A Qualitative Assessment Of Municipal Community Engagement Efforts In Lebanon
Municipal Community Engagement Efforts In Lebanon
A Qualitative Assessment
As the closest formal form of government to Lebanese citizens, municipalities play a major role in the country’s security, service delivery, and socioeconomic development. They also impact how citizens perceive their government and their own well-being. Various political, sectarian, and familial dynamics influence how municipal councils are elected and how they function throughout their six-year elected term. Municipalities are heavily influenced by national dynamics, yet each one still enjoys its own autonomy and must be responsive to local citizen needs and issues. This makes the municipal scene an interesting field for studying and better understanding how citizens interact with municipal authorities and how the authorities in turn respond to the citizens. The overall goal of this learning is to assess the efforts and effectiveness of citizen and government engagement at the municipal level and to identify opportunities for making municipal outreach and engagement efforts more inclusive and effective, which in turn will lead to more responsive governance and development at the subnational level.