Infrastructure investments across Lebanon are creating much-needed employment opportunities while making streets safer, improving drainage and roads, and strengthening municipal services, through the International Labour Organization (ILO)'s Employment Intensive Infrastructure Programme (EIIP) funded by the German Government through the KfW Development Bank.
The EIIP projects are designed to ensure that investment in infrastructure translates directly into benefits for people. They use employment-intensive approaches and Local Resource-Based Technology (LRBT) to generate short-term employment opportunities under decent working conditions while addressing practical infrastructure needs identified in local communities.
A joint ILO and KfW delegation recently visited project sites in the capital Beirut and northern Lebanon to review implementation progress and see the results of this approach first-hand. The projects range from rehabilitating sidewalks and public spaces to routine road maintenance, drainage works and the rehabilitation of municipal facilities.
© ILO
In the Salim Slem area of the capital Beirut, rehabilitation works are improving sidewalks, public spaces and the pedestrian network. The intervention is intended to enhance pedestrian safety and accessibility while generating short-term employment opportunities through employment-intensive works.
© ILO
In the towns of Kherbet Char and Ain Tanta in the Akkar district in northern Lebanon, workers are carrying out routine road maintenance and other infrastructure works. In Kherbet Char, activities include the construction of retaining walls and town-clearing works. In Ain Tanta, excavation works are under way in preparation for the construction of a canal, alongside town-clearing activities.
The delegation also travelled to Minnieh in northern Lebanon, where infrastructure is being rehabilitated at Wadi Mokhada. Workers there are constructing reinforced concrete walls for a channel and undertaking steel-bending and concrete works. As at the other sites, employment-intensive construction methods are being used to put job creation and decent working conditions at the heart of infrastructure development.
At the Municipal building in the northern town of Deddeh, the delegation visited a completed project where rehabilitation works have been finalized and the facility handed over. The intervention has improved the municipal facility, supporting the delivery of municipal services in the area.
The projects illustrate the wider impact of the ILO-KfW partnership: infrastructure spending is being used to build and rehabilitate physical assets as well as support livelihoods and promote decent work at a time when employment opportunities remain vital for communities across Lebanon.
The approach aims to ensure that investments leave behind both stronger infrastructure and strengthened communities, while demonstrating how labour-intensive methods can respond to local needs and create tangible opportunities for workers.
