United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

The biggest challenge for the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities (MOIM) since the formation of the Ministerial cabinet on the 11th of July 2008 was the carrying out of the parliamentary elections on the 7th of June 2009.
The challenges faced by the MOIM could be classified into two main factors, the first being linked to the macro situation of the country and the second directly related to the micro situation of administering elections.
One year ago, Lebanon had been taken to the brink of civil war and back. But due to an agreement between Lebanese political leaders brokered in Qatar by the latter, the political leaders were able to agree on the formation of a cabinet and the outline of a new parliamentary electoral law. Nonetheless, the political deadlock and a highly polarized political landscape lingered and posed a considerable threat to the fragile stability in Lebanon.
To the MOIM, the situation made matters ever more challenging for it, whereby, it had to gain the confidence of the public and the opposing parties as to its ability to be neutral and to be perceived as impartial, making sure not to undermine the voters’ confidence in the electoral process.
On another level, the MOIM was faced with the challenge of administering and organizing the elections in a very short period of time whereby the electoral law was passed on the 8th of October 2008 with elections taking place on the 7th of June 2009. The new approved electoral law brought about a good number of reforms and changes which meant that the MOIM had to cope, accept, and implement a large number of changes to how it administered elections. The biggest challenges posed by the new law were the carrying out of elections in one day which is in contrast to previous ones where elections took place in each region separately at a different time. Among the other main changes that the MOIM had to bring about were the formation of the supervisory commission on the electoral campaign (SCEC), abolition of the elections card and the adoption of the national ID card and valid passports as a tool for voting, and using new adopted election gears such as transparent ballot boxes, indelible ink, and standard polling booths. Alongside the mentioned changes, new measures were adopted for the polling procedures.
Adding to the above, the MOIM was also faced with the challenge of overcoming the shortcomings of previous elections that lacked certain levels of transparency and efficiency. Such shortcomings resulted in a lack of trust from the general public and an absence of dialogue and cooperation with the civil society.
With the E-day being assigned for the 7th of June 2009, the MOIM was faced with a massive logistical, legal, and organizational task to carry out the needed within the legal timeframe and allocated budget and to ensure a secure, transparent, free, modern, and democratic election.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
As a result of a new management approach adopted in administrating elections, the MOIM achieved a large number of successes which have raised the benchmark for any future elections. These successes paved the way to further reforms and better management due to a strategy that enhanced the capturing of lessons learned and the celebration best practices. The main successes that the MOIM was able to achieve could be classified into four main components. The four components were its ability to manage change that was posed via the new law, carryout administrative reforms that facilitated the delivery of tasks, inclusion of civil society in decision making, and transforming the image of the MOIM from a distant public administration to a more interactive and responsive entity that continuously shares information vastly. Appreciating the challenges of coping with changes, the MOIM was aware of the need to raise awareness, build the capacity of its administration, and develop enabling policy frameworks. Examples of its ability in managing change, the MOIM was able to establish the SCEC team and its SOPs in a very short period of time not exceeding three months. Another example would be the training of over eleven thousand polling officials and ministry administrators on new electoral procedures. Valuing the effectiveness of technology in speeding up administrative tasks, the MOIM successfully utilized new technologies to achieve the desired results. With the abolition of the voter card and the adoption of the national ID card as the tool for voter identification, the MOIM equipped 26 national ID application centres across the 26 electoral districts with digital fingerprint stations in comparison to the ink based mechanism. This mechanism decreased the rate of application rejections thus allowing the MOIM of producing around 7 thousand IDs per day in comparison to the 300 per day rate that used to exist. This new approach provided the vast majority of citizens with the ability to practice their voting right on E-Day. In addition to logistics, the MOIM ratified numerous agreements with domestic and international NGOs in order to contribute to the process through provision of expertise and follow up on ministry’s work. It is important to mention that it was the first time ever that the MOIM had hosted an office for the civil campaign for electoral reform thus enabling direct day to day interaction and cooperation with ministry officials. Last but not least, the MOIM successfully transformed the image of the ministry by adopting an open door policy, both directly and indirectly. Through the establishment of the media centre, the elections hotline, and the Observers Coordination Unit, various stakeholders had the chance to interact, inquire and comment on issues related to elections. The MOIM also launched two websites as means of communicating with citizens and stakeholders; the civil status portal that enabled citizens to track their ID status http://www.omsar.gov.lb/moi/Search.aspx , and the elections website www.elections.gov.lb that included up to the minute information on elections (laws, GIS maps, decrees). All of the above achievements, contributed to the successful administration of the 2009 Lebanese parliamentary elections in a new interactive, more inclusive, modern, transparent, and democratic manner.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
