Supporting Institutions

Municipal Unions

Current program activities include assistance to enhance the technical and administrative capacities of municipal unions in order to achieve effective regional coordination of economic development and environmental protection projects and to enable unions to properly support the individual or collective initiatives of municipalities. Specific technical, administrative, and planning assistance is designed to complement ongoing support being provided to local government institutions. Assistance to municipal unions is considered essential to both the long-term sustainability of reform efforts and to the development of strong local government institutions able to move beyond traditional mandates to have impact in a wide range of issues.

Ministry of Interior and Municipalities (MOIM)

Ongoing support is also being provided to facilitate communication between the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities and local government institutions. The MOIM website www.moim.gov.lb created under the previous assistance program is increasingly being utilized as a means to communicate to municipalities the proper administrative and financial procedures to be followed, and as a resource for municipal staff for general information such as the prevailing laws and decrees impacting the work of local government. Municipal employees can send legal inquiries to the Ministry directly from the site with responses published online, furthering standardization in municipal work. In addition, Village Profile Forms for 761 municipalities are maintained on the website, offering even small municipalities the opportunity to communicate historical, archeological, tourist, and other information through the internet. Increasingly these forms are being submitted and updated online by the municipalities, facilitating the sustainability of the initiative.