In July 2009, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Lebanon commissioned the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) to carry out a research on access to basic urban services (BUS) in the Adjacent Areas (AAs) of Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon. The research work program started in August 2009 and ended in April 2010. For the purpose of this research, AAs are informal Palestinian gatherings that are located on the boundaries of official Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

The BUS covered are in the sectors of:

1) Water Provision

2) Sewerage

3) Solid Waste Management

4) Electricity

5) Road Networks

The research looks at access to basic urban services from a governance perspective, focusing on dwellers’ strategies and mechanisms; their web of relationships with other public and private stakeholders; and the role played by each stakeholder.