FAIR INCLUSIVE SERVICES IN 2012
CITIZEN MONITORING
Communities Leading Change in Lebanon
The room is filled with people, and more are queuing outside. Young people sit at tables checking voters as they come in and out, while others keep watch over ballot boxes. In this Lebanese town it might be any other election day but for one clear difference – all candidates are under 35 years of age, and many are as young as 17. Our youth shadow councils are democratically elected by their communities and act as a public watchdog over local councils in 20 different municipalities across Lebanon. Trained in advocacy, budget management and good governance, these future leaders will be directing service delivery tomorrow. Today, they are ensuring public money is well spent.
A girl and her grandmother cast their vote during the youth shadow council elections in Lebanon. © Lebanese Transparency Association
The initiative is called Musharaka – Arabic for “participation” – and in an often politically opaque country, these shadow youth councils have successfully broken down the barrier between citizens and their elected leaders. The initiative provides the shadow youth councils US$10,000 each to pursue development projects of their choosing following discussions with elected municipality leaders. Although Lebanon has not yet regulated public access to information by law, local councils agreed to let their young counterparts scrutinise their budgets and provide recommendations for improvements.
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As part of our youth committees against corruption, more than 200 young people have been trained in fighting corruption, and three groups have test-piloted our new system to monitor corruption in humanitarian operations.
Established in response to a fatal fire in a kindergarten, our community monitoring initiative continues to assess health and safety provisions in day-care units. Thanks go to the parent volunteers, who have now donated 30,000 hours of their time to the project.