With a thorough understanding of the challenges ahead, the MOIM administration appreciated that need to orchestrate a new approach to managing elections. In contrast to previous elections that relied heavily on a traditional closed approach to managing elections, the MOIM through the Minister adopted a new approach based on inclusive teamwork and cooperation among internal and external stakeholders. Although elections management falls under the responsibility of the MOIM, the latter made sure to include external stakeholders in the process. For this purpose the MOIM hosted the civil campaign for electoral reform in order to have its direct input at the various stages. It is also important to mention that the MOIM also established the media centre which formed the hub for journalists wanting to gather and enquire information about the process. Adding to the above, the ministry also signed a number of memorandums of understanding with international organizations such as the European Commission, the United Nations Development Prorgamme, and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems and the United States Agency for International Development. These agreements allowed the ministry to benefit from the organizations’ expertise and their resources. This joint effort was orchestrated through the development of a master plan that identified needs and ways of cooperation among the various stakeholders. The master plan which was completed through the active input of the various involved ministry directorates (Civil Status, political affairs directorate, Internal Security Forces) formed a living document that was continuously visited for updating and discussions with external expertise and civil society representatives. Among the mechanisms established for sustaining the teamwork, donor coordination meetings were held regularly to assess progress and address obstacles and challenges faced. Such meetings were chaired by the Minister’s advisor and attended by the chief technical advisors managing the support of the donor organizations. Another example of the team work and collaboration among the various stakeholders was the formation of the Observers Coordination Unit which coordinated the work of national and international observers as well as providing journalists with the needed permissions. Taking into account the recommendations put forward in terms of encouraging women to participate, the MOIM supported the Lebanese Women Council (LWC) to initiate its project that aims at increasing women awareness on their political rights and enhance their participation in the electoral process. Through activities, LWC was able to reach women in most of the Lebanese regions and inform them of their rights and their role in the electoral process. Last but not least, it is worth mentioning the collaboration with the private sector represented by the advertising agencies. Advertising agencies showed a high level of cooperation is assisting the ministry in running and developing media awareness raising and educating campaigns relatively at cost.

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.
Understanding the requirements to achieving the objectives below, the MOIM made sure to pull together all available resources although little, and reached out to external stakeholders for assistance. The initiative was launched through the development of a comprehensive master plan that identified the needs of all the ministry directorates involved and the new approaches that need to be taken up in order to administer elections. The master plan reflected the ministry’s continued commitment to increase integrity in the electoral process, ensure that the conduct if elections is secure, transparent and accountable, improve participation and credibility of processes being used, and making the voting process more convenient and responsive to the needs of voters. Upon drafting the master plan on the 20th of October 2008, it constituted the main internal planning tool for the Ministry, but also served as an instrument to inform donor organizations about the funding needs to improve coordination mechanisms between concerned stakeholders, including NGOs and INGOs. The formulation of the master plan relied on a number of facts and data, mainly being the lessons learned from previous elections, reports and recommendations concluded by concerned bilateral and multilateral organizations in previous election, and the new electoral law that was passed in parliament. The strategy adopted to achieve the objectives was broken down to nine components addressing the key areas that would enable effective management of elections. The eight components addressed, voter registration mechanisms, effective management of polling stations, the establishment of the supervisory commission for electoral campaign, building the capacity of stakeholders involved, enhancement of communication, outreach, and sharing of information. The strategy also addressed the security measures that needed to be taken, as well as the mechanisms to coordinate work with observers, and finally the mechanisms to conducting a comprehensive elections evaluation. The master plan that was orchestrated by the Minister himself was a result of an internal and external collaboration which in turn ensured buy in from all parties and ensured that all stakeholders were aware of its rationale and background. This approach which constituted a first to administrating elections in Lebanon added to the ministry’s efforts to promote responsiveness, and transparency.