Member States Briefing in UN Geneva on the situation in Lebanon

Your excellency Permanent Representative of Lebanon, dear Wafaa, OCHA colleagues,

Excellencies, Distinguished delegates and participants,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for making the time for this briefing session on beautiful Lebanon.

Two weeks ago, I was introduced virtually to 2 touching human stories: A 59-year old homeless called ‘Youssef’ whose dream is to have a door that he can close when he sleeps and a roof above his head. Cathy, a 15-year old young girl, has another simple dream: to have a mobile phone to access online learning, that’s it! “I should be in school, studying, taking money from my parents and not the other way around”, she said. Both of them told me though that they love their country and they won’t give up on beautiful Lebanon.

These are heart-rending stories of 2 ordinary Lebanese citizens who, only a couple of months back, were part of the Lebanon working class but are now battling to meet their very basic needs and rights. Both asked to preserve their dignity. They constitute a small sample, yet representative of hundred thousand of Lebanese currently falling into multiple facets of poverty, unfortunately a grim reflection of the current deteriorating humanitarian situation in a country that has offered a lot to the MENA region and to the refugees. And at the same time still believing in a brighter future for Lebanon and so do I.

As you all know, Lebanon is grappling with an economic and financial meltdown, the disastrous impact of the Beirut port explosions, the spill over effects of the ongoing Syrian crisis and a political deadlock that is fuelling popular protests and blocking meaningful reform and recovery. The situation of ordinary people in Lebanon is worsening by the day.

Lebanon which was -not long time ago- a high middle-income country, is now facing one of its worst financial and economic crises in its modern history.

The country is in the middle of a phase of hyper-inflation, eroding the value of the national currency, people’s purchasing power and what remains of their trust in their leaders and institutions.

Between April 2019 and April 2021, the Consumer Price Index has increased by more than 208 per cent and the price of food and beverages increased by 670 per cent. Shops, no longer wishing to exchange their stocks for devalued currency are shutting their doors. Unemployment is increasing exponentially.

By any standard, these trends are moving at a speed that is no less than stunning. And for most families, the results are crippling: Over half of Lebanese people are now living in poverty.

Alarmingly, extreme poverty registered a threefold increase from 2019 to 2020, rising from 8% to 23% while the GDP is estimated to have fallen by 13.8% in 2020.  More and more Lebanese households are now unable to afford basic expenses like food, health, electricity, water, internet, fuel and education. In parallel, the availability of those services that are offered for the most part through the private sector, is also decreasing.

Increasingly, alongside Syrian and Palestine refugees, Lebanese families find themselves in need of direct emergency assistance.  Twenty-two percent of Lebanon’s families - almost a quarter of the total- were unable to meet their dietary needs by the end of 2020 [according to a joint World Bank-WFP assessment].

With decreased access to food and health services, acute malnutrition rates among children aged 6 months to 5 years was reported as increasing throughout the past two years (2019-2020), with infant and young child feeding practices falling short of the global standard. Recent studies show that over 85% of assessed families confirmed adopting negative coping mechanisms, including reduction in the number of daily meals and decreased (to no) consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables and meat.

At the moment, we estimate that more than 1 Million Lebanese (exactly 1,088,000 Lebanese) need relief assistance to cover their basic needs, including food. While it is planned to scale up the support to cover the needs of this new portion of Lebanese in need, a monthly average of over 500,000 people in need will remain unassisted between June and November 2021 due to a funding gap for food assistance is estimated at US$102 million for the 2nd half of this year. We need a quantum leap in funding to be able to help those people put food on the table.

These grim figures are set to worsen -abruptly - after a removal of subsidies on food and fuel imports if no strong social safety net is in place. This will further devalue the Lebanese pound and could again more than double the price of basic commodities.  Unfortunately, so far, the solution is not yet in place to protect the most vulnerable and we are working with the Government on an inclusive and comprehensive social protection plan. But that will take time to materialize.

The crisis in the economy, the currency devaluation as well as the governance vacuum has meant a breakdown of public services at a time when they are most needed. It is important to note here that in Lebanon, basic services are mostly offered through the private sector – representing 70% of the health and education sectors for instance. With the worsening economic crisis and the dramatic loss of purchasing power for the largest part of the population, those services are no longer available to the most vulnerable at a time when demand has significantly increased.

The public health system is stretched beyond its limit from the double impact of the economic crisis and the COVID19 outbreak. People are increasingly unable to access and afford healthcare amid the growing shortages of imported medicines and medical supplies. The loss of salary values has meant that skilled healthcare workers have migrated elsewhere.  

