Lebanon Host Communities Support Project
Since 2014, the Lebanon Host Communities Support project (LHSP) has been developed within the framework of the interventions conducted by UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Social Affairs with a view to enhancing social stability and promoting development as part of a national strategy to respond to the crisis.
The LHSP’s expected impact is the reduction of community tensions. The project seeks to help increase stability, specifically in the areas affected by the Syrian crisis, through improving livelihood and service provision in a conflict sensitive manner. It aims at contributing to improved community security, economic recovery and social stability in the affected areas through a community-based approach which will increase livelihood options and local level service delivery. Social Stability and Livelihood Sector outcomes include:
Social Stability
- Outcome #1: Strengthen municipalities, national and local institutions’ ability to alleviate resource pressure
- Outcome #2: Strengthen municipal and local community capacity to foster dialogue and address sources of tensions and conflict
Livelihood
- Outcome #1: Stimulate local economic development and market systems to create income generating opportunities and employment
The project aims to achieve four outputs:
- Increase the livelihoods and economic opportunities in affected areas Strengthen the capacity of local and national actors to deliver basic services in a participatory and conflict sensitive manner.Improve local level dispute resolution and community security
- Strengthen the capacity of the Lebanese Government to respond to the influx of displaced Syrian
LHSP was acknowledged as the lead initiative of the government to support affected Lebanese communities, mobilizing more than 70 million USD and completing more than 370 projects related to livelihood and job creation, waste and water management, health and education, municipal services and social activities, targeting more than 1000000 Lebanese and Syrian beneficiaries.
Approach
LHSP specific interventions-projects are identified through a conflict-sensitive needs assessment methodology (Maps of Risks and Resources -MRR), owned by community and fully endorsed/owned by Ministry of Social Affairs. Moreover, the LHSP includes the development of local Mechanisms for Social Stability (MSS), which provide host communities with safe and common spaces for the local groups to discuss their fears in public and to suggest strategies to resolve those concerns. With the participation of a group of community leaders (mayors, members of municipal councils and mukhtars) and actors from different local sectors, an analysis of the underlying causes behind the conflicts in the selected region is undertaken; and based on the results of the analysis, the group develops the MSS through a conflict-specific mechanism of action. As part of the MSS process, UNDP strives to collect Syrian refugees’ views to inform the nature of conflict resolution intervention developed in the host community.
The areas and points of local interventions are following the criteria considered by the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP), which mainly include the following:
- Multi Deprivation Index (MDI is a composite index, based on deprivation level scoring of household in five critical dimensions: 1) access to health services; 2) income levels; 3) access to education services; 4) access to water and sanitation services; 5) housing conditions)
Lebanese population dataset
Refugees population figures (including all registered Syrian refugees, PRL and PRS, Syrian refugees data from UNHCR and Palestinian data from AUB/UNRWA)
Additional the ratio of Syrians displaced to Lebanese population (UNDP data)
Results and Impact
From 2014 to 2017, the LHSP was acknowledged as the lead initiative of the Government to support affected Lebanese communities, mobilizing more than 70 million USD and completing more than 370 projects related to livelihood and job creation, waste and water management, health and education, municipal services, and social activities, targeting more than 1,000,000 Lebanese and Syrian beneficiaries.
In 2016 LHSP conducted an external evaluation, which has demonstrated that LHSP has been able to improve its role as a comprehensive, coordinated and durable response towards the Syrian Refugee Crisis and its implications on the Lebanese host communities. While some improvements could be made in each area of the project’s intervention, overall the project approach was found to be very strong.