The Lebanese Non-Governmental Organization Forum (LNF) was established in July 1991¹ to coordinate the activities of Lebanese NGOs concerned primarily with relief and development (social, health, and educational) issues. The decision to establish the Forum was taken in 1988, in the midst of the Lebanese war, when several NGOs from different communities, religious and secular, agreed that a framework was required to bridge the gap between communities and citizens separated by war. The NGO Forum has been selected, by ministerial decree², to fill one of the five seats reserved for most representative NGOs, in the Economic and Social Council, which was established to allow participation of the different of the different social and economic sectors in the formulation of the state policy. The NGO Forum is also member of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA-Geneva), CIVICUS, CIVICUS Arab Network, the Arab NGO Network (Cairo), and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (Copenhagen).