The ‘Municipal Empowerment and Resilience Project’ (MERP) aims to strengthen the long-term resilience of subnational authorities in Lebanon as well as host communities, refugees and displaced persons affected by the Syrian Crisis. To achieve this, the Project engages in a three-pronged approach: “1. strengthen processes, procedures and practices to enable Unions of Municipalities (UoMs) and municipalities to deliver effective and efficient services in a transparent and accountable manner; 2. empower UoMs and municipalities to facilitate local economic development (LED) and to deliver basic services that address the needs of both host and refugee populations, and; 3. support communities to engage in municipal processes and procedures to ensure that UoMs and municipalities are responsive to their needs.”

Under its second component, MERP developed the policy paper “Rethinking Central Government Policymaking for Local Economic Development – National Recommendations to Revitalize Local Economies in Lebanon”. The aim of this policy paper is to recommend policy measures that could be advocated for and supported across the central government level to enable an environment conducive to local economic development.