Poverty gradually decreases while social safety nets are provided to the poorest.

Reduce social inequalities and build an equitable Lebanese society

A Prosperous Economy That Creates Jobs For All and Reduces Inequalities

1.“Eradicating poverty in all its forms remains one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. While the number of people living in extreme poverty dropped by more than half between 1990 and 2015 – from 1.9 billion to 836 million – too many are still struggling for the most basic human needs.” (UN-SDG Goal 1: No poverty)

2.Featuring a stark urban-rural divide, as well as massive urban ghettos of Syrian refugees in major cities, along with Lebanese migrating from rural areas in search of employment, Lebanon’s poor is a diverse collection of communities

1.Poverty rate / Extreme poverty rate

2.National poverty line

3.Access to education

4.Access to health

5.Access to finance

6.Poverty gap index

7.The Human Poverty Index (UN)

8.Multidimensional Poverty Index (UN)

1.The Lebanese Pound has lost 90 % of its value since October 2019, eroding people’s ability to access basic goods, including food, shelter, and healthcare. The Covid-19 pandemic compounded poverty and economic hardship

2.Due to the current crisis, 55% of the country’s population (approximately 2.7 million people) live below the upper poverty line and are struggling for basic necessities compared to 28% one year ago

3.Similarly, the rate of extreme poverty has tripled in the past year from 8% to 23% of the population

4.Banque Du Liban (BdL) has been subsidizing essential imports since November 2019, however when these subsidies are lifted it is estimated that the poverty rate will reach 70%-90%

5.Social safety programs are rare, fragmented  and inconsistent

6.Many families are forced to go hundreds or thousands of dollars into debt to cover unexpected expenses like medical bills

7.Children in poor families are less likely to be able to complete their education. This can trap them in low-skill, high-demand job-markets

8.Poor workers are often trapped in high-turnover or seasonal jobs with low wages

9.Women (especially heads of households) are often the most impacted by poverty

10.Lebanon has the world’s highest number of refugees per capita. The country hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees, more than 200,000 Palestinian refugees under UNRWA’s mandate, and 500,000 registered migrant workers from different nationalities, and many more undocumented workers

1.Multiple databases for the poor, absence of centralization, risk of double beneficiaries

2.Lack of a national social registry and a resulting lack of data on vulnerable populations. This deficiency makes it difficult for the government to identify and reach citizens in a timely manner when crises occur

3.The management and administration of targeted social safety net (SSN) programs is hindered by the presence of multiple fragmented actors, multiple data bases, and understaffing

4.Moreover, the absence of a consolidated database, the weakness of controls along with patronage networks allow for many irregularities: One family can be registered twice, other families are able to enroll deceased members in the programs

5.The Government suffers from acute financing problems and a resulting lack of funding

6.The reach of the existing targeted SSN programs (chiefly the National Poverty Targeting Program - NPTP) are insufficient to protect poor households against the effects of the multiple crises that Lebanon is experiencing

7.School dropout rates are increasing as the poverty rate is increasing because more children are working to support their families. This, however, produces a cyclic effect because poverty levels increase as education rates decrease

8.The influx of Syrian refugees overwhelmed Lebanese systems and resources thus increasing the number of people living in poverty in Lebanon

9.$4 billion of subsidies that were issued to alleviate the effects of the economic crisis are being wasted and not reaching their intended targets

1.2007: launch of the National Poverty Targeting Program (NPTP), the first poverty-targeted social assistance program in Lebanon which was implemented by the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers

2.Banque Du Liban has been subsidizing imports of essential goods since November 2019

3.December 2020: The Minister of Social Affairs and Tourism, Professor Ramzi Al-Moucharafieh stressed that he tried to strengthen the social safety net for the Lebanese through a 3 pillar approach in which

• “Firstly, we scaled up the number of the households beneficiaries of the “The National Poverty Targeting Program (NPTP) from 15,000 to more than 50,000 families
• Secondly, launched the National Social Solidarity program on April 8, as a part of the social emergency plan to alleviate the economic impact of the Covid-19 among the most vulnerable communities in Lebanon, where cash assistance of 400,000 Lebanese pounds was provided to about 300,000 families
• Thirdly, we are negotiating with the World Bank to secure social assistance for 120,000 families”

4.12 January 2021: the Lebanese parliament approved the $246 million World Bank emergency assistance plan “Emergency Crisis and COVID-19 Response Social Safety Net Project (ESSN) to support struggling families and strengthen the social safety nets

• This project aims to support the expansion of the National Poverty Targeting Program
• This project will provide 268,890 extreme poor Lebanese households (approximately 1.2 million individuals) with cash assistance for one year
• This project will be implemented by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers through the NPTP Central Management Unit in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and under the guidance of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Social Affairs

5.In May 2021, President Aoun signed a decree to send a draft law to parliament. The draft law aims to issue a “ration card” that would allocate $137 (in foreign currency) per household to a population ranging from 750,000 to 800,000 families, or 80% of their total number. The number of households includes all of those covered by NPTTP, the National Solidarity Program (April 8, 2020) and the WB’s ESSN. However the funding sources for the program have not been decided yet

Policy Action

1.Implement the National Bloc’s AFAAL Program to fight extreme poverty through direct monthly cash transfers that secure the basic needs of the family and help these families move above the extreme poverty line

• Make this cash assistance contingent on the commitment of the beneficiary to the following conditions:

1.Proof that the beneficiary has not left his job or stopped looking for work

2.Undergoing vocational training courses that equip him/her with the skills to enter the labor market

3.Proof of registration and follow-up confirmation of the educational attainment of his/her minor children

4.In cases of illness or disability, assistance will remain

2.Form a multi-party inter-ministerial Steering Committee (MoET, MoSA, MoF, MoI, BDL), under the Council of Ministers (COM) that can act swiftly, in charge of ensuring the proper execution of the Emergency National Poverty Targeting Program (sponsored by the World Bank)

• Establish a National Social Registry, based on a unique ID
• Set up streamlined and efficient disbursement processes, in partnership with existing stakeholders (WFP, Banks, other Cash transfer operators…), along with the required infrastructure

3.Establish a comprehensive national system for providing social assistance that secures basic social services such as education, health, housing, etc.

• Secure universal health insurance coverage by introducing a mandatory Healthcare Card, that qualifies every card holder to receive the same package of basic preventive and health treatment services, where the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) will cover the contribution fees for those below the nationally agreed poverty or extreme poverty levels (Cf Issue. Universal Health Coverage, O10.h)
• Place a tax exemption on rents for low-income housing, and impose fees on landlords who have vacant apartments
• Develop public-private partnership programs (PPPs), which are long-term contractual relationships between the government and a private provider for the delivery of education infrastructure and services, where twinning projects are introduced between private and public schools (Cf Issue. Secondary Education, O11.a)

4.Fund and empower the National Social Security Fund and the Emergency National Poverty Targeting Program

5.Empower Lebanon’s informal social networks to encourage societal solidarity, as Lebanon has one of the most unequal wealth distributions in the Arab region and the world

6.Dissociate social protection from job status through universal entitlements in order to offer best coverage at all levels