European Union –Grant LBN/B7-4100/IB/97/0687

Brief Description:

ARLA is a six-year, multi-sector Program that aims at rehabilitating the basic management capacities of targeted administrative institutions (core administrative agencies, several sector and line ministries, and local government) while preparing the ground for administrative reform. Defined within the overall framework of the National Administrative Rehabilitation Program (NARP), the main goal of the program is to assist in restoring essential functions of the Lebanese administration at large in order to strengthen its institutional and managerial capacity to carry out the country's recovery process. The program also intends to help streamline the restructuring and reform processes aimed at re-establishing a small, efficient and modern administration. ARLA funds are channeled to the beneficiary institutions by the Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR).

The major component of the program is technical assistance (TA), this assistance is mainly provided through ‘Management Support Consultancies’ (MSCs) to sector Ministries and Municipalities or through Program Monitoring Consultancy (PMC) to OMSAR. To complement this TA package, the ARLA program comprises several other components and activities, including additional TA services, training, equipment, studies and some contingencies, bringing total EU support to an amount of Euro 38 million.

The objectives of the program are to:

• Reorganise the management functions of the various institutions concerned, through the design and implementation of appropriate management systems and the training of existing staff;

• Improve the regulatory and procedural framework for public administration through the review of documents and the simplification/streamlining of procedures, especially those related to the delivery of services to the populace;

• Develop the capacity of targeted institutions to identify, evaluate, design, implement and monitor projects;

• Improve the planning, regulatory, supervisory and monitoring functions of these institutions, especially with respect to public utilities and services networks;

• Develop their capacity to better appraise sector issues and requirements and, subsequently, to formulate, program, implement and monitor appropriate, feasible, and cost-effective sector policies, in line with the Government’s overall recovery strategy;

• Foster the decentralisation process through specific management support to targeted areas of local government in order to facilitate their re-vitalisation;

• Carry out specific studies related to the above;

• Provide basic equipment in order to facilitate the implementation of the above actions and/or increase visibility of public administration renovation and the availability of public services to citizens at both central and local level.