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Canada's Commitment
Results
Country Profile
Canada’s Commitment
Canada’s long-standing relationship of development cooperation with Lebanon has evolved in response to the country’s changing needs, beginning with a focus on humanitarian assistance in 1950 that peaked during the 1975–1990 civil war. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) instituted a bilateral (country-to-country) assistance program in 1993, with an initial goal of reconstruction. The program’s focus has shifted gradually toward the sustainable development of Lebanon’s public and private sectors, while continuing to provide assistance to the country’s most vulnerable people, such as youth, women, refugees, and victims of landmines.
In 2003-2004, Canadian Official Development Assistance to Lebanon totalled $4.38 million. Of this amount, $2,79 million was channelled through the bilateral program.
Canada’s commitment to this program reflects its greater diplomatic and development objectives in the Middle East: to support socio-economic development, promote peace and security, and achieve progress in governance through country-led development programs. In addition, development priorities in Lebanon are governance and social development, with gender equality applied to all programs as a crosscutting theme. CIDA also leverages its close relationship with the private sector in Lebanon to effect lasting change at the community level.
 Results
Several core programs illustrate some of the results of projects that CIDA supports in Lebanon:
- With Canada’s assistance, the Lebanese Revenue Administration successfully implemented a value-added tax in 2002 and has developed a more consistent, strategic approach to domestic taxation reform.
- CIDA created a scholarship fund for Palestinian refugee women living in Lebanon and pursuing undergraduate university degrees. With an expanded base of internationally recognized skills and certifications, over 120 women are now in a better position to succeed and lead in their communities and to fill needed gaps in a fragmented economy.
- Through a Canadian Fund for Social Development implemented by Oxfam-Québec, Canada has committed $5 million to respond to community-led and civil society initiatives. These small projects in Lebanon assist marginalized groups such as refugees, women, youth, and displaced people.
- Canada has provided $600,000 in electoral assistance to Lebanon over the past year through a Canadian Observation Mission to the 2005 legislative elections and support for the multi-donor “Electoral Law Reform” initiative.
- Lebanon also benefits from a number of CIDA-funded regional projects that focus on contributing to peace and security in the Middle East. In particular, CIDA provides ongoing contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to support its work providing education, health, and social services to Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region.
Country Profile
In 1975, Lebanon’s unity, economic prosperity, and enviable infrastructure were shattered by the outbreak of civil war. The country has made an enormous reconstruction effort since the war's end in 1990 to regain the confidence of international investors and rebuild physical infrastructure, while struggling to provide universal health, education, water, and sanitation services.
Lebanon’s determination to overcome the war’s legacy of debt, social, and political problems has borne results. Its Human Development Index ranking has risen markedly, from 0.677 in 1990 to 0.759 in 2003, ranking Lebanon 81st out of 177 countries Source: UNDP, Human Development Report 2005. However, economic progress has not addressed inequalities and the poor have been marginalized. To remedy this, taxation reform remains a priority for the Government of Lebanon. The Paris II donors' conference in November 2002 contributed to easing the pressures on the Lebanese currency and to reducing the government's debt-service costs.
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