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The YMCA is pleased to submit its Final Report to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for the five-year Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) in Lebanon. The program ran from 1997 to 2002. Through a Cooperative Agreement, totaling $ 9,979,682 over a period of five years and $3,868,877 in the form of community self-help donations, contributions from local governmental and non-governmental agencies and organizations, the YMCA was able to implement USAID’s broad vision of development and empowerment of the rural communities of Lebanon.
The goal of the YMCA-IRDP in Lebanon was to promote stability and sustainable socio-economic development in targeted clusters of remote rural villages throughout Lebanon. An integrated package of project activities designed to meet this goal was designed and implemented in eight clusters, of Akkar El Attika, Tekrit, El Ain, Kfarsyr, Tannoura, Bint Jbeil, Tyre, Jebal El Rihane. These clusters comprised a total of 95 villages.
The YMCA-IRDP addressed identified problems in rural Lebanon, including uneven post-civil war economic recovery, lack of economic opportunities, rural to urban migration, environmental degradation, and disintegrated structures of civic participation in rural areas.
A holistic cluster approach was designed to provide targeted assistance for expanded economic opportunities and improved community service structures in the 95 rural villages that were part of the selected clusters. In both design and mode of implementation, the integrated set of project activities when implemented at the cluster level was intended to:
Mitigate the negative social and political consequences of uneven economic recovery
Lessen the trend of rural to urban migration
Promote local self-reliance, tolerance, and governance
Improve community awareness and the practice of appropriate environmental management procedures
