Italy donated 5 million euros to the Lebanese Government and launched the project called “Rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Nahr al-Bared Camp and the areas in Northern Lebanon Hit by the Conflict” in the aftermath of the 2006 conflict between the Lebanese army and the jihadists and in response to the Vienna Conference of 23 June 2008. Italy’s contribution had the aim of participating in the international community’s support to Lebanon’s effort to pacify and stabilise the Country and its northern region. The project’s closing ceremony, organised by the Italian Embassy in Beirut, the Italian Development Cooperation Agency and the Beirut-based Council for Development and Reconstruction, will be held at Beirut’s Monroe Hotel on 9 March at the presence of Italian Ambassador to Lebanon, Massimo Marotti.
“Rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Nahr al-Bared Camp and the areas in Northern Lebanon Hit by the Conflict”
A first phase of the project, which had an overall cost of roughly 2.5 million euros, was completed in November 2012 thanks to the work of an Italian NGO, ICU. It rehabilitated 611 dwelling and commercial units situated in the Camp’s new location. The second phase provided additional financial support and technical assistance with the aim of rehabilitating another 360 dwelling units selected among the dwellings present in the area but not included in the first phase of the intervention and those located in areas not included in previous interventions because of the existence of security problems. In December 2015, thanks to the AVSI-RC consortium of Italian NGOs and the other partners involved in the project, the last cheques were given to the homeowners benefiting from Italy’s contribution. For the occasion a delegation of the UTI visited some of the rehabilitated homes to which families have now returned.
Factsheet / Cooperation in Lebanon
Italian Development Cooperation in Lebanon supports the efforts made to progressively stabilise the social, economic and political life of the Country. Italian Cooperation is active both in emergency interventions and in bilateral development cooperation efforts and is one of the partners of reference of the Lebanese Government, becoming a privileged interlocutor in many of the intervention sectors and strategies in response to the Syrian crisis. The gradual additions to the intervention strategy, such as the establishment of the Local Technical Unit at the Italian Embassy in Beirut in 2006, were made consistently with the Country’s needs and began with the funding of emergency programmes in the 2006 post-conflict scenario, and were later expanded with additional initiatives with a longer-term development perspective.
