In the face of a prolonged economic crisis, growing demographic pressure from forced displacement, and the escalating impacts of climate change, the city of Saida (Lebanon) has launched a new process to strengthen its urban resilience. As Lebanon’s third-largest city and a strategic hub serving more than 250,000 people—including displaced communities from Syria and Palestine—Saida confronts structural challenges that demand coordinated, long-term solutions. Lebanon continues to host one of the world’s highest refugee populations per capita, while facing systemic constraints in urban governance. These include the absence of a national planning institution, but above all, inadequate resources to manage the municipality and lack of authority in certain important areas. As Tarek Osseiran, Head of UN-Habitat Lebanon, explained: “There is a lack of proper planning institutions and frameworks, lack of data, and a lack of national strategies or updated policies.”
UN-Habitat’s engagement in Lebanon has evolved since 2006, spanning housing and reconstruction, post-disaster recovery after the Beirut port explosion, and more recently, response efforts during the Gaza crisis. In Saida, previous work includes the development of an urban profile in 2019, and projects focused on heritage rehabilitation and technical support in the Old City.
The current initiative builds on a cooperation agreement between the regional network MedCities, the City of Barcelona and the Municipality of Saida, with technical support from UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Global Programme (CRGP) and the UN-Habitat’s Lebanon Office. Its goal is to equip Saida with the tools needed to assess risks, vulnerabilities and capacities, applying the City Resilience Profiling Tool (CRPT) developed by UN-Habitat. The CRGP team provides strategic assistance to design the methodology, coordinate data gathering and analysis, and support priority action development. Building on Saida’s experience in risk mapping and territorial management, the initiative reflects the city’s commitment to a more resilient future.
A technical training to strengthen local capacities
From 15 to 17 July 2025, a three-day technical training marked the launch of the resilience building project for the municipality of Saida. Co-organized by the City Resilience Global Programme (CRGP) of UN-Habitat and MedCities, and supported by Barcelona City Council, the session brought together key local and regional actors to initiate a collaborative resilience-building process.
The opening session featured the participation of Mustafa M. Hijazi, Mayor of Saida; Tarek Osseiran, Head of UN-Habitat Lebanon; and Josep Canals-Molina, Secretary General of MedCities, among other key stakeholders. The training began with the presentation of Saida’s urban profile and an introduction to the CRGP methodology, which will guide the next steps of the project. The representatives of the municipality of Saida described the specific governance, infrastructure, and social challenges shaping the city’s vulnerability landscape, such as limited institutional resources and capacities, infrastructure deficits, and coordination gaps across local actors. Building on the national and local context, the session aimed to align expectations and define the fundamental needs for effective disaster and crisis preparedness and resilience planning in Saida. Participants underlined the persistent gaps that undermine the city’s capacity to respond to crises in a timely and structured way. Despite existing policy frameworks and extensive knowledge, they noted that the municipality often finds itself unprepared when a disaster or a crisis strikes. “In these situations, we unfortunately lose a lot of time in intervening due to the lack of updated and structured action plans,” said Mayor Mustafa Hijazi.
To address these concerns, the CRGP team introduced the City Resilience Profiling Tool (CRPT) methodology and explained the steps of a diagnostic process. Grounded in Saida’s initial resilience profile published in 2019, the session explored local governance arrangements and participatory frameworks, alongside a comprehensive analysis of stresses, shocks, and challenges. Through intensive discussions, mapping exercises, and scenario planning, representatives of the Lebanese municipality began contextualizing the methodology for Saida and identified the main shocks, stresses, and vulnerabilities affecting the city through a series of collaborative exercises and technical discussions.
Among them, Mustafa M. Hijazi, Mayor of Saida, emphasized the importance of investing in forward-looking planning tools: “Risk mapping is needed for any stakeholder. We need to understand the data and scenario-based forecasts in order to set priorities, plan effectively, and make evidence-based decisions.” Her remarks captured the shared ambition of the group: to move from fragmented responses toward a coherent and actionable resilience roadmap.
During the second day, participants focused on defining indicators and identifying data sources to inform the city’s resilience assessment.
The City Resilience Profiling tool supports the diagnostic phase by providing a structured set of indicators that evaluate city performance across four critical dimensions: social, environmental, economic, and institutional. The representatives of Saida used a benchmark methodology to assess these indicators interactively and identify the data that is available or not, highlighting strengths and weaknesses in data collection. These sessions helped lay the groundwork for the selection of indicators and data sources that will be used to assess Saida’s resilience profile in a structured and holistic way. Following this exercise, Saida’s team presented their disaster risk assessment approach, developed in alignment with CRPT methodology and national planning frameworks. “We have a triangulated methodology that combines institutional data, community input, and field verification. The idea is to produce outputs and recommendations that support structured action plans aligned with national policies.”
The second day concluded with a review of Saida’s existing policies, plans, and initiatives, as part of the final step in the diagnostic phase. This exercise aimed to assess the city’s current resilience trajectory and identify which shocks and stresses are being addressed. A targeted gap analysis helped participants connect each policy or plan with the relevant resilience challenges, setting the stage for the development of actionable lines of intervention in the following phase.
On the third and final day, the focus shifted to integrating resilience planning into local governance structures. Discussions emphasized the importance of local ownership, inter-institutional collaboration, long-term vision, and effective communication. Participants recognized that strengthening internal and external communication is key to sustaining engagement, aligning stakeholders, and translating resilience strategies into action.
This final phase aimed to define long-term goals and outline a realistic path to achieve them—culminating in the drafting of the Recommendations of Actions for Resilience and Sustainability (RAR-S). These include clear lines of action, a theory of change for each, and implementation mechanisms tailored to Saida’s institutional capacities.
As a concluding reflection, participants revisited the outputs of the previous sessions and examined core challenges identified in group discussions—such as limited resources, fragmented planning, and the absence of standard procedures. In response, they proposed concrete aspirations: institutionalizing knowledge, strengthening the local workforce, improving coordination, enhancing data-driven decision-making, and ensuring consistent communication throughout the process. By consolidating all insights and aligning them with Saida’s realities, the training clarified the structure of the city’s resilience strategy and laid the groundwork for future action.
Closing reflections and next steps: From diagnosis to action
As the training concluded, participants expressed a renewed sense of purpose and shared commitment. Over three days, the CRPT methodology provided a flexible yet structured framework for collective learning and reflection. From mapping stakeholders and identifying shocks and stresses to selecting indicators and data sources, each step clarified Saida’s resilience challenges and capacities.
This foundation will guide the next phase of work: completing Saida’s resilience up-to-date and comprehensive profile. With continued support from UN-Habitat City Resilience Global Programme and MedCities—including data templates, facilitation tools and reporting guidance— the extended team will work toward finalizing this phase by the end of 2025.
Reflecting on the importance of this journey, Mayor Mustafa M. Hijazi shared his aspiration to leave this process as a legacy for Saida—one that lays the groundwork for a resilient local government and a more sustainable future for its residents. His words captured the spirit of the initiative: “This high-impact partnership between the City of Barcelona, MedCities and UN-Habitat is more than a technical collaboration, it’s a strategic investment in the city’s long-term resilience, empowering it to navigate risks and to turn challenges into opportunities”.