The good news though is that COVID-19 cases are declining in Lebanon – it is safe to visit Lebanon - and the vaccination programme is moving faster with the vaccines marathon plan.

Education in Lebanon has been equally hard-hit. According to UNICEF, at least 1.2 million children (including Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian children), have had their education disrupted for more than a year as a result of both the mass street protests and the COVID19 pandemic. Many children last attended school in person in October 2019 and are at risk of never realizing their full potential to become productive members of the society!

As with health workers, the devaluation of the Lebanese pound has significantly affected teachers’ salaries, pushing many to seek opportunities elsewhere.  Many families are unable to cover the cost of education, including the ICT requirements for online learning. In some rural and mostly deprived areas, children in public school cannot even afford the cost of a pen and paper. Lebanon has historically prided itself for leading the Middle East region with its high levels of literacy and numeracy, including for girls. These are now set to decline, with negative effects for its future human capital. And yet it can still come back very quickly.

Other services are also affected. As a result of the low fees collection and currency devaluation, water establishments that are in charge of water and wastewater services provision, are unable to ensure the maintenance of their assets without support from the international community. With no budget received since 2019, basic services provided by municipalities -from solid-waste management to municipal police- are also directly affected. 

In fact, the crisis affects everyone in Lebanon, not just the Lebanese! As you know, Lebanon hosts the highest number of refugees per capita of residents in the world, with over 1 million Syrian refugees and more than 270,000 Palestine refugees.

Our latest surveys show alarming levels of poverty among refugees, with 9 out of 10 Syrian refugees falling under the extreme poverty line –a 60% increase since 2019. Around 93% of Syrian households have an average debt of nearly LBP 1,836,000. Fully 96% of the Syrian families are food insecure. 

High levels of poverty are also reported within the 270,000 Palestine refugees living in Lebanon. In the camps, tensions are growing as families increase their pressure on UNRWA to not only continue to deliver regular services but also increase the relief assistance provided to them.

Refugee protection is a growing issue: With less money in hand, refugees are less able to prioritize costs for civil documentation and legal residency, putting them in an even more precarious ‘legal’ situation. Only 20% of Syrian refugees above 15 years old have valid residency permits.

Furthermore, sea departures are on the rise and there is a considerable risk of chain refoulement, with 11 boat movements (588 individuals) already reported in 2021. On 18 May this year for example, a boat carrying 63 Syrians reached Cyprus but was returned to Lebanon by Cypriot authorities.

With the generous support from donors, the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP – a response to the Syria refugee crisis in Lebanon) is funded by about 24 per cent of the total appeal of 2.7 billion, leaving a funding gap to address the impact of the Syria Crisis in Lebanon until the end of this year.

On the other hand, migrants, who traveled in the past to Lebanon in search for jobs and better living conditions, did not fare any better. According to a recent assessment by the International Organization for Migration/IOM, 70% of mostly Asian and African migrant and domestic workers living in Lebanon (about 400,000 persons) report being stranded in the country without work or the means to return home, and hence find themselves unable to meet their basic food needs.

With the steep socio-economic decline, social tensions between refugees and their host communities, as well as within Lebanese communities, are growing, sometimes erupting into violence.  Competition for scarce job opportunities and resources is one key source of tension. Another is the perception that international assistance is biased in favor of Syrian refugees, especially in the deprived Northern and Eastern regions of Lebanon.

For the UN and our partners, it is a matter of professional and legal responsibility to continue to assist and protect the Syrian and Palestine refugees in Lebanon. At the same time, we must exercise fully our “duty of care and duty to protect” in meeting the critical emerging needs of the Lebanese people and foreign migrant workers who are currently suffering the most. Failure to do this is not just a matter of fairness but equally one of “do no harm”.

Distinguished delegates,

The UN in Lebanon, with the support of our long-standing partners and generous contributions of donors- have been working tirelessly to mitigate and contain the effects of the profound crisis.

Flexible funding mechanisms have been crucial in supporting a rapid, coordinated and prioritized response to the 4th of August Beirut port explosions.

