, and rehabilitation of livelihoods.

Local governments also served as channels to revive economic activity and to encourage inter-communal peace building. Despite pre-existing administrative and institutional weaknesses, local government has played an important part in Lebanon’s recent post-conflict rehabilitation, reconstruction, and recovery.

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