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As can be seen from the sketch above, a leading active role will be reserved to university undergraduates, who will be called upon to search, collect and analyze all the information that will be needed to build up the eighteen sector plans that make up the National Plan. They will be assisted and guided in this task by a wide range of volunteer citizens’ associations, members of liberal professions, international consultants and experts, municipal authorities, and local political parties, as well as ministry staff and directors. But the most significant contribution in this domain is expected to be provided by the CDR, the Center for Research and Development which has replaced, since 1990, the previous Planning Ministry.

All the citizens will be strongly encouraged to take part in the plan building process by registering with us, choosing one specific sector they are particularly interested in, and forwarding by email their ideas and their suggestions. These will be reviewed by an “Advising and Evaluation Committee” composed of representatives of the main groups mentioned above. The recommendations that are approved by the Committee will be taken into consideration and get included in the Plan.

Most of the research work will be conducted on the web. The citizens can contact us anytime by email. We can arrange for certain meetings and discussions to take place in our office.

7.     WHO SHOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING THE ELABORATION AND THE EXECUTION OF THE PLAN?

The readers who have followed me so far have certainly not failed to realize the complexity of the project that faces us. I am sure that, on several occasions they must have been tempted to object to the fact that we expect some young, relatively inexperienced, and untrained undergraduates to assume such hard and complex undertaking.

To allay their fears, let me state at the outset that these undergraduates will not be left to tackle their job alone. Each team of undergraduates will have an experienced team leader who will coordinate and supervise their work.

In addition, the advising and evaluation committees mentioned at the end of the preceding paragraph will provide the undergraduates with advices, suggestions, and recommendations.

8. HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO STUDY AND ELABORATE THE NATIONAL PLAN?

We shall strive to complete the entire project by the end of May 2013, one month before the start of the parliamentary elections. The following tentative time tables should guide us during the entire period of the project.

9. WHAT ARE THE BROAD OBJECTIVES AND THE ADVANTAGES OF THE NATIONAL PLAN?

The implementation of a result oriented Lebanese National Plan will allow the Authorities to:

1. Substitute a policy of crisis prevention through forward planning to the haphazard reactions to crisis that have been the norm in our Administration.

2.     Carry on a sustainable and balanced national economic development and pursue an effective employment growth policy.

3. Plan for an effective and scheduled overhaul of the country’s infrastructure.

4. Allow all citizens an easy access to superior quality education and health services.

5. Promote Social Inclusion and assist the underprivileged members of society.

6. Lay down the foundations of an effective, fair and balanced fiscal strategy.

7. Build some sound financial and monetary policies

8. Consider a new approach to public debt containment.

9. Review and agree upon a clear privatization strategy.

10. Accurately evaluate the prospects of the latest oil and gas discoveries along the shores of Lebanon and pursue actively the confirmation of our rights to exploit these resources.

11. Share with our DIASPORA the task and the means to reform our Society and our Institutions.

12. Effectively combat corruption in all its forms.

13.- Last, but not least, the LNP will serve to convince the Authorities to recognize the natural rights of the citizens,  associate them directly to the governance process through clear and transparent dissemination of information,  and encourage them to monitor, on a regular basis, the implementation of the National Plan. In this way we aim to fulfill the recommendation given by Thomas Jefferson to his people in 1781 that we quoted at the outset of this report, and heed the call made two centuries later by President John Kennedy: "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

10. Additional Notes

I would like to add the following comments:

1.     I believe that building a Plan in nine months (before the June 2013 elections) is doable:

1)      Half of the eighteen sector plans already exist, in some form or another.

2)      A great deal of information on the subject is available in Lebanon and abroad. The job will consist in seeking it, collecting it, and analyzing it. That can be done by the undergraduates during the first twenty one weeks of the project (see paragraph 8)

3)      Provided we have the support of the University heads, recruiting the necessary number of undergraduates for such a mission should not be particularly difficult.

4)      Securing the cooperation and the participation of economists, experts, ministry directors and their staff, international institutions, foreign and local NGOs, employers associations, and employee syndicates, even political parties, is of course a large undertaking, though I believe that it can be done.

5)      The need to ask literally everybody to pitch in is obvious when we consider the present fragmentation of our society. Unless everybody or nearly everybody becomes conscious of the necessity of having a PLAN, we shall not be able to implement it successfully.

2.     In the end, we should look at it this way:

Let us not fool ourselves. There is no doubt that the Plan that will emerge on the 30^th of May 2013 will be far from perfect, however:

                                                      i.       It will be the first attempt at a comprehensive and detailed Lebanese Plan since President Fouad Chehab’s groundwork in the nineteen sixties.

                                                    ii.       Nothing prevents us from modifying or improving upon it as we go along during the four years period of its implementation. No Plan is ever final and perfect.

                                                  iii.       It is absolutely essential that the execution of the Plan should be monitored by Civil Society on a monthly basis.

                                                  iv.       The Plan will enable the government to ascertain as accurately as possible the funds that will be needed to implement all the proposed initiatives.

                                                    v.       In short, the Plan will serve to identify the initiatives needed to achieve the projected objectives and the means that should be set aside for that purpose.

George Sabat (ACMA)

9/4/2012