CPI The Lebanese Center for Public Information
PARTICIPATIVE
GOVERNANCE
PARTICIPATIVE GOVERNANCE
13. The scope
of the work involved in
participative governance

    We have previously defined Participative Governance. We have also assessed the
    economic and the social conditions prevailing nowadays in Lebanon. From that review it
    appears that a great deal remains to be done in the following areas: infrastructure
    development, social justice, fiscal reform, management of public funds and economic
    growth.

    The implementation of the reforms will involve planning, approval, implementation,
    monitoring, and evaluation

    If we accept the definition of Participative Governance as” mutually beneficial relations
    between citizens and decision-makers”, it follows that citizens can and should participate
    with the Authorities and assist them to implement the desired reforms.

    Let us consider the areas of the work in which the citizens are expected to be involved:

    •        Planning: Civil Society can and should take an active part in the study and in the
    elaboration of the National Plan and the Yearly National Budgets to make sure that they
    fulfill all the major expectations of the citizens that we mentioned earlier on. But there are
    other reasons as well. The citizens ought to ensure that any major project is realistic, well
    studied, and does not contain elements that may favor certain individuals or special
    interests to the detriment of other members of Society.

    •        Approval: The Plans and the major projects introduced by the Authorities must be
    approved by Parliament before they are executed. Members of Civil Society should be
    allowed to discuss these projects with the parliamentary commission concerned before
    the voting takes place.

    •        Implementation: The implementation of the Plan is generally the exclusive domain
    of the Authorities except when the latter decide to delegate a project to Private Enterprise
    (PPP). In such cases the Administration limits its involvement to awarding the project  and
    supervising its execution.

    •         Monitoring and evaluation: This means making sure that the project gets actually
    done, done well, and done on time. Considering  that, in the past, many essential
    projects have been badly executed or simply shelved aside, it is highly recommended that
    Civil Society should be associated  with the tasks of monitoring and evaluation, in
    coordination with the appointed  Parliamentary Commission.

         Note:    In this presentation the term Plan is used to denote the National Budget (
    which is a yearly plan) and the National Plan (which is generally drawn for several years  
    ahead ;in most cases five years).