Peacebuilding in Lebanon project – Phase 3 | United Nations Development Programme

Peacebuilding in Lebanon project – Phase 3

Summary

Prior to the conflict in Syria that started in March 2011 and adding to the legacy of a troubled past with a 15 years of civil war from 1975 till 1990, Lebanon has experienced several violent shocks also over the past few years, threatening national stability and the element of mistrust of the “different other” continues to plague inter-community relations; in addition to mistrust between the citizens and the State.

When the Syrian crisis erupted in March 2011, Tensions between Lebanese and between Lebanese and Syrians, translated at the community level (including schools) has been rising due to economic (competition of the communities’ limited resources and access to basic services and to the support provided by the international community) and social and cultural (stereotypes and prejudices between the two communities, increased violence and reduced safety, increase in hate speech and usage of misinformation) factors.

More recently the country has been going through its worse socio-economic, financial and political crisis. Poverty rates are increasing, devaluation is affecting the most vulnerable but also families who were considered to be from the middle class, access to basic services such as electricity, gasoline, medicines and water is limited. Young people as well as families are leaving the country in big number, forming a real phenomenon of brain drain. When people of Lebanon took over the street in October 2019 their demands focused on basic citizens’ rights, end to corruption and clientelism but also an alternative political system that would embrace all components of the society. With August 4^th Beirut port blast, trust between people and the State almost disappeared, and independence of justice was reiterated as a main objective including the fighting of the culture of impunity. Vis a vis this scenario, tensions over basic needs is increasing with a rise in petty crimes and potential of escalation of tensions, including between the most vulnerable i.e. the Syrian community. Sectarianism has also been rising as well as polarization, between the different traditional political factions but also between the traditional parties and new ones that emerged after the popular uprising in 2019.

Building on the successes of the three previous phases, and on the wide networks of journalists, local actors, local authorities, youth, media, activists and the excellent relationship with key national counterparts (Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Ministry of Information, Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, Ministry of Social Affairs) the project has built since 2007, UNDP Peace Building in Lebanon-phase 3 is aiming on continuing supporting different prominent actors, at the national and local level, who have an influence on the culture of peace and violence in the country to address the different causes of tensions and work on transforming conflicts and lay the ground for a stable, peaceful and cohesive society. These actors are mainly in track 2 (educators, NGOs leaders and Media) and track 3 (local leaders, NGOs activists, youth groups, women and local actors and activists). The Peace building in Lebanon project seeks to focus on addressing the new challenges to civil peace and peace building in the country posed by the Syrian crisis and the socio-political, economic and fiscal crisis the country has been facing lately.

Background

This project is directly related to UNDAF / UNSF Outcome on Peace Building in Lebanon/Outcome 1.3: “Lebanon has institutionalized mechanisms to promote peace and prevent, mitigate and manage conflict at municipal and local level”

This new phase of the project is in line with LCRP Outcome number 1: Social Stability is promoted by strengthening municipalities’ communities’ systems and institutions’ ability to mitigate tensions and prevent conflict and ensuring early warning within the response and the 3RF Objective: Strengthening social cohesion and ensuring social inclusion; the UN-World Bank response to post Beirut Blast (August 2020).

The foundations were laid for the culture of preventing tensions and conflicts through dialogue, consensus building and practical, locally initiated conflict mitigation mechanism were established in communities. A range of relevant stakeholders including mayors, mukhtars, youth, religious leaders, teachers, civil society activists and NGOs, as well as reporters have been sensitized to peace building concepts and participated in one or more discussion sessions, meetings or programs. Since 2006, UNDP worked with over 2,000 civil society and public sector stakeholders and entities at the local level. The project provided the channels for further communication and dialogue on issues of critical concern between groups and further enhanced the role traditional conflict resolution role of mukhtars and municipal council members linking them to relevant national counterparts.

In order to ensure institutionalization and sustainability of efforts, strong links were made with national counterparts, particularly the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, the Ministry of Social Affairs and with the Ministry of Information.

Major achievements

UNDP promotes civic engagement and dialogue through the development of mechanisms for stability and local development. the mechanisms constitute a methodology or new approach that aims to reinforce stability factors and strengthen the capacity of host communities to face and address multiple challenges. This takes place through activating the partnership between the municipality and the local community and supporting them to develop a local stability and development plan that includes ideas for direct interventions, creates positive social change, addresses needs and challenges of communities:

301 local mechanisms for stability and local development committees formed
95, 026 people targeted through the local committees activities

In 2021, UNDP helped the most vulnerable people in Karantina heal from the trauma and psychological wounds caused by devastating august 4th 2020 beirut blast and rebuild a strong social structure of active survivors. we have provided a safe space for the people of karantina to tell their stories through theatre & playback performance. stories were collected during playback theater performances, youth drama therapy sessions, children’s expressive arts sessions, and many interviews with the residents. this initiative attempts to document and archive the oral history of the area from the Lebanese civil war to the august 4 explosion, stemming from the principles of witnessing and historiography, two pillars of the peacebuilding process.

