13/05/2025
Expat: Local development works best
Due to Resistance from government Zahreddine operates from Barcelona
Less-prominent areas of the country have largely been neglected after the civil war
While many Lebanese believe that ongoing political games, corruption and widespread economic problems are delaying the process of postwar reconstruction and economic rehabilitation, a less-exciting, more-institutional obstruction may be a big part of the problem.
Abbas Zahreddine, a Lebanese agricultural engineer currently residing in Barcelona, Spain, believes the actual structure of the government and the system of bureaucracy in Lebanon may be one of the biggest barriers to development and achieving widespread quality of life improvements throughout the country.
"In order to achieve widespread improvements," Zahreddine said, "control must be moved from the central government to local municipalities, creating what are called local authorities. Local authorities have more control than current municipal governments, and they have more control over their own jurisdiction and their own finances."
According to Zahreddine, the structure of the government and the administration in Lebanon is overly centralized, depriving local governments of both the incentive - and the ability - to improve conditions within their jurisdictions. Even when local municipalities make the effort to address a problem or improve local conditions, those efforts are often stymied when local officials are forced to seek funding and permission from the regional or national government.
It is ironic that in a country as small as Lebanon, the psychological distances from the capital to other parts of the country, and vice versa, seem so great.
Yet, according to Zahreddine, that is often the case. While parts of Beirut and other major population or tourism areas have witnessed many postwar improvements and successful reconstruction projects, less prominent and less populated areas have largely been neglected. Many still suffer from the same problems and difficulties they faced when the war ended almost 15 years ago.
"Government officials in Beirut often have different priorities than people in other parts of the country," Zahreddine said. "While members of Parliament and top politicians are concerned with repaying the national debt and creating a good business environment in Lebanon for foreign investors, people at the local level are interested in improving their schools, their roads and improving things that affect their daily life."
The current system of administration has roots in the French colonial government and in the Ottoman bureaucratic system. The result is a system that decentralizes administration, but centralizes authority, especially financial authority. Regional and local government in Lebanon is weak and has very little power. Even small projects to raise living standards or improve community facilities often have to appeal for funds and permission from the national government.
Similarly, the distribution and utilization of tax revenue is also centralized. Since most taxes go to the national government, people have little connection or control over what happens to those funds. The national government often has different fiscal priorities than local governments, and people are repeatedly frustrated when they are forced to part with large sums of their money when they rarely see the impact of those funds in their area.
While the system of government organization and administration was innovative and effective when first developed, Zahreddine thinks many aspects of it are due for renovation.
Zahreddine laments the result this systemic breakdown has had on Lebanese communities and culture, and fears the impact is widespread and damaging.
Though not currently living in Lebanon, Zahreddine has experienced and worked on this issue for years.
Zahreddine was born in Lebanon and lived there until he moved to Montpellier, France in 1989 with a grant to pursue graduate studies in agricultural engineering.
He quickly became involved with the local Lebanese community there. As the civil war came to an end in the early 1990's, Zahreddine and other Lebanese in the area began thinking of how they could contribute to the redevelopment efforts back in their homeland, even if they were acting from abroad.
He returned to Lebanon in the mid 1990's to work full-time on community development and revitalization projects.
Even though his efforts and the groups he worked with were working entirely to improve conditions at the local level, municipal governments presented some of the greatest barriers to improving the communities he was working in. At the time, he said he often tried to work around local governments, attempting to improve conditions despite, not because of, the interests of local officials.
As Zahreddine learned more about how the system functions, and malfunctions, he changed his opinions as to the proper role of local governments and officials. He now believes they were so resistant to the work that he and others were doing because the municipal governments were too weak, rather than too strong. "The municipalities were weak enough not to understand that the projects were for them, for the municipality. They were too weak to understand that such projects could be run for, and by, them," Zahreddine said. "Some municipality governments were new, and they were not ready to work collaboratively with other organizations."
But he did not lose hope. Rather he was re-energized and remotivated to continue his work, albeit at a different level. "Regardless of the problems coming from the local municipalities, we are working to strengthen municipalities and local authorities, but on a national level, across the whole country."
Though he says he learned a great deal in those first years regarding how to work with local leaders and municipal governments, the complications and barriers were demoralizing. The barriers he faced in Lebanon were too difficult, and too discouraging, and in 1999 Zahreddine moved to Barcelona to continue his work.
Over the years, Zahreddine has been in contact and worked with other people from around the Mediterranean and across the Arab world. It became clear to him and others that many countries face similar problems and a regional/international approach could help fuel change at the national and local levels.
In collaboration with a small group of dedicated individuals, he helped found and establish the Mediterranean Eco operation Program (MEP). MEP has two main projects. One project is to further sustainable and equitable development throughout the Mediterranean region by promoting the adoption of Mediterranean Sustainable Development Agreements.
Through MSDA, Zahreddine hopes to push regional "north, east and south cooperation" to a new level, bringing mutual benefits to all. The key issues these agreements address are "poverty alleviation, sustainable development and promoting the participation and integration of all concerned civil society organizations."
The second initiative of MEP is ARDI, the Agricultural and Rural Development Initiative seeking to promote sustainable agriculture in rural areas. The effort aims to empower small and medium-sized enterprises and cooperatives to be productive and profitable, but at the same time to work in the context of protecting agro biodiversity, and maintaining healthy fisheries and farmland ecosystems.
ARDI also works to protect the local cultures in the areas they work, using and building on traditional knowledge and values, while helping produce healthy and quality food products.
Through both the MSDA and ARDI programs, MEP has collaborators, advisers or participants in Algeria, France, Greece, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Spain.
Though his heritage and his heart are in Lebanon, the difficult and discouraging situation in Lebanon drove him to work at the regional level. "When you work in Lebanon, you have one frustration and you keep working. But two, three, four frustrations and you say enough."
However, despite such frustrations, Zahreddine hopes to return to Lebanon again to help improve the conditions in his motherland.
(Interview by David Munir Nabti "Special to The Daily Star" Friday, November 12, 2004 at Avenida de Gaudi – background photo Hospital de Sant Pau)
