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Implementation of a Quality Management System
Ministry of Environment
Lebanon

The Problem

(319 words)
The Ministry of Environment (MoE) does not meet its mandate in an erratic and haphazard way. It extracts policy headlines from the Government Policy Statement that allows the Government to get vote of confidence in Parliament. From this Government Policy Statement, the MoE derives its policy pillars and strategy objectives allowing it to put these pillars and objectives into action plans, programs, projects and activities.

MoE policy is set along the following pillars:
- Sustainable ecological development
- Regionally balanced development
- Protection through prevention
- Polluters pay
- Mainstreaming environmental policy
- Promoting sound environmental investments

MoE strategy is articulated around the following objectives:
- Strengthen decentralization in environmental management;
- Reinvigorate the environmental legislative process at the national, regional and international levels;
- Adopt scientific and practical guidelines in developing environmental policies, strategies, plans and programs;
- Develop specialized human resources in both the public and private sectors, and particularly at the MoE;
- Establish a partnership with the public and the private sectors, in particular educational institutions, media, civil society, and international organizations;
- Promote institutional approaches to public administration activities;
- Provide environmental guidance through extension and awareness raising, civil society empowerment, and the media; and
- Plan and program for pro-active environmental management.

Adoption of this policy and strategy has helped counterbalancing the environmental sustainability index (ESI) -where Lebanon ranked 129 out of 146 countries- by an environmental performance index (EPI) -where Lebanon ranked 36 out of 133 countries and first in the region. The EPI is a reflection of the efforts undertaken to deal with the long lasting environmental challenges portrayed by the ESI. This EPI score would not have been possible without a close partnership between the MoE and the private sector, academics, civil society and international organizations.

MoE is a strong believer that public authority can only be claimed by the Quality of the Service it delivers to the General Public.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
(410 words)
The Lebanese Ministry of Environment (MOE), established in 1993, is a public institution that conserves Lebanon’s environment, protects its natural resources, rationalizes their exploitation, safeguards their sustainability, raises environmental awareness in coordination with public institutions, civic and international organizations, and endeavors towards transforming the projects of concerned parties (industrial plants, quarries, etc.) into environmental friendly projects to protect the citizens’ right to a sound environment. The Ministry’s vision remains to ensure a sound, healthy and sustainable environment.

Achieving environmental improvement in Lebanon following the years of civil conflict required substantial changes in the implementation of basic government policies. This in turn relied heavily on the presence of a capable institution and qualified human resource base. To handle effectively the important responsibilities within its domain, the structure of MOE went through several restructuring initiatives which flourished lately in August 2005 with the Lebanese Government approving a new base structure of the Ministry. Along the way, the Ministry’s Management was able to launch several efficient and rewarding institutional strengthening activities aiming at enhancing the operational capability of the Ministry in performing its mission. End of 2004, and following the initiative to build its organizational and institutional structures and technical capacities, the Ministry implemented in coordination with the EC-LIFE Third Countries Programme and the United Nations Development Programme a comprehensive institutional strengthening Project. Based on MOE’s concept idea, the Project work document was completed following a proficient public-private partnership. This Project entailed the implementation of change in different fields: Restructuring, implementation of a quality management system, IT Strengthening, and Human Resources Development. The subject matter of this application is to illustrate the efforts of MOE committed team members in their ability to develop a comprehensive quality management system in accordance with ISO 9001:2000 Standard requirements, implement it, and ensure its sustainability. It is worth to mention that MoE is the first public sector institution in Lebanon to apply an efficient process management approach in accordance with International Standards. This Project by itself is considered as a pilot project to all Lebanese public institutions, proving thus the ability of a public institution to implement a QMS. With a team of 65 qualified technical and administrative staff, and despite all the disturbing political and the war phases that Lebanon passed through, the Ministry of Environment in partnership with the private sector and civic society has always endeavored to improve its performance and ultimately increase the Citizen’s satisfaction and achieve its mission in conserving the ENVIRONMENT.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
-August 26, 2005: Issuance of MoE’s new organizational structure (Organization Law No. 690)
-June 22nd, 2006: start date of Quality Management System implementation and use of all QMS Documentation.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
(377 words)
The Ministry of Environment “MoE” was established by Law No. 216 dated April 2nd, 1993, defining the Ministry’s mandate and its functions at the Service Level. Later, decree No. 5591 dated August 30th, 1994, organized the Services into departments and divisions and defined staffing requirements and the organizational management of each administrative unit. On December 29th, 1997, Law No. 667 cancelled all articles related to Law No. 216 except Article 1 as to the establishment of the Ministry of Environment and redefined its functions into 17 areas of intervention. The Ministry was empowered, by this law, to establish and enforce national environmental policies, and to recommend implementation steps in coordination with other concerned agencies. No organizational decree was issued following Law No. 667. Further, aiming at building its organizational and institutional structures and technical capacities, MoE tried to organize its services and departments, and expand its core staff to be able to handle the increasing workload. A draft Law was proposed in 2000 to upgrade the organization structure and amend MoE’s mission and mandate and which was issued by the Lebanese Government in August 2005. The Ministry now includes seven administrative units as such: (1) Registry Service, (2) Service of Planning & Programming, (3) Service of Environmental Guidance, (4) Service of Urban Environment, (5) Service of Natural Resources, (6) Service of Environmental Technology, and (7) Service of Regional Departments and Environmental Inspectors. The restructuring and expansion process is a complex, long-term administrative procedure that required a high level of technical and administrative assistance. Several institutional strengthening activities were foreseen to initiate this process, and provide all the needed technical backstopping to MoE. Such activities included the following:
(1) Developing the approved base structure identifying the department’s missions and responsibilities, human resource qualifications and educational requirements.
(2) Developing the Ministry’s human resources through the implementation of a training plan that includes management, financial, and IT topics.
(3) Developing a comprehensive Quality Management System at the Ministry of Environment following ISO 9001:2000 requirements.
(4) Optimizing the use of IT applications in the performance of the MOE functions
(5) Timely dissemination of information to all internal and external stakeholders
The Ministry in order to implement this plan sought assistance and coordination from both the public and the private sectors

