Charbel is currently the Team Lead for Local Governance and Civic Engagement. He is in charge of engaging local communities, municipalities and RWEs to improve water conservation and management in Lebanon. At the start of the project Charbel drafted 3 foundational deliverables that were the basis for the future work of the LGCE along with the WSC PWS Charbel has developed and is implementing with the LGCE team in excess of 10 grants to engage women and youth, school students, scouts and children with disability in awareness on water conservation and management, to reduce water use in irrigation, to engage university students in internships in the water sector, to engage communities in sanitation management, and to build the capacity of around 60 CSOs in the water sector, an activity that is a prelude to the new “localization” policy of USAID. In parallel and under the LG team, Charbel has worked on developing and getting signed an MoU between Bekaa Water Establishment and the Municipality of Qaraoun. The MoU will create a partnership between the aforementioned parties to improve water management. Charbel also leads, on behalf of WSC, the task force for working with municipalities at the MoEW. Charbel manages the Citizen Science activities with AUB IFI under the AUB contract with the WSC ID team. To support construction works, Charbel organizes with LG team and gives presentations at all townhall meetings in municipalities where the engineering team are implementing their projects.

Charbel has worked as freelance consultant over several periods of his career with the World Bank as Social Expert and Environment for the review of Environment and Social Frameworks, Plans, EIAs for COVID recovery, SMEs, road and wastewater projects financed by the World Bank in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq. Charbel did a review of the Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) of the World Bank in several countries to assess the impact and challenges of the GRM. He was also contracted by GIZ under a World Bank financed project to train, private sector companies, investment funds and other entities in Iraq, on the requirements of Environment and Social Framework (ESMF) of the World Bank and review application for funding to support SMEs from the perspective of the ESMF.

Charbel was in charge of engaging municipalities, RWEs, civil society and the private sector (dairy producers, farmers and industries) in order to affect change in water user behavior and bridge an existing gap between water utilities and users for service improvement. Charbel managed the grant component of LWP (7 grants) including technical review, approval of deliverables, compliance verification and contract management. He was also in charge of developing, with the help of a consultant team from AUB IFI, Water Security Assessments and Water Quality Assurance Plans for water utilities in Lebanon and the Ministry of Energy and Water. Charbel was in charge of needs assessments for water infrastructure, development of priority investment plans, coordination and engagement with municipalities, NGOs, utilities, schools and the general public. Organized and spoke in more than 50 awareness raising events such as town hall meetings, schools, farmer schools, meetings of industrialists, festivals, etc. Supported water-financing mechanisms through soft loans to encourage sustainable water management with the Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation and the Central Bank.

Charbel was working on assessing, developing and implementing policies for wastewater treatment in urban and rural areas through knowledge creation and through building the capacity of the public and private sector in wastewater treatment and reuse technology and financing of water infrastructure in the MENA region. He drafted a report and organized trainings on Best Available Technologies for Wastewater Treatment in Rural areas. He developed material and organized trainings on wastewater treatment, wastewater effluent discharge standards, and wastewater reuse in agriculture in several countries. He collected best practices from four countries on options for wastewater reuse. He also provided support to work on general and environmental aspects of desalination, and legal aspects of water management. Charbel organized regional trainings for ministries, utilities and the private sector, with the assistance of international experts on Public Private Partnerships for water such as potentials for private investments in water in the MENA, removal of barriers and solutions to facilitate investments in water and wastewater infrastructure, and PPP/PBC contract development and management. He also organized a regional study tour, in Spain and the Netherlands, to promote water management, wastewater treatment technologies, including natural solutions, suitable for the MENA region. He provided support to the communication component of the project through provision of technical material for dissemination. Charbel’s duties also included development of TORs for consultants, review and approval of deliverables, and follow-up on progress under the contract.

As program manager (projects in excess of 7 million dollars), Charbel has managed the Sustainable Land Management program including the flood risk and water harvesting projects, medicinal and aromatic plant conservation and support to trade for local development projects. He was in charge of budgets, planning, recruitment, procurement, oversight of two other projects out of the 3 in the program, coordination with donors, UNDP and the Ministry of Agriculture. Charbel provided technical support to the development and implementation of sustainable land management policies and strategies, the construction of water infrastructure for flood risk mitigation and for irrigation (in excess of 2 million dollars in consulting and construction contracts). Under land conservation, Charbel has worked with food production coops all around the country to support their sustainability and reduce rural migration. Charbel has also brokered and facilitated the creation of a financial mechanism for financing energy management and renewable energy projects between the European Commission, Banque du Liban, commercial banks, UNDP and the Ministry of Energy and Water. This work has led to a major expansion of the work of the Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation, the creation of several renewable energy companies and the large expansion of the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors in Lebanon through the creation of a soft loan mechanism with Central Bank, commercial banks and funds from the EU. He was also co-author of the green jobs assessment for Lebanon that identified possibilities for creating jobs in the “green” sectors a first in the region.

The main role of Charbel was stakeholder engagement and communication in 10 countries around the Mediterranean. During his work with SMAP III TA, Charbel has identified needs, provided technical assistance to the public and private sectors in the MENA region in order to mainstream environment and sustainable development in national policies and private sector operations. His main achievements are a roadmap for greening the business and industrial sectors in the southern Mediterranean region and raising awareness on green banking. He has worked with ministries, national agencies, industry, tourism and the banking sectors. He mobilized through GIZ, funds for the Lebanese Association of Industrialists (ALI) and worked with ALI on waste recycling solutions for the Lebanese paint industry to reduce water pollution and built the capacity of industries in implementing the REACH directive to enable exports containing chemicals from Lebanon to the EU. Charbel was also in charge of contracting consultants, developing TORs, and following up on project and deliverable progress.

The project implemented requirements of the Ramsar, Barcelona and Biodiversity conventions. As project manager, Charbel was in charge of budgets, planning, recruitment, procurement, coordination with donors (AFD), UNDP and the Ministry of Environment. The project involved institutional analysis for wetland conservation policies in Lebanon including legislation review, stakeholder analysis, preparation of new legislation and amendment of existing, development of management plans for two Ramsar sites, development of business plans, capacity development for the stakeholders, awareness raising, legislation and policy development, networking and experience sharing among the regional partners, and fund-raising. The work of the project was undertaken in close cooperation with concerned stakeholders such as ministries, local municipalities, and private landowners.

From 1992 to 2002 Charbel worked as an engineer with different Lebanese (PDP, ECG) and American (ICM) consulting and contracting companies in the design and construction of water, wastewater and irrigation infrastructure and networks in Lebanon and the Gulf countries. He has developed experience in construction through the management of work on site and in design and supervision.