Lebanon experienced a marked improvement in its political context in 2008, although serious security incidents continued to raise concerns about the stability of the country. The institutional stalemate that had affected Lebanon in 2007 continued through the first half of 2008. The opposition, led by Hizbullah, continued to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Siniora’s Government, given that it considered it illegitimate due to the resignation of Shia ministers from the Government in November 2006.

Despite intensive negotiations between political leaders, no agreement could be reached on a candidate to replace President Emile Lahoud’s after his term ended in November 2007. International mediation, led by the Arab League and others, continued into early 2008 but could not deliver a compromise between the parties.

This 18-month deadlock came to a head on 6 May 2008 when Hizbullah rejected two decisions taken by the Government which it considered as an attack against the group. When the Government refused to back down, Hizbullah and its allies deployed their forces throughout the western part of Beirut, closing several of the capital’s main roads, blocking all access to Beirut airport and bringing Lebanon to a standstill. Violent clashes broke out between opposition and pro-government groups in Beirut, the Bekaa and in the Shouf region. The situation had the potential of escalating into a full-blown civil war.

After the Government rescinded the two controversial decisions, an Arab ministerial commission brokered an agreement to halt violence in Lebanon on 15 May. By the time the fighting ended, at least 69 people had been killed and 180 injured. Lebanese leaders flew to Doha to participate in a national dialogue table brokered by Qatar and the Arab League. On 21 May, after several days of tense discussions, participants finally agreed to the terms of an accord, effectively ending the worst political crisis in Lebanon’s post civil war history.

The Doha Agreement called for the election of General Michel Suleiman – until then head of the Armed Forces – to the Presidency, the formation of a national unity Government and included a provisional agreement on an electoral law as well as a commitment to resume a national dialogue on the relationship between the State and armed groups.

President Suleiman was elected by an overwhelming majority in Parliament on 25 May. In subsequent months, all other provisions of the agreement were either fully or partially implemented, setting the country on a more stable course.

In parallel, relations with Syria were renewed. Presidents Suleiman and Assad met on several occasions throughout the second half of 2008 and agreed, among other issues, to exchange embassies.

Relations with Israel remained tense throughout 2008 despite a comprehensive exchange of prisoners between Hizbullah and Israel in July. Daily air violations by the Israeli air force continued throughout 2008 and Israel continued to refuse to hand over strike data for the cluster munitions used in the war of 2006 which continue to cause harm to the population of South Lebanon and to the local economy.

Security concerns remained high in 2008. On 15 January, a US embassy convoy was targeted by a car bomb, killing three people. On 25 January, an officer of the Internal Security Forces and five other people were killed in a car bomb. Imad Mughniyeh, thought to be one of Hizbullah’s main commanders, was assassinated in Damascus on 13 February 2008, raising concerns of a Hizbullah reprisal. Violent clashes erupted during the summer between rival groups in the northern city of Tripoli, killing at least 23 people between May and September. Also in Tripoli, the Army was targeted by two deadly bombs in July and August, raising fears of further extremist activity in and around Palestinian camps in Lebanon. On 28 August a helicopter of the Lebanese Armed Forces was shot down by a Hizbullah operative. On 10 September an important Druze commander was assassinated. Also in September, clashes between rival Christian parties resulted in the killing of one supporter.

In the last quarter of the year, a series of reconciliation efforts engaged between Lebanon’s principal political leaders, at national and local levels, resulted in a considerable reduction of the levels of violence in the country.

The presence on Lebanese territory of numerous armed groups acting outside the control of the State, including Hizbullah and groups based in Palestinian camps, remained a major security concern throughout the year. By the end of the year, discussions on a national defense strategy in the national dialogue had yet to move to any operational discussions on disarming these groups.

The UN-led investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri continued and the Secretary General announced that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will start its operations on 1 March 2009. The issue of the Tribunal is likely to remain a contentious one in 2009.

Despite a number of minor incidents, UNIFIL’s area of operation in South Lebanon remained relatively calm in 2008. On 8 January, two rockets fired from Southern Lebanon hit an Israeli town causing minor damage to the main road and a house, but no injuries. On the same day, an improvised explosive device was detonated as a UNIFIL vehicle passed by on the main road between Beirut and Sidon. The explosion caused minor injuries to two peacekeepers. This marked the third attack against UNIFIL since 2006.