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Finalizing the master plan and securing the funding needed for its implementation constituted the key development steps of the initiative. Prior to sharing the master plan with the donor organizations, the MOIM had to pull together the identified needs of the directorates involved and then carry out further elaboration to each of the eight components so that they are transformed into activities that could be carried out and evaluated. Upon finalizing the master plan, the MOIM signed a number of memorandums of understandings with international organizations who showed interest in assisting the MOIM in its mission to implement elections. The international organizations who signed agreements with the MOIM were the UNDP, USAID/IFES, EC, and the German Embassy in Lebanon. These agreements resulted in providing support to the MOIM via expertise and funds needed to set up a number of functions that enhanced the democracy of elections and its transparency. Moving to the key implementation steps, the MOIM took the first step by setting up a physical space next to the MOIM premises that hosted the political affairs directorate responsible for administering elections as well as the supervisory commission for electoral campaign (SCEC) responsible for monitoring the candidates’ media and finance campaigns. The actual premises was launched in a record time whereby it was fully operational by the 7th of April 2009 hosting all the staff involved in elections (SCEC members, Political Directorate staff, observer coordination unit (OCU), Hotline team, and the elections media center). A major implementation step was the setting up of the SCEC and its mandate; its launch which took place on the 22 of December 2009 marked the start of a big task of establishing its bylaws and scope of work. During the campaign period, the SCEC issued three reports on its media monitoring, highlighting coverage and violations of elections law. SCEC also sent warnings to media outlets and five cases were referred by it to the court of publications. Such measures also contributed to enhancing accountability. Another important factor of the implementation phase was the launching of the media awareness campaigns which covered three phases. The first phase was the voter registration campaign that informed voters of the abolition of the Voting ID card and the adoption of the national ID as the voting ID. The campaign also streamed citizens to check their ID production status via the website http://www.omsar.gov.lb/moi/Search.aspx established for that purpose and encouraged citizens to check voters’ lists. The second phase which was launched a few weeks prior to elections, aimed at raising the awareness of citizens on procedures on E day and encouraging them to vote freely. The last phase of the campaign which took place post elections aimed at raising awareness around accepting results and to stress equal rights to all citizens regardless of who won. In all three phases, the MOIM mobilized various means of communication among which are TV, radio, newspapers, internet, SMS, newsletters, website, billboards, and leaflets; this enabled the message to reach the largest number of citizens possible.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Establishing a new approach to election management at the Lebanese MOIM faced many challenges especially with the reforms passed through in the new law. Both factors added to the challenge and added to the number of obstacles encountered. Obstacles encountered were several, main being, coordinating the work with donor’s, the tight timeframe, lack of resources, civil administration taking the lead in election management rather than the traditional military approach, last but not least the country’s security situation and fragile stability. As it was the first time that the MOIM adopts an inclusive plan to managing elections through sharing the master plan with donor organizations and the civil society, coordinating the work with them constituted a challenge in the sense of integrating outsiders into the process and identifying who fits where and how best they are able to contribute. The challenge also constituted in convincing donors to put forward moneys to support the MOIM. Such obstacles were overcome by establishing donor coordination meetings that ensured smooth flow of communication among the various parties and a continuous assessment of the situation. Taking into consideration that the new law posed many changes to administering elections, the MOIM was faced with the obstacle of staff resisting change and or not willing to accept changes to their business as usual. Such challenges were overcome by bringing staff on board and building their capacity in administering elections, this along with open lines of communication with senior management resulted in staff being less resistant at a later stage. it is also important to note out the fact that the elections were given an image of a civil nature in contrast to previous ones; this in itself posed a challenge to the MOIM as it had to continuously work on maintaining a direct line of communication with civil society and an open door policy that enabled citizens to feel part of the process. On another level, the MOIM was faced with the fragile security situation of the country, for this reason the MOIM devised a security master plan that was coordinated with the Lebanese army. The security plan resulted in preserving a peaceful scene during elections period. In addition to the above, the MOIM with the support of French officials developed a traffic management plan that secured a smooth flow of traffic on E day with minimum number of incidents. It is also important to note out that the MOIM had set up a free hotline that enabled citizens to call in and report issues thus allowing the MOIM to react accordingly.

