Parliament Approves Loan for Infrastructure Reconstruction:
Between Rapid Response and Delayed Comprehensive Reconstruction
The Lebanese Parliament approved a $250 million World Bank loan to implement the LEAP project, aimed at emergency reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, restoring essential services, and managing debris, as one of the three tracks in the government’s reconstruction strategy. The loan represents a limited portion of reconstruction needs, focusing on densely populated areas, which excludes southern villages and border regions and does not cover the rebuilding of destroyed buildings. Despite its importance, LEAP remains a partial, short-term step amid ongoing delays in comprehensive reconstruction.
The Reconstruction Draft Law repeats the Mistakes of the past:
Reviving destroyed villages can’t happen only through buildings
After a ceasefire was implemented in Lebanon on November 27, the Lebanese government held a special session on December 7 in the southern city of Tyre and approved a draft law for rebuilding homes destroyed by Israeli attacks, as they were before. Regardless of its immediate issues in terms of content, it appears that the proposed law does not address the previous or emerging challenges we are facing and risks repeating the mistakes of past failed reconstruction experiences.