Summary on progress towards UNDAF outcomes

- CCA/UNDAF process:

The political and security crisis previously described had a negative impact in the CCA/UNDAF process, which got derailed one more time and could not continue the implementation of the 2008 work plan, particularly after the May 2008 clashes. Given the Government paralysis and deep uncertainty as to where the country was heading, the UNCT agreed to suspend the CCA/UNDAF process, requesting from the Regional Directors Team (RDT) and the Government of Lebanon a one year extension of the current programme cycle. The one-year extension was intended to allow the UNCT the necessary time to adapt its programming priorities to the situation resulting from the Doha Agreement. With this new one-year extension, the third in a row due to the prevailing political and security situation since 2006, the new CCA/UNDAF process will now cover the period 2010-2014.

• The CCA: with the final endorsement by the Government of Lebanon-through the Ministry of Finance-of the results of the macro-assessment in November 2008, the content of the CCA document was finally approved. The CCA has subsequently been signed by the UN Resident Coordinator, on behalf of the UNCT, and by the President of the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR), on behalf of the Government of Lebanon, and is now being published.

• The UNDAF process started in 2008 with a workshop aimed at training the members of the UNDAF working groups on: i) results-based management; and ii) human rights-based approach. Subsequently, UNDAF working groups were established according to their ToRs, and the five UNDAF outcomes were developed in consultation with government counterparts. As previously indicated, when the UNDAF process was being finalized, the May 2008 clashes brought the process to a halt. The signature of the Doha Agreement and the first steps taken in the implementation of its decisions, paved the way for the resumption of the CCA/UNDAF process. With the approval by the RDT of the one year extension of the programme cycle, the UNDAF WGs were tasked with reviewing the UNDAF results and M&E matrices produced prior to the May 2008 clashes in light of the new developments and priorities, paying special attention to conflict prevention issues. The first consolidated draft of the UNDAF document was written by a consultant based on the work of the different working groups, and shared with the UNCT in September 2008. Since then and till the end of 2008, the draft has gone through an iterative process of revisions by both the UNCT and the QSA. A final draft was agreed upon in December 2008, and it is expected that by the end of March 2009 the document will be endorsed by the Government of Lebanon and signed by CDR.

Summary on progress in UN Reform

The London-based international consulting firm hired for the implementation of the macro-assessment delivered the first draft in early 2008, and a number of meetings with the Ministry of Finance took place to review its content. The final draft of the macro assessment was endorsed by the Ministry of Finance in November 2008, and since then it has been added as an annex to the CCA document now being published. As for the micro assessment, an international consulting firm based in Beirut was hired for the implementation of the micro-assessment of all the implementing partners identified by the participating UN agencies (i.e. UNICEF, UNFPA and UNDP). By the end of 2008, only four micro-assessments of government counterparts remained to be carried out. - Joint Programmes: The work related to the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp (NBC) response operation, where a number of UN agencies are working in the same geographical area with the same counterparts, provided a unique opportunity to formulate the first UN Joint Programme following the approved UNDG Guidelines for Joint Programmes. The UNRCO, UNDP, UNICEF, ILO, UNRWA and UN Habitat joined their efforts to formulate the Integrated support to the rehabilitation of NBC Adjacent Area” project, which was submitted to and approved by ECHO in July 2008.

The MDG-F has also provided a good opportunity to bring UN agencies together around the thematic areas for which MDG-F windows were opened in 2008. In this regard, the UNCT has submitted two Concept Notes, one of which has been approved and it is being developed as a Joint Programme:

• Conflict Prevention and Peace Building Window: UNDP, ILO, UNRWA, UNESCO, UNICEF and UNFPAdesigned a Concept Note that was approved by the MDG-F Office. A Joint Programme that further developed the Concept Note, “Conflict Prevention and Peace Building in North Lebanon” (US$ 5,000,000), was finalized and submitted to the MDG-F Office for their consideration. Final approval and implementation of the Joint Porgramme is expected to take place in 2009.

• Development and the private sector in Lebanon: ILO, UNIDO, UNDP and IFAD designed a Concept Note “Integration of poor producers into the value chain of growth industries” that was submitted to the MDG-F Office for their consideration in December 2008.

- Implementation of the semi-integrated mission model: In 2008, the UNCT and UNSCOL took the first steps leading to the implementation of the Policy Committee decision of 25 June 2008 on integration, which called on field mission lead departments to “maintain Headquarters level task forces for each integrated UN presence to ensure coherent and consistent support and policy guidance.”

Terms of Reference for the Integrated Mission Task Force (IMTF) have already been finalized and a few of meetings of the regular HQTF at the working level have already taken place.

