The southern Lebanese town of Anane is home to around 1,000 Lebanese residents and 200 refugees. The community has been grappling with the severe degradation of living conditions and increasingly lengthy power outages, forcing the municipality to rely on private generators for backup power. However, with the ongoing devaluation of the national currency, the municipality can no longer afford to operate and maintain public streetlights, causing an increasing sense of insecurity after dark and fueling growing intercommunal tensions, especially following a series of recently reported security incidents.  In response, USAID’s Community Support Program (CSP) is rehabilitating 143 existing streetlights in Anane and installing 26 new solar-powered fixtures. To ensure the sustainability of this USAID assistance, CSP is collaborating with Lebanese service provider Quick Solutions to provide the municipality with an automated municipal financial system. In parallel, CSP is training municipal council members on the use of the system as well as on accountability and public spending transparency. CSP also provided the municipality with a desktop computer on which the financial system was installed, in addition to an uninterrupted power supply (UPS), printer, and external hard disk drive for saving data.

“This initiative will enhance the performance of the municipality by training its employees on all the applicable laws and accounting principles, which will facilitate the proper functioning of public streetlights,” said Leena Sleem, one of the trainees.