At the end of 1976, almost two years after the painful and destructive events, especially at the level of infrastructure, public institutions and ministries, which were suffering from a severe shortage of human resources and equipment, and after security was restored by the entry of the Joint Arab Forces, the government deemed it necessary to establish a new public body that would be able to assume the enormous task of rebuilding Lebanon.

On the other hand, friendly countries wanted to help Lebanon in its reconstruction efforts, but they needed a reliable interlocutor to negotiate and open channels through which the aid would pass, especially since the Ministry of Planning no longer existed.

Thus, the CDR was established by Decree-Law No. 5 of January 31, 1977. The tasks of the CDR were defined as three main tasks: Developing a plan and setting a timetable for reconstruction and development, ensuring the financing of submitted projects, and supervising their implementation and utilization by contributing to the process of rehabilitating public institutions to enable them to assume responsibility for implementing a number of projects under the supervision of the Council of Ministers.

The CDR, unlike other authorities, is an independent institution with expanded powers and is directly subordinate to the Council of Ministers through the Prime Minister, which enabled it to avoid the red tape in administrative matters that was cut in order to speed up the reconstruction process and allow time to revitalize and rebuild the public institutions that were destroyed during the events.

This explains the importance of competence, integrity, training and experience as criteria for selecting the leaders of this advanced institution, which has been and will continue to be a valid reference in terms of planning, financing and implementing projects. The Council for Development and Reconstruction evolved during the regimes that followed that era, as we see below, which gave it greater responsibilities in this area.

In the hierarchy of institutions, the CDR is the main beacon of the Council of Ministers, following its instructions and coordinating with the relevant ministries.