Highlights of UNCT performance in 2008: - Overall field coordination framework: During the course of 2008, the RCO completed the review of the existing coordination structure at the field level. In line with the evolution of the situation on the ground, two of the UN RC sub-offices opened in the aftermath of the July 2006 war (i.e. the Chtaura RC sub-office, covering Bekaa, and the Dahiyeh RC sub-office, covering Mount Lebanon) were handed over to UNDP. The remaining two UNRC sub-offices, with the heaviest workload and largest UN presence, are located in the following locations: i) Tyre, covering South Lebanon; and iv) Tripoli, covering North Lebanon.

• The Tyre RC sub-office continued to work in 2008 according to its work plan, though the number of UN agencies with active presence has been reduced to three (UNDP, FAO and ILO) from the original six (UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, FAO, UNHCR and ILO). General and sector coordination meetings have continued to take place regularly with the participation of a wide range of actors, including local authorities, UNIFIL representatives and NGOs, both national and international. The participation of UNIFIL civil affairs colleagues in these meetings continues to be a useful mechanism through which to improve coordination between UNIFIL and UN agencies in issues related mostly s to ecurity and QIPs.

• The Tripoli RC sub-office continues to provide coordination support to the NBC response operation, where a number of UN agencies (UNRWA, UNDP, UNICEF, ILO, OHCHR and UN Habitat) and NGOs participate in the Early Recovery Cluster System. As indicated in the 2007 report, from the outset of the crisis the UN Heads of Agencies in Lebanon decided unanimously to align themselves behind UNRWA’s leadership of the UN’s humanitarian response, in view of the primacy of UNRWA’s mandate with regard to the Palestinian camp population. The RC sub office support focuses on: i) facilitating and coordinating the work of the Early Recovery Network; and ii) facilitating and coordinating the work of the different sectoral Clusters , including the consolidation of cluster action plans, in collaboration with designated lead agencies.

Building on the good work already implemented in 2007, the inter-agency interventions in the NBC response operation provided a good opportunity for the UNCT to formulate a joint strategy for 2008. As previously indicated, these efforts led to the formulation of a Joint Programme “Integrated support to the rehabilitation of NBC Adjacent Area”, which was approved by ECHO in July 2008.

Finally, in November 2008 all UN agencies associated to the NBC response operation completed the move to the UNRWA compound where the UNRWA project management unit responsible for leading the NBC reconstruction efforts is located. This co-location includes the following UN agencies: UNICEF, UNDP, ILO, UN-Habitat, OHCHR and UNRCO.

? UN Contingency Plan: Regular updates of the UN inter-agency Contingency Plan continued to take place through 2008. The Core Group focused its work in 2008 on the following areas: • Establish linkages with national networks of NGOs in order to complete the mapping of national capacities and storage facilities and capacities. • Establish linkages with international NGOs with proved humanitarian capacities for the same purposes as above. • Strengthen the linkages with UNIFIL to maximize the UN response capacity in southern Lebanon. • Strengthen linkages with the Red Cross and the National Authorities responsible for risk reduction and disaster management. • Develop the Palestinian scenario (UNRWA).

In June 2008, the UNRCO organized a workshop to review the UN Contingency Plan in light of the new IASC guidelines. The workshop counted with the presence of OCHA, the members of the Core Group, UNSCOL and UNIFIL, and served to update the scenarios and review the progress accomplished on some of the issues previously mentioned. By the end of the workshop, the UNCT had revised the UN contingency plan, together with agency-specific contingency plans (UNICEF, WHO, WFP, UNHCR and UNRWA) relevant to this exercise. Some of the new elements incorporated in the UNCP will need to be further developed in 2009 (i.e. UNRWA Contingency Plan and UNIFIL chapter).

? Lebanon Recovery Fund (LRF): Donors’ commitment towards the LRF remained unchallenged in 2008, with a new allocation being disbursed by the Government of Spain, by now the largest contributor to the LRF. Thus far, the LRF has mobilized roughly US $ 46,000,000 and the LRF Steering Committee (SC) has approved 19 projects for a total amount of approximately US$ 36,000,000. Six UN agencies (UNDP, UNIDO, FAO, ILO, UNESCO and UNFPA) have benefited thus far from LRF funding.

The remaining unspent balance as at end 2008 (approximately US$ 10 million) is expected to be allocated in early 2009, when the next meeting of the LRF SC will take place. As of end 2008, the total LRF pipeline amounted to more than US$ 25 million.

