After a project period of almost 4 years, two closing conferences were organised for the European Union-funded MASAR programme for local governments in Lebanon and Iraq, the respective countries of implementation.

The closing event in Lebanon took place on the 28th of September at the University of Balamand, in the presence of the programme implementing partners in Lebanon: The International Agency of the Union of Municipalities of the Netherlands (VNG International), the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation (ACCD), and the Polish Association for International Aid (PCPM). On 4 October the Iraq closing conference was organised in Duhok, by VNG International and PCPM.

Despite the global pandemic, regional conflicts, and ongoing social-economic and humanitarian crises in both countries of implementation, all the programme activities have been or are close to be completed. Indeed, together with its local partners the MASAR team has been able to achieve most of its planned outputs and outcomes, thereby contributing to the overall objective of improving resilience of local governments in Lebanon and Iraq to deal with crises. The outputs of its “demonstration projects” have been handed over to the local and subnational governments to ensure the sustainability of MASAR’s results. The closing conferences marked this formal hand-over.

Besides the implementing partners, the conferences were attended by representatives of the municipalities and subnational governments, beneficiaries, and other development partners.

In multiple sessions, including presentations and panel discussions, attention was given to MASAR’s activities and results in the field of area-based planning, improving basic service delivery and local economic development. MASAR’s results in the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was given extra emphasis, to showcase its use for municipalities as a tool for planning and maintenance as well as improving service delivery.

Both closing conferences concluded with the launch of the new official MASAR website: www.masarproject.com. This website was initiated to showcase project results and to provide project beneficiaries with a tool for learning from MASAR’s interventions and policy uptake, thereby contributing to the sustainability of the interventions.

Lebanon closing conference

Iraq closing conference