Environmental governance
The overall objective of the project was to improve the environmental performance of the Lebanese public sector through reforming environmental governance. The specific objective was to create effective capacity at the Ministry of Environment to plan and execute environmental policy, including enforcement and mainstreaming, by coordinating with key line-ministries.
The project had five components:
- Environmental inspection and enforcement is strengthened in relation to industry pollution emissions to air and water
- Ministry of Environment administrative capacity is improved
- Environmental Fiscal instruments (EFIs) are developed and submitted to the Council of Ministers by the Ministry of Environment
- Environmental policy (incl. Climate change) is enhanced including with reference to the impact of the Syrian Refugee Crisis
- Communication
Thus, the major challenges addressed by this project were of legal, administrative (institutional), technical and financial nature. The project design successfully combined technical work on Lebanon’s environmental governance sector incl. climate change with a comprehensive capacity building and institutional strengthening approach. Therefore, the project’s strategy included extensive training measures, coaching and on-the-job training, not only for the main beneficiary, MoE, but also for other stakeholders in the environmental governance framework. The focus on ensuring that environmental laws were improved and policies were in line with sustainable economic development were at the forefront of the technical assistance.