Postwar Institutioanal Development in Lebanon: An Assessment for Foreign Assistance
تاريخ النشر: 01/01/1992
الناشر: المركز اللبناني للدراسات
نبذة نيل وفرات:Over the past two years, Lebanon has moved from a condition of civil and proxy war to one of relative peace and stability. This was made possible by the negotiation of a comprehensive agreement among Lebanese Parliamentarians in the Fall of 1989 and strong Arab international support for ending ...the war. Today the militias have been disbanded, there is a broad-based government in power, and the process of laying the foundations for stability and development has begun.
In light of this, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sponsored a study to reexamine developmental problems in Lebanon within its Governance and Democracy Program (GPD). The study was conducted by America Mideast Educational and Training Services (AMIDEAST) in cooperation with the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS). In accordance with the GPD program's general framework, the study laid special emphasis on sovial and political institution-building. However, the study approaches Lebanon's current developmental needs from a broad perspective, and it was felt that the present assessment would be of interest to a broad spectrum of donor countries and agencies.
The paper begins with background analysis of the Lebanese polity and economy. It stresses both the problems and promise held out by Lebanon's political past and underlines the steady private sector growth sustained by the economy until the war in 1975. This is followed by an outline strategy for foreign assistance leading into the four main sector assessments that are at the center of this study: Public Aministration, Representative Institutions, the Judiciary, and the Media. Assistance to the various sectors are prioritized in terms of urgency and importance, with the needs of the Public Administration placed at center stage.
In the outline strategy it is made clear that the main objective of foreign assistance to Lebanon should be to rapidly increase the capacity of the state to govern in order to enable it to keep the fragile peace that has been established and provide the security and legal framework for broad-based and sustainable socio-economic development. The report is baesd on interviews, field surveys, and data analysis, and on the imput of key political and economic consultants. It was conducted between December 1991 and February 1992. إقرأ المزيد