Today, the topic of good governance in the public administration has become an ultimate priority. Over the past three years, Lebanon has been facing multi-layered crises, impacting the social-economic abilities of its polities. The pathways for crisis recovery cannot disregard good governance practices, especially those related to the optimization of public sector performance. In this context, in 2019, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), represented by its Lebanon Office as well as the Rule of Law Programme Middle East and North Africa, joined forces with the Observatory of Public Service and Good Governance of Saint Joseph University of Beirut (USJ) and launched a series of discussions tackling decentralization and citizenship. Capitalizing on the success of these events, with the intention of linking the reform discussions related to democracy and citizenship to the necessity of promoting the application of good governance practices, KAS and USJ agreed on scaling up and sustaining the policy reform discussions to cover a vast range of public policies, each time focusing on the good governance aspect. Consequently, the “Good Governance Forum” was conceived in 2020, an initiative combining the endeavor of a reputable academic institution, the Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, to foster the principles of good governance with the values of citizenship and democratic participation of KAS. Since then, USJ and KAS have successfully implemented ten round-table discussions, covering the good governance aspect of public procurement law, the interlinkages between media, judiciary and good governance, looking closer at the forensic audit law, anti-corruption laws, the right to access to information law, the role of media in establishing good governance, the challenges of digital transformation in public administration, the parliamentary and municipal elections, and finally, the legal framework of the Lebanese renewable energy sector. For the past three years, this series of events and conferences covered multisectoral and multi-dimensional aspects of (good) governance practices in Lebanon. It brought experts together with academics, representatives from the public and private sectors, and political and civil society organizations, under the principles of inclusion, democracy, and objectivism. KAS hopes that this initiative will be recognized as a tool for advocating policies and raising awareness on the application of good governance practices in both the public and private sectors. While particularly counting on the active participation of young scholars in these discussion series, we hope that this forum will pave the road for a more inclusive, effective-driven good governance-oriented policy dialogue for all in Lebanon.
