Page Title

HOW TO BUILD A NATIONAL PLAN

OW TO BUILD A NATIONAL PLAN

COMMENTS ON PLAN BUILDING

In a previous web page we suggested that a number of

stake

holders

as well as some State

institutions and foreign

bodies

should take an

active part in the plan building

process.

identified at least twenty

five groups of

individuals, organizations,

state or foreign institutions

who

must be called upon to participate,

in one way or another,

in the

construction of the Plan to ensure its

ultimate

success. We are sure

that we may have missed some and

we intend to rectify this error

during the execution of the

process.

However, before we envisage building the National Plan

we should

consider

introducing and explaining the

participative governance

and

participative

planning

concepts to Civil Society and familiarize

the

citizens with

the notion and

the benefits of planning nationally

and the

role that they may be called upon to

play in the planning

process.

To attain this result, we believe that the best approach is to

conduct, in

some

universities, a number of internships on

the

subjects of

participative governance

and participative

planning.

The interns, who will be invited to attend the enlightenment

sessions,

will

subsequently move on to the study and to

the

research phase of

the individual

plan concerned. This

will be

followed by a consultation

phase with the various

stakeholders, the

expert institutions, and the

officials of

the Ministry concerned.

That, in turn, should lead to the evaluation, the critique,

and the

elaboration of

the Plan before its final write up and

its presentation

the Authorities.

We have estimated that the entire process

for each of the

sixteen

sub-

plans

ill last

six months.

In order to complete

the entire

project within

one year we shall have to

assemble eight groups of

interns who will be

assigned to

oversee two sub-plans each.

The first course

scheduled to start on the 15th of

February and

end on the

30th of June.

Should this first course prove successful, it is proposed to

form

seven

additional

groups as

early

as the first of March

2011 to keep

in line with

the program.

In this connection, we wish to point out that we believe that

it is

imperative to

conclude the

study of

the sixteen topics

of the

National

Plan before the end of

this year. The current

circumstances in

Lebanon

and in the region render it

imperative to

provide the State and

the

citizens with a clear

vision of the future

lying ahead of us and what we

are

expected to

achieve during the

next five

years.

That

economic and

social vision, provided it is

adopted

by the

majority, will

become the

cementing factor that will

unite us

all and prevent the

discord that

threaten us dangerously.

That

vision will serve to define precisely the

goals

that

shall

commonly agree upon, the means and

the time

table

to achieve

them.

Once

all the parties agree upon a common economic and

social

policy,

the

political aspects can

be easier to settle

afterward.

We believe that educated youth, in spite of its relative

inexperience,

and, in some

instances

because of it, can be

the

ideal driving engine

and rallying factor

behind the

project of a

National

Plan.

We pray for the success of the forthcoming internship

project and

hope that it

will get

the

necessary support

from all concerned.

The standard program for each course is expected to last

six

months

and will

include the

following:

) A review of the basic principles of participative

planning

Some leading

experts

and economists

will

be invited to

attend

the sessions

) A review of

he current sectional plan if it is

available.

)

plan w

drawn

for that section

, the group will

spend

five

weeks to study,

with the

experts, and with

the Ministry

concerned, some applicable Plan

5) A discussion will then take place over the Plan with

representatives of

civil society

and experts,

including

the

members of the Social and Economic

Council

6) A discussion over the Plan will follow with the

Ministry

concerned

7) The group will meet with the Parliamentary

Commission

concerned to

communicate the result

their work and seek

their feedback on the

subject.

8) The group will draw up a final synthesis and a

summary of

the

different

studies

and present it to

the

Ministry concerned.

Each of the above

teps

will last three weeks

CPI The Lebanese Center for Public Information

PARTICIPATIVE
GOVERNANCE

PARTICIPATIVE GOVERNANCE

36. Building the Plan

Public Private Participation has been successfully tried in different parts of

the world, where the governments were not able to directly bankroll the

huge

sums needed to realize or rebuild the infrastructure or introduce some

costly

reform measures.

However, as Mr. Mounir Corm, a specialist in public/private participation,

rightly argues in

his article in l'Orient Le Jour

, the solution is not, at first

hand,

easily applicable in Lebanon.

We tend to believe that, before rushing impulsively to adopt PPP, we should

consider participative governance first.

The object is to recruit Civil Society as a watchdog over public funds to

prevent any unlicensed use of these funds by some of the private cartelwho

operate in this country freely and without sufficient control.

For that purpose, we have in mind the Lebanese Economic and Social

Council referred to in slide 25 above. We believe that it can be the perfect

link between the State and the private sector, provided it is allowed to

operate strictly according to the rules.