Project Overview

Launched in 2010, this project supports the Lebanese Government in reducing exposure and vulnerabilities to disaster risks and in strengthening the country’s institutional capacity to anticipate, manage, and respond to complex and compound crises. It operates through the Disaster Risk Management Unit (DRM Unit) established at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. The DRM Unit serves as the official national body responsible for coordinating disaster risk management and risk reduction efforts across Lebanon at the national, sub-national, sectoral, and local levels, ensuring a coherent whole-of-government approach to crisis preparedness, response, and recovery. 

The Unit operates across the four pillars of disaster risk management, including prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery, with increasing emphasis on strengthening national resilience systems, early warning capacities, and institutional coordination mechanisms in light of Lebanon’s evolving risk landscape. 

Between 2010 and 2012, the DRM Unit led the development of Lebanon’s first National Response Framework, establishing national, regional, sectoral, and local response structures through a participatory process involving key public administrations. The framework was subsequently updated in 2017 and 2023 to reflect evolving risks and institutional arrangements, including lessons learned from successive national emergencies and the need to strengthen coordination between national authorities, humanitarian actors, and development partners, and is designed to be reviewed and updated every five years to ensure its continued relevance and effectiveness. 

Since its establishment, the DRM Unit has been actively responding to recurrent crises. The current phase builds on the accumulated experience, progress and lessons learned from major national emergencies, including wildfires, the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Beirut Port explosion, the cholera outbreak, and the most recent war on Lebanon and associated response operations. These crises have further underscored the critical importance of a centralized national coordination mechanism capable of managing large-scale emergencies while ensuring coherence between humanitarian response and longer-term recovery efforts. 

During national emergencies, the DRM Unit is mandated to activate the National Emergency Operations Room upon the direction of the Prime Minister, ensuring centralized coordination, high-level strategic oversight, and unified command of the national response. The DRM Unit leads the overall response architecture by coordinating with line ministries, security agencies, UN agencies and international organizations, and sub-national authorities under a coordinated national framework. In the current crisis context, the Emergency Operations Room is playing a pivotal role in facilitating real-time coordination among national institutions and partners, enabling rapid information sharing, operational alignment, and prioritization of response actions. It ensures clarity of roles and responsibilities and strengthens both vertical and horizontal coordination across all levels. 

As the central hub for information management, the DRM Unit consolidates data from multiple sources, facilitates evidence-based decision-making, and provides strategic guidance to national leadership. This includes the continuous collection, analysis, and dissemination of crisis-related data to inform national response priorities and resource allocation. In practice, the DRM Unit provides technical and coordination support by facilitating inter-agency coordination among national and international actors involved in the response, ensuring coordination with sub-national Disaster Risk Management units at the governorate level to support localized response efforts and information flow. Through this multi-level coordination architecture, the DRM Unit plays a critical role in linking national strategic decision-making with operational response capacities at the local level, thereby strengthening Lebanon’s overall disaster risk governance system. 

Achievements & Key Figures

• Leading the government-wide coordination of emergency response under the authority of the Prime Minister, including the activation of the National Emergency Operations Room and coordination with line ministries, security agencies, sub-national authorities, and international partners during the most recent national crisis and war-related emergency response operations. 
• Established Lebanon’s national emergency coordination architecture, including the National Operations Room (NOR) at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and Regional Operations Rooms (RORs) across all governorates, equipped with operational systems, communication tools, and standard operating procedures to support coordinated crisis response. 
• Led the development and continuous updating of Lebanon’s National Response Framework, establishing national, regional, sectoral, and local response structures through a participatory process involving key public administrations. The framework was updated in 2017 and 2023 to reflect evolving risks and institutional arrangements. 
• Strengthened national response capacities across specialized risk areas, including maritime search and rescue through support to the Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC), and the advancement of the National Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Action Plan through technical support to the National CBRN Commission. 
• Played a central coordination role in managing major national crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Beirut Port explosion, the cholera outbreak, and recurrent wildfire emergencies, supporting government-wide coordination, facilitating national decision-making platforms, and strengthening communication and coordination between national institutions, humanitarian actors, and the public. 
• Promoted a culture of disaster risk awareness and preparedness nationwide through national public awareness campaigns and community-level engagement initiatives implemented in collaboration with governorates and national partners. 
• Strengthened sectoral and community preparedness mechanisms, including the development of contingency planning guidelines for schools in coordination with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, as well as the establishment and training of community-based first responder teams to support local response to hazards such as wildfires and flooding.
• Enhanced national risk analysis and early warning capacities through multi-risk and hazard assessments conducted in coordination with the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS), and the establishment of the National Early Warning System Platform (NEWSP) to support forecasting, early alerts, and preparedness for weather-related hazards. 
• Strengthened decentralized disaster preparedness and response systems through the development of Regional Response Plans across all governorates, complemented by guidelines for municipal contingency planning in coordination with the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities. 

GESI Component (Gender Equality and Social Inclusion)

The project is designated with a GEN2 gender marker, signifying that gender equality is a significant objective across all outputs. Key initiatives include: 

• Strengthening inclusive disaster risk management approaches by integrating the protection of vulnerable groups, including women, persons with disabilities, and marginalized communities, into national and local disaster preparedness and response planning. 
• Engaging women in DRR through targeted capacity building to support them in leadership roles for building community resilience. 
• Ensuring the collection and use of gender-disaggregated data to inform disaster risk reduction strategies. 
• Promoting inclusive municipal development plans that address the specific vulnerabilities of women and marginalized groups. 
• Advocating for women’s meaningful participation in national and local decision-making processes related to disaster preparedness.