UNDP works on providing positive media spaces and promoting rational speeches to address different issues:

29 “peacebuilding in Lebanon news supplement” published
563 participants engaged In the supplement
10 local campaigns produced on fake news
4 national campaigns launched on fake news
1 hackathon on fake news
2 training sessions on awareness raising under the journalist pact
34 media outlets targeted by the “journalists’ pact for strengthening civil peace”
12 NNA reporters and 37 media practitioners from different media institutions trained on fact checking techniques
91 youth from all over Lebanon trained on identifying and debunking fake news
51 youth from all over Lebanon trained on combating hate speech

In cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the UNDP seeks to integrate peace building into the school environment by sensitizing selected groups within the school communities, such as school principals, teachers, students, school staff members and parents, agreeing on codes of conduct on nonviolence and developing related activities:

76 public schools targeted
1,294 teachers targeted
4,132 students targeted

“Dealing with the Past: Memory for the Future” is a joint program between UNDP, UNWomen and OHCHR that aims at supporting civil society, individual families and national institutions in their efforts to seek the truth, foster collective remembrance and, ultimately, move towards reconciliation around the legacy of the Lebanese Civil War, including violence perpetrated against women, men and children.

188 history teachers trained on conflict sensitive training
21 ex-fighters engaged and trained in the network for inside mediators
489 youth at risk reach out through the network of ex-fighters
16 sessions of capacity development sessions delivered to the FMF on conflict analysis and negotiation
A Memory Map developed with the American University of Beirut to gather stories of people all over Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war

Project outcome

Expected outputs:

Education promoting social cohesion supported
Media empowered to promote balanced and conflict sensitive media coverage
Local level peace building strategies to mitigate tensions developed in selected conflict prone areas of Lebanon hosting Syrian refugees
An NGO platform promoting nation-wide truth and reconciliation supported and ex-fighters’ role in promoting peace building enforced

Consequently, project’s theory of change is based on project’s lessons learned as well as wider UNDP Lebanon experiences in the fields of conflict prevention and social stability:

If local communities are supported to establish local conflict dialogue mechanisms, then inter- and intra-communal contact is facilitated, people are able to discuss potentially conflict-prone issues peacefully in a productive environment, ensuring quality interactions that break down sources of division and increase trust.
If local sources of division are addressed and trust increases, then social norms are strengthened “that allow the non-violent and constructive management of conflict.”[1]
At the national level, if Lebanese media is supported to provide objective and inclusive reporting, which highlights positive contact between refugees and host communities, then the perpetuation of stereotypes and prejudices in the media decreases
If the perpetuation of stereotypes and prejudices in the media decreases, then people have more positive perceptions of and attitudes towards ‘others,’ including greater trust between identity groups.
If educational sector is strengthened to mainstream peacebuilding in its educational curriculum, then children, parents and teachers can deal with the emerging conflicts in non-violent ways, leading to the decreasing acceptance of violence by the population.
If historical reconciliation is supported through the support the platform for the organizations working with the past, then common narrative about past events can be developed.
If the common narrative about past events is developed, then the opportunistic use of past events and processes decreases.

GESI Component:

The peacebuilding in Lebanon project advocates for the inclusion of women, refugees, people with disabilities, and youth while carrying out all of its activities related to development, peace, and civic engagement. The project ensure the involvement of all community groups (Youth, Women, people with disability, Mukhtars, Municipal Council members, local actors from various nationalities and different cultural backgrounds...) in the local development process and decision making. The reflection of their issues has also been ensured in the response plans, activities, and worshops at the community level.To date, To date, 30,259 number of participants of the mechanisms for social and local development (MSLD ) process meetings and capacity building workshops were women, within support of host communities, and 9,982 are youth. Women are integral part of the project’s response at a local and national level:

To date, 225 writers engaged in the peacebuilding in Lebanon supplement were women (cumulative: 225)
To date, 247 trainees from the General Directorate of Education were women in “Violence-Free Schools” initiative (
To date, 30,259 number of participants of the mechanisms for social and local development (MSLD ) process meetings and capacity building workshops were women, within support of host communities
To date, 17 women ex-fighters were engaged on creating a network of insider mediators and in providing insider mediation trainings for identified youth- at-risk focal points
To date, 13 young women were trained and engaged in the network for inside mediators with ex-fighters
To date, 102 women history teachers were trained on conflict sensitive training, aiming to raise awareness of students/youth on the importance of dealing with the past
To date, 31 young women were trained on combating fake news and hate speech at a local level