The Secretary General of MedCities, Josep Canals and their Director, Oriol Barba, travelled to Lebanon the 7^th of March to visit the Lebanese municipalities and members of the organization, with the aim of determining their priorities and to provide the support needed by MedCities to municipalities.

The visit aimed as well to boost the role knowledge transfer center KTC as the platform of dialgogue among Lebanese members as well as retaking direct contact with members of MedCities after the pandemic situation.

The mission was composed of the MedCities General Secretary General as well as the Director, accompanied by a local team composed of the Director of the Union of Al Fayhaa engineer Dima Homsi and the Senior Consultant engineer Abdallah Abdul Wahab.

The objetives of the visit were:

– To follow-up the projects that MedCities implements in the country.

– To assess the priorities of Lebanese members concerning the activity of MedCities.

– To know first-hand the situation of Lebanese municipalities in the current context in Lebanon.

– To evaluate the expectation of Lebanese members with regards to the General Secretariat and the KTCs.

– To hear from Lebanese members about any other matter related to the organization.

In this sense, some bilateral meetings were carried out with the local Lebanese team, as well as with:

• The Director of Al-Fayhaa KTC, Dima Homsy.
• The president of the Union of Al-Fayhaa, Mr. Hassan Ghomrawi, the mayor of Tripoli, Dr. Riyad Yamak.
• The mayor of Zgharta-Ehden, Mr. Antonio Franjieh.
• The President of the Municipalities Union of Dannieh, Mr. Mohammad Sadieh.
• The Care Taker of the Municipality of Mina, Mrs. Iman Rafeii.
• The Mayor of Jounieh, Mr. Joan Hobeish.
• The Mayor of Saida, Engineer Mohammad Al Saoudi.
• The President of Hariri Foundation for Sustainable Human Development, H.E. Bahiah Al Hariri.
• The President of the Union of Municipalities of Jezzyne region, Mr. Khalil Harfouch.

MedCities Secretary General, Josep Canals, summarizes the mission by saluting the strength and determination of all of the Mayors especially in frail states and offering MedCities as the platform for Political Dialogue among the Lebanese members in order to share challenges together and to identify commom projects to seek financing to. Renewable energy sources and tourism appeered as main concerns among mayors.