? UNCT technical working groups: Aside from the working groups and clusters that are operational in northern (Tripoli) and southern (Tyre) Lebanon, the following UNCT working groups and task forces based in Beirut have continued implementing their regular activities as described in the UN RC annual report annexes: i) HIV/AIDS Task Force; ii) UN Communications Group; iii) UNCT Operations WG; and iv) Youth Task Force. In response to the food crisis provoked by the hike of staples prices in 2008, the most concerned UN agencies (FAO, UNDP, UNICEF, WB and the IMF) established a Task Force to: i) assess the real impact in Lebanon; and ii) prepare a concept note that would highlight the support that could be provided to the Government of Lebanon. Though Terms of Reference were prepared and a first draft of the Concept Note was also drafted, the GoL did not consider this to be among its priorities. The above-mentioned UN agencies continue to follow the issue very closely, and FAO is working with the Ministry of Agriculture to determine what kind of support, if any, is needed.

Resource mobilization for coordination:

The UNRCO has been successful in mobilizing the necessary resources to sustain the revised coordination structure approved for the year 2008. The financial resources, mobilized through the two projects indicated hereunder, will fund the coordination requirements of the RC sub-offices in Tyre (southern Lebanon) and Tripoli (northern Lebanon), where the operational work of the UN agencies is concentrated: • The Joint Programme “Integrated support to the rehabilitation of NBC Adjacent Area” was approved by ECHO in July 2008 for a total amount of EUR 2,158,408. This project funds a number of activities related to the participating UN agencies, including the human resources and running costs of all expenses related to the RC sub-office in the north. • The project “Recovery Coordination Support” was approved by the LRF Steering Committee for a total amount of close to US$ 750,000. This project funds the activities of the RC sub-office in the south, and will cover the expenses of the RC sub-office in the north once the ECHO funding finalizes in July 2009.

Key aspects of the proposed 2009 workplan

The UNCT 2009 work plan will focus on the following: - CCA/UNDAF: the finalization of the UNDAF process is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2009, with the signature of CDR on behalf of the GoL. The UNCT will work in 2009 in the identification and establishment of the coordination mechanisms that need to be put in place (i.e. UNDAF working groups) for the implementation of the UNDAF document starting in 2010.

- UN Contingency Plan: given the prevailing political and security situation in the country, the regular update of the UN inter-agency contingency plan remains a priority in the 2009 UNCT work plan. The UNCT will also continue to explore the possibility of implementing a simulation exercise that would test the UN agencies’ level of preparedness, allowing the UNCT to draw lessons to be taken into account in future revisions of the UN Contingency Plan. - Streamlining coordination: the 2008 coordination structure needs to be reviewed in 2009 in light of: i) new coordination mechanisms to establish within the UNDAF exercise; ii) the existing coordination mechanisms linked to the recovery and reconstruction efforts (i.e. clusters and working groups operational in northern and southern Lebanon respectively); and iii) the areas where the semi-integration model may create new coordination mechanisms. Given the size of the UNCT and limited human resources capacity, a light coordination structure seems to be more realistic in order to ensure that the UNCT keeps the focus around the agreed areas of intervention expressed in the UNDAF.

- Implementation of the Semi-Integrated Mission model: It is expected that the UNCT and UNSCOL will work together in early 2009 in the identification of the working mechanisms and areas of work where the respective activities of the UNCT and the political mission would indicate an added value in pursuing an integrated approach.

- NBC response operation: the successful implementation of the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Nahr el-Bared camp and the surrounding areas will continue to be a critical area where the collective efforts of the UN can play a critical role. This will not only have a positive impact in the life of the displaced population, but can also contribute to a much needed stabilization of the security situation in northern Lebanon.

2.1. improving dispensing and expanding access to the ARV medications 2.2. improvement of access to treatment for Drug addicts 2.3. development and dissemination of HIV and STI management guidelines

3.1. introduction of HIV in the school health programme 3.2. finalization of life skill/RH/ HIV curriculum for school 3.3. advocacy among religious leaders/ Faith Based Organization ( FBO) 3.4. advocacy among media 3.5. support to WAC 3.6. advocacy with employers’ organization(s) and their membership

4.1. Ensure continuous exchange of information and good practices 4.2. ensure timely meetings of FP and heads of agencies 4.3. implement to UN Care programme (Learning strategy)

2. Update the UN Contingency Plan Rubble Removal and Recovery in the Nahr El-Bared Camp (NBC)

2. Document updated NBC camp demolished and all rubble treated and reused