Following an opening ceremony organized to announce the “Strengthening Social Cohesion by Responding to Community Needs in Bekaa” project funded by the Embassy of the Netherlands, The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Training (LOST) formed four Peace Steering Committees (PSC) composed of 8 to 10 representatives from the refugee population and the host community of different political and economic backgrounds in four communities across Northern Bekaa. Municipalities’ representatives, Mukhtars, religious leaders, peace building CSOs and local associations, local humanitarian aid actors, women’s representatives, parents, school principals, and leaders of the refugee community have been active candidates for the PSCs.
Formulating these four PSCs will foster debate between the Syrian refugees and the hosting community on local issues that emerged following the Syrian influx to Lebanon. It will facilitate a process of collaboration between the host community and the Syrian refugees through a series of trainings and meetings.
As part of its mandate, PSCsorganized some meetings with local experts, municipality mayors and members, refugees, Mukhtars, and local CSO leaders. These meetings provided an opportunity to discuss issues of mutual concern, expanded knowledge about the root causes of the conflict arising from the influx of refugees, and created an independent platform to speculate suitable and realistic solutions. Moreover, PSCs are in the process of organizing more meetings with INGO delegates and MoSA representatives for the same reason
As a capacity building initiative, PSC members in the 4 targeted areas are taking part in a seven-day capacity building training on team building (1 day), conflict transformation (1 day), peace building (2 days) , leadership (1 day), and IT/Social Media skills (2 days).
These PSCs will also be engaged in the effort of customizing the Peace Building curriculum already developed by LOST/GIZ. Through this 3-day activity, PSC should be able to design a four month short Social Cohesion Program (SCP) to be delivered to local community leader groups in the second phase. (This program will be a set of trainings/capacity building workshops and activities that promote social cohesion as perceived by local community). The four PSCs will act as an advisory board to guide and direct the activities of the project.
At the end of this phase, the PSCs will create community young leaders groups in the different four areas where LOST operates. A Community young leaders group (YLG) made up 15-20 Lebanese and Syrian community leaders aged 18 and above will be established in each village/city. Recruitment will be a joint effort of LOST and PSC.