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
(293 words)
The main priorities were emphasized on the efficient and effective implementation of the Ministry’s mission. Such a priority required the Ministry’s structure to be equipped with modern management systems and IT capabilities coupled with intensive management training of its personnel, in order to cope with its responsibilities. The ultimate goal was to apply a process management approach at the Ministry, and consequently implement a quality management system in accordance with ISO 9001:2000 Standard requirements. Such a concept was built based on several purposes, the most important of which is to clarify and realize the Ministry’s goals, improve and safeguard its performance, increase transparency of processes, improve delivery of services, and ultimately increase citizen and employee satisfaction. Further, it was aimed towards implementing a proactive management that would prevent errors instead of correcting them, an issue which would save time and cost. Accordingly, transparency of processes would be increased and accountability is provided to assure consistent and continual improvement. The Quality Management System was foreseen to improve the performance of employees and supports a quick and effective integration of new employees following the issuance of the Organizational Law implementing decree.
Further, in order to support such a change and ensure its sustainability, increasing commitment of the staff to focus on the issues of importance to the objectives of the MOE was given a high priority. Accordingly, it was foreseen to build MOE human resources needs in quality by introducing focused training to conitnuously improve their skills and knowledge especially in applying methodologies and tools for a modern public sector. Gaining their commitment towards the change was of major and crucial importance to make the change sustainable. In parallel, it was intended to build human resouces needs in number by recruiting technical and administrative staff.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
(413 words)

Aiming at implementing change effectively and efficiently, the Ministry followed a methodology based on three main factors: (1) importance of the role of leadership (2) stressing on the participative process aiming at developing an open attitude towards change at all levels, and (3) managing resistance by identifying oppositions to support MOE’s team members in coping with stress, anxiety, and uncertainties of the change.

Having this methodology as a base, several strategies were sought starting first with conducting a strategic review of the Ministry and assessment of its organization structure, including the review of the functions of its administrative units, carrying out a functional analysis, description of key business objectives, critical success factors and performance measures. Accordingly, it was foreseen to identify management, operational and support processes, related procedures and work instructions.

Further and aiming at increasing the commitment of the staff to focus on the issues of importance to the objectives of the Ministry and enhancing their management and IT skills, a training plan was developed prioritizing the common needs and was translated into the execution of a series of Management, Behavioral, and technical training workshops. Intensive QMS based training workshops and quality awareness sessions were sought to acquaint the staff with quality management system concept and its effect on the overall performance of the Ministry, leading thus to an efficient implementation of Quality Management system at the Ministry.

Moreover, for the Ministry to be able to implement this change, it was foreseen to work on optimizing the use of IT applications in the performance of the MOE functions, and hence improve efficiency, accuracy, documentation, and clients’ satisfaction. All QMS documentation was to be downloaded on the Intranet to provide easy and timely access of the standardized documentation to all MOE staff.

Above all, timely dissemination of relevant information along the process to both internal and external stakeholders was anticipated to be of major importance.

In order to measure the citizen’s satisfaction about the Ministry’s service, a strategy to plan to develop a special assessment form, establish a Citizen satisfaction box, and accordingly plan a regular assessment of the citizens’ feedback.

