'NAMAZEJ' Advises Citizens, Municipal Police on Mutual Responsibilities
The Lebanon Renaissance Foundation, a charitable and education NGO which operates in various fields, has been promoting the NAMAZEJ initiative, an illustrated handbook listing basic tasks that are not properly addressed by municipal police agents, most of whom are not informed about the extent of their duties.
“Initiated in 2015, NAMAZEJ aims to develop the 'human' factor in public bodies to better serve citizens. It reaches out, as a first step, to public institutions with a high level of interaction with the people, such as the Municipal Police, which has 3,000 agents deployed within 1,000+ municipalities all over Lebanon,” the NGO said in a press release.
Following a protocol signed in October 2014 with the Office of Minister of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR), and later endorsed by the Ministry of Interior, the Foundation designed, edited and printed the NAMAZEJ handbook.
Municipal Police “mostly attend regulating traffic around religious occasions and festivals. Their duties are in fact much wider and could have a positive impact on various situations arising all over Lebanon since municipalities are spread over the whole country,” the Foundation added in its statement.
As of its initiation in 2015 and to date, 11 presentation/distribution ceremonies were held across Lebanon in cooperation with Municipal Federations in Akkar, Chouf-Sweijani, Chouf-Shahar, Upper Metn, Amioun, Zahle, Sidon-Zahrani, Jezzine, Tripoli, Mina and Bikfaya.
These ceremonies were followed by billboard campaigns, made available by Pikasso S.A.L, as a means to raise awareness among citizens and encourage them to download the handbook, which would enable residents and municipal agents to perform their mutual responsibilities.
To date more than 1,100 municipal police agents and officials were handed copies of the NAMAZEJ handbook.
“The ultimate aim of the NAMAZEJ initiative is to improve the citizen’s quality of life, in all regions, and to trigger a very much needed change in local governance practices. This can be achieved by knowing respective rights and responsibilities,” the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation says.
The handbook can be downloaded at: http://namazej.org/download/Namajez.pdf
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