The response provided valuable lessons in this regard. The immediate set-up of a flexible coordination structure with UN agencies, international and national NGOs, local and national authorities as well as donor community, for joint needs assessments and collective responses was critical in ensuring the swift delivery of emergency assistance. Only 10 days after the explosions, we launched a UN-coordinated Flash Appeal to respond to the most urgent protection and humanitarian needs of 300,000 people affected by the explosions. Throughout the response, we maintained close and constructive coordination with the Lebanese Armed Forces as the Government declared the state of emergency and appointed the army as operational lead for the coordination of the response.

Overall, $316.5 million were provided through this rapid emergency response.

It shows again that together, when coordinated and focused on the most critical needs, we can make a difference. That’s why I am now leading an effort with the humanitarian community to address critical needs in the whole-of-Lebanon through a time-bound, prioritized and evidence-based humanitarian response strategy until a full fledge and inclusive social protection system is in place.

We are working on a country-wide Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA), which consists of a comprehensive data-solid mapping of the needs across all communities, with a specific focus on the Lebanese and migrant workers for whom we have less systematic data. Building a comprehensive picture will allow us to plan an effective, coordinated and prioritized response by identifying most pressing needs and gaps in the current response mechanisms. Pending the results of the assessment, we are using the data at our disposal to articulate Emergency Response Plans in four main areas, namely food security, nutrition, health, and education.

What is urgently needed, outside of the LCRP which remains a vital response framework to support and protect the Syria refugees, and will be included in the emergency response plan for the next 8 months is to prevent the surge of malnutrition among 400,000 children aged below 5 years old, and around 400,000 pregnant and lactating women. On the health side to finance the continued response to the COVID-19 pandemic and meet healthcare needs of around 1.5 million vulnerable Lebanese and 400,000 migrants that are currently not able to access affordable primary and secondary health care – including routine immunization or medicine for chronic illnesses. Finally, for the food security sector to cover the needs of about 1.08 million Lebanese and 146,000 migrant workers. The estimated total funding requirement is USD 300 million.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Clearly, a new humanitarian intervention will not be a lasting solution for Lebanon and should never become so.

This is why, alongside humanitarian efforts, the UN, NGOs and international community in collaboration with the Lebanese authorities continue to push for a rapid transition towards recovery efforts under the Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Framework (3RF). This plan entails a sharp focus on governance, social protection, social cohesion, inclusion and gender, health, education, housing, with special attention to Business recovery.

What makes the 3RF unique is that it has followed an inclusive and participatory process that has brought together - from the very outset and on an equal footing – the priorities of civil society, the Government, the private sector, the academia as well as the broad development and diplomatic community. It has been presented in many international fora as a best practice for accountability, inclusion and transparency.

We are now putting into place an Independent Oversight Body (IOB) led by Civil Society, a recognition of the role CSOs play in decision-making and in ensuring the priorities of the people are voiced out and translated into actions.

But the path to reform and recovery will take time.

Lebanon has been without a government since a while and almost ten months have elapsed since the resignation of the government in the wake of the Beirut port explosions on 4 August and over seven months since Saad Hariri was designated as Prime Minister tasked with forming a new government that has still not seen the light.

We have warned with increasing urgency that there is an urgent need for a government that can implement meaningful structural reforms

The lack of progress on investigations, including the Beirut port explosions, raise concerns about the judiciary system

The combined magnitude, depth and multi-dimensionality of the crises – political, socioeconomic and humanitarian – facing Lebanon is unprecedented and presents an increasingly challenging landscape for the United Nations to implement its mandates.

But ultimately the responsibility for avoiding the total collapse lies in the hands of Lebanon’s leaders.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Distinguished participants,

We are currently at a critical moment of Lebanon’s history. With the multi-faceted crisis, people are feeling defeated and uncertain. This stands in stark contrast with the dynamic energy and enthusiasm for change which marked the mass popular protests of October 2019, where a broad cross-section of Lebanese women, men and youth demanded a more inclusive, accountable and just Lebanon.

The Lebanese people have the skills and the capacity to recover from the multilayers crisis the country is going through. Building back better Lebanon is feasible and can still happen very quickly.

We need to show people that we care and that we stand by them. No one of us wants Lebanon to slide into a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe. This is why we are pressing hard the leaders to bring about change and to implement the much-needed reforms.  The situation places upon Lebanon’s leaders a clear, urgent and primary responsibility towards the people of the country. But the people are also looking at us for support.  

In supporting the most vulnerable Lebanese we give a chance to the Lebanese people who are committed to accountability transparency and transformation, through a social contract that helps not only preserve the beauty of Lebanon in its diversity but more importantly to put Lebanon on the track of sustainable development, social justice and prosperity for all.

Thank you.