The institutional strengthening activities executed at the Ministry involved management development initiatives at MOE to increase its capacity in carrying out its functions and to improve performance. These initiatives were designed within the framework of an integrated approach to capacity building at MOE involving structure, systems, procedures, IS/IT and training to be implemented with the commitment and support of MOE Top Management

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
(363 words)
The major changes at the Ministry resulted first by the Issuance of an Organizational Law in August 2005 that reorganized the Ministry of Environment and granted it more environmental tasks. MoE team members’ awareness was increased in terms of the importance and effectiveness of performance improvement through systems development as they were trained and motivated to improve their performance and that of their subordinates. A quality culture was developed at the Ministry. Quality Objectives have been attributed to every process, and steps were taken to ensure that these objectives do comply with the established quality Policy, and are measurable through specific indicators, and that improvement actions are being taken to improve efficiency of the processes. MoE’s Management was provided with tools for planning, controlling and monitoring the various activities and hence to assess the Ministry’s overall performance. It was foreseen that the improvement in the quality of service provided by the Ministry of Environment would lead to an increase in citizen and external stakeholders’ satisfaction and improvement of MoE’s image. Results of the analysis of the citizen satisfaction forms filled to date show a positive assessment. The increased stakeholder satisfaction shall be translated into a stronger political will to support sustainable development and consequently promote investment in the Country. Further, the improved capacity and performance of MoE shall be translated into the integration of environmental management in other economical sectors and thus creating new job opportunities.

Career opportunities for graduates in relatively new fields related to environmental protection, sustainable development and public administration at MOE were created following the enhancement of the organizational structure and definition of job descriptions and qualifications. Accordingly, ten new technical employees were recruited during 2005-2006.

Further, a pilot study to measure the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) (Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy (Yale University) ranked Lebanon in the 36th spot (epi score= 76.5) among 133 countries, ranking highest among Middle Eastern Countries, followed by the United Arab Emirates in the 47th. It showed that although the environmental sustainability in Lebanon is facing serious challenges, the current environmental performance seems to be seriously attempting to resolve these challenges and problems, thus showing some promising opportunities for the future.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
(235 words)
The sustainability of the different actions executed is assured through raising the awareness of the staff of the MOE to the importance and effectiveness of performance improvement through systems development and training. MOE team members shall continue to seek opportunities for improving their own performance and that of their subordinates.

The transparency of MOE set up shall allow concerned governmental bodies and NGO’s to monitor its activities including the proper implementation of rules and regulations, and the efficient management and handling of the demands ensuring sustainability of the outcomes achieved.

The improved technical capacities and public image of MoE would trigger the top management as well as the staff as a whole to sustain and continuously improve their institution.
The Quality Management system implemented at the Ministry ensures its continuous maintenance and improvement of the System, through regular assessment and review of objectives, indicators and targets, ensuring thus their suitability and sustainability to the incurred changes, and guaranteeing effective participation with all of the stakeholders to safeguard a sustainable, good and healthy environment. Through the implementation of the QMS, a special work instruction is developed to conduct on a yearly basis a Training Needs Assessment which output is a yearly plan for training needs whether administrative, technical, or IT. Further, a system for regular quality internal auditing is provided within the QMS; A Quality Coordinator was nominated to control the efficient implementation of the system.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Creating change, managing it, mastering it, and surviving it is the agenda for anyone in business who aims to make a difference. This applies to both public and private sectors. The main goal remains to respond effectively and efficiently to the needs and concerns of the Public. In order to reach this goal, the Ministry aimed at promoting and ensuring transparency and accountability by ensuring participation of internal and external stakeholders in its activities.

Moreover, implementing change requires time for people to adapt. In order to make process faster, the Ministry involved its team members in the implementation of change. The Ministry applied a participative process in the QMS preparation and implementation. Such process involved the staff in the planning and implementation of tasks, understanding the problems the institution is facing, and were given the chance to seek out and develop solutions. Openness in negotiations, involvement of staff and bringing in new ways of doing things were adopted. Should the Ministry not applied such a process would have not reached compliance in implementation.

Further, and since introduction of any change involves resistance, the Ministry sought to identify oppositions and to support the staff in coping with stress, anxiety, and uncertainties that the change introduced. One of the major questionable worries was the scare to fail. Such a feeling was overcome through raising awareness and involvement of staff in the activities implemented.

It is worth to note that despite the workload of the staff and the war situation that Lebanon passed during Summer 2006 and all the political conflicts in the Country, the Ministry persevered to provide quality service to the Public.

Lessons learned so far include the fact that any active organizational change requires the full involvement of staff in order to minimize resistance in implementing modern management tools as much as possible. Continuous follow up and monitoring is needed to assure that all processes are being implemented efficiently. Developing a quality culture motivates employees to produce more efficiently, take initiative to improve their performance, and commit themselves to the institution’s success.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Ministry of Environment
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Berj Hatjian
Title:   Director General  
Telephone/ Fax:   00961. 1. 976 555
Institution's / Project's Website:   00961. 1. 976 530
E-mail:   dgmoe@moe.gov.lb  
Address:   Riad El Solh Square, Lazarieh Center, Block A4-New, 7th Floor
Postal Code:   11-2727
City:   Beirut
State/Province:   Beirut
Country:   Lebanon

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