The Role of Regional Administrations in the Context of Decentral

August 01, 2012 | English and Arabic
The Role of Regional Administrations in the Context of Decentralization

A report summarizing the themes discussed at a conference regarding decentralization co-organized by LCPS and the Embassy of Switzerland on December 19, 2011 at the Monroe Hotel in Beirut.
The report opens up the debate regarding the role and importance of regional governments.
It synthesizes thematically the key ideas and issues that were debated in the conference and which are as follows: One, although unions have become active players in local development, they are constrained administratively, fiscally, and structurally. Hence, there is a need to address these challenges so unions become more effective in delivering services to their constituents. Two, despite the existence of unions, there is a need to establish elected regional councils on territories defined by developmental criteria with the appropriate and complementary mandate to unions and fiscal authority.