As part of a series of webinars on Administrative Decentralization, the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK)  organized the first webinar on the theme of “Fiscal Decentralization: Between Reality and Enforcement”.

This event took place on Thursday, June 10, 2021, at 6:00 p.m., via Microsoft Teams.

Speakers

• Ahmad Rajab, Director General of Local Administrations and Councils
• Ghassan Hasbani, former Deputy Prime Minister
• Ibrahim Kanaan, Chair of the Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee

Moderator: Journalist Dany Haddad

Background
The principle of expanded administrative decentralization represents a constitutional foundation that was adopted in the “Taif Agreement”, which considered the implementation of expanded administrative decentralization as one of the major reforms, supporting hence the University’s aim to raise this project.

Today, more than two decades after the adoption of the “National Reconciliation Accord” known as the Taif Agreement, the administrative decentralization project remains ink on paper despite the promises of successive governments and all the proposals and draft laws that were submitted in this regard.

Since 2016, USEK has formed a special committee of experts, specialists and jurists that has worked on preparing a special project for administrative decentralization in Lebanon. This Committee aims, through the organization of a series of virtual meetings, to spread awareness about decentralization and to find some answers to technical and legal questions.