Two ongoing missions in Beirut and Tripoli, Lebanon

14/12/2020

In 2018, the Bioforce Institute, the Lebanese NGO, North Leda, and Groupe URD launched a project providing support to stakeholders in the city of Tripoli (associations and the municipal authorities) to help them deal more effectively with the crises in their region. The political instability in the city over the last year, and the economic and health crises that have affected the whole country have transformed the context in which the project is taking place. In order to readjust the activities and reboot the project, a mission is being conducted to analyse the impact of the new context and refocus operations. Groupe URD is also conducting a second mission to evaluate the reconstruction process following the explosion in the port of Beirut.

Relaunch of the project to support stakeholders in Tripoli

Since the project to support stakeholders in Tripoli was officially launched, the Lebanese context in general, and more specifically in Tripoli, has evolved a great deal: the October 17 revolution, major political instability, an economic and financial crisis, the COVID-19 crisis, the explosion in the port of Beirut, etc. have had a major impact on the lives of people in Tripoli and on all aid programmes.

Following a period of major instability which prevented active collaboration with the Tripoli municipal authority, a joint mission is being conducted to analyse the impact of the contextual changes on the activities which were initially planned and to refocus operations (reprogramming) in order to adapt them to current priorities, and ensure that they are realistic legally, institutionally and financially.

Second field visit to evaluate the impacts of the explosion in the port of Beirut

Following the first real-time evaluation carried out 10 days after the explosion in the port of Beirut on 4 August 2020, Groupe URD is conducting a second field visit to continue the evaluation and lesson learning process. The evaluation will look at the reconstruction efforts by the international community and by Lebanese civil society. This project is in line with work we have done with the RePER network on the management of technological and urban disasters.