Territorial Approach

Over the past years, Mada has developed a “territorial approach”, with a long-term focus on the Akkar, Hermel, and Donnieh regions of North Lebanon. Mada’s work in this area has been inspired by a vision of establishing a future Natural Park. Mada analyses and takes into consideration history, socio-economic structure, environmental resources, and the stakeholders involved in the territory (local citizens, NGOs, committees, authorities, institutions, schools, etc.).

Taking into account the socio-economic disparities between areas, this approach to development aid intends to build acceptable, coherent and sustainable initiatives that have a long-term impact. Mada places a continuous emphasis on studies and analysis to understand the territory’s needs and evolution as well as on capacity building to reinforce skills and provide useful tools for community mobilization.

Mada is acting as a local development agency in close cooperation with municipalities and local communities. As such, during the past twenty years Mada has been committed to working in Akkar, Hermel and Donnieh regions with the main purpose of strengthening the dialogue and mutual trust among the various actors, while mobilizing local communities around a common vision for the territory. Various projects were implemented in educational, environmental, and socio-economic fields in close partnership with local communities. Currently, Mada’s work is focused on four sectors: rural development, education, environment and entrepreneurship which are going to be detailed on the following pages.