Client's Challenge

Lebanon’s public sector has long grappled with fragmentation, obsolete processes and a general culture of opacity. Coordination and policy coherence are undermined by overlapping or conflicting responsibilities between authorities, making it difficult to address complex problems, and causing accountability and oversight issues. Engrained state capture also hinders collaboration and coordination by disincentivising officials to work in the public interest. The urgency of addressing this came to the fore in 2020, when Lebanon was hit by economic collapse and the COVID-19 pandemic, both of which demanded a joined-up, multi-stakeholder response, effective oversight, and strong citizen engagement.

Approach

Siren helped the Lebanese state promote multi-stakeholder coordination and collaboration by strengthening oversight mechanisms and introducing cloud-based collaboration tools that enable the delivery of Cross-sectoral services services requiring multiple verifications, validations, or approvals.

• Cloud-based collaboration tools: Siren created a digital platform called IMPACT that brought relevant stakeholders together in comprehensive workflows that allowed multi-directional communication and the sharing of data for decision-making. This streamlined bureaucratic processes and eliminated unnecessary delays. Officials’ discretionary powers were limited by assigning them roles in automated workflows and processes. Dedicated portals facilitated citizen access to services and enabled non-governmental organisations to work with the government on service delivery. To promote uptake, Siren trained relevant public sector staff in how to use the platform’s tools in their daily tasks, and conducted mass communication campaigns to educate the public about the sectoral portals.

• Strengthening oversight: IMPACT empowered Lebanon’s primary oversight agency, Central Inspection, to carry out its job effectively by providing it with real-time data to audit the public sector. Siren additionally trained Central Inspection staff on data-driven audit methodologies. IMPACT thus acted as a force multiplier for an agency long deprived of sufficient human and material resources. To engage citizens in oversight, Siren worked with the government and Central Inspection to make relevant public data available and easily accessible on an open-data site. Feedback, reporting and whistleblowing mechanisms were also created through which citizens could channel their concerns and complaints.

Outcomes

As the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn unfolded, IMPACT offered innovative modules to aid crisis management and governance. The Lebanese government used these modules to coordinate fair and transparent vaccination campaigns and social safety net provision. The platform has significantly driven inter-agency collaboration and pushed traditionally antagonistic state institutions together to collaborate on issues of national importance.

Collaboration

• User base of 20 ministries, 1,077 municipalities, and 1,500 mukhtars

• 110+ public entities digitally audited by Central Inspection

• 100+ NGOs supported offline registration processes for sectoral digital services

• 10+ CSOs participated in the design, implementation and audit of various IMPACT modules

Social protection

• 580,000 households applied via IMPACT

• $177+ million cash assistance delivered to-date

Public health

• 15 million mobility permit requests submitted during lockdown

• 2.5 million individuals vaccinated with 1 or more doses

• IMPACT-issued vaccine e-certificate recognised in the European Union’s Digital COVID Certificate system

• 6,330 lives estimated to have been saved as a result of the lockdown and vaccination measures, both digitised on IMPACT

Recognition

• The Lebanese Order of Merit, Issued by Presidential Decree 10565/2022

• IESE Certificate of Excellence for Public Sector Transformation Awards 2023