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
Given the importance of carrying out elections in its set date in the best possible manner, the MOIM made sure to pool resources from various places and in various forms. Going through all three forms of resources; financial, technical, and human needed for election management, the MOIM allocated the necessary budget and personnel but also reached out to donor organizations for assistance. For this purpose the MOIM set out a framework for corporation with three international organizations that are the UNDP, EC, IFES/USIAD and the German Embassy in order to advance elections management and to ensure a more transparent, modern, and responsive manner in running elections. The form of contributions put forward by the organizations covered both financial and technical aspect in kind and direct forms. With the support of the UNDP, the MOIM was able to carry out a number of activities and set up a number of functions that further enhanced election management. Among these activities were the procurement of 35 digital fingerprint machines that lead to a dramatic speed in issuance of IDs, the setting up of an elections hotline and data entry unit, setting up of the media centre that formed the hub for sharing of information and announcement of results, training eleven thousand polling officials on the new electoral procedures that are of international standards. Last but not least, the UNDP supported the MOIM in developing the media awareness campaign thus helping in voter education. Moving to the corporation with the European commission, the MOIM was able to secure the necessary resources to set up the supervisory commission for electoral campaign, and the procurement of the necessary polling station equipments that are of international standards. Last but not least was the cooperation with the IFES/USAID that provided the MOIM with the support to establish the Ministry elections website www.elections.gov.lb which helped in the dissemination of information and results. IFES also played a major role in developing a training manual and guide to polling officials, it also supported the production of the voting and counting procedures guide. IFES also supported the MOIM in setting up the observers’ coordination unit that facilitated a clear relation with domestic and international observers. The total number of international observers reached almost 200 with delegations coming from the European Commission, The Carter Centre, NDI, Turkish Government, and the Arab League. The total number of domestic observers reached almost 2500 through a network of 57 NGOs and 7 universities. The total amount that went into elections reached up to twenty four million U.S. Dollars with almost half of the amount being covered by international organizations either in kind of cash donations. This contribution indicated a high level of trust that the organization had in the MOIM will to deliver a transparent, free, and fair elections.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Noting that election management has been ranked as a success by domestic and international observers as well as stakeholders directly involved in its delivery, the MOIM has taken the needed steps to document and establish the necessary grounds to sustain such methods of working with the determination to transfer this approach to other functions of the Ministry. Given the systematic approach devised by the MOIM i.e. the master plan and the internal and external coordination mechanisms set in place, the MOIM was able to set forward a solid example of best practice. Best practice which is based on six main components; identification of key issues such as the needs of the directorates and the resources needed to deliver election of international standards, followed by the development of a clear SMART strategy represented in this case by the development of a master plan, and then moving on to assigning roles and responsibilities as means to establishing good governance and accountability mechanisms. The fourth step was the development of an action plan that is directly linked to a time and budgetary frame that facilitated the ability to move forward. Upon initiation of work, the MOIM valued the importance of monitoring progress and continuously assessing the work as it went along. This ensured that work did not divert from the main objectives but this also meant that necessary changes to working methods were developed according to needs. Last but not least, the MOIM as well as the external stakeholders onboard carried out an evaluation of their work. The evaluations aimed at identifying lessons learned as well as the success stories that could be built on for future elections, or endeavors. This structured mechanism to tackling tasks formed the foundations to how the MOIM would tackle on other functions in areas other than elections. On a different less measurable level, the MOIM was able to regain the general public’s confidence in the government’s ability to administer elections with complete neutrality maintaining an equal distance from all parties. This appreciation by the general public in addition to the systematic mechanisms used and transparent policies adopted resulted in setting a high benchmark to how elections would be administered in the future.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
By far, the biggest impact of the new management approach adopted by the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities lied in the latter’s ability to regain the general public’s confidence and trust in the government to administer free, fair, democratic, and transparent elections. This trust and confidence gained has facilitated the Ministry’s efforts to developing a culture of democracy and participation. It is also important to mention that due to the systematic new approach to administering elections, the ministry’s capacity as an institution has been strengthened and the various ministry directorates have become more synchronized in the sense that more sharing of information has been taking place. Another important impact to mention is the standardization of work methods related to elections. Maintaining a transparent process in working and following modes of international standards has resulted in better management of resources. Nonetheless, it is equally important to state the lessons learned and highlight issues that should be addressed for future events. Among the main lessons learned was the need to allocate more time to building the capacity of staff and develop the adequate employee incentive schemes. Addressing such matters would result to less resistance to change and encourage staff to get onboard faster. Another important lesson learned was the need to allocate more time and identify more ways to transfer knowledge of the external stakeholders to ministry staff. Taking into consideration the tight time frame allocated for election implementation, staff wasn’t always able fully comprehend and integrate the new mechanisms brought in by the external experts into the ministry’s usual processes. Last but not least, utilizing technology in administering elections has shed light on the ministry’s limitations in fully exploiting technology. This limitation is mainly due to the lack in number of staff and within the ministry, another reason was the absence of specific department responsible for maintaining the use of technology or its integration into the daily work. In most occasions it was staff leading on other aspects taking the extra step to handle another task linked to technology.


Institution Name:		Lebanese Ministry of Interior and Municipalities
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Fadi Abilmona
Title:		Project Officer
Telephone/ Fax:		009613 283187
Institution's / Project's Website:		009611 751601
E-mail:		fadi.abilmona@gmail.com
Address:		Lebanese Ministry of Interior and Municipalities
Postal Code:
City:		Beirut
State/Province:		Beirut
Country:		Lebanon

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information