In a statement released by the World Bank, an additional $300 million in funding has been granted for Lebanon to aid the poor. The money would be used to provide monetary assistance to families suffering from the nation’s catastrophic economic downturn.
The additional funding comes two years after the World Bank authorized $246 million loan to Lebanon to help hundreds of thousands of its 6 million population in need of emergency monetary support.
Lebanon currently is faced with the worst economic and financial catastrophe, a country would ever experience. More than 75% of Lebanon’s population now live in poverty as a result of the economic breakdown, which started in October 2019. This catastrophe has been blamed on decades of graft and poor management of the economy by the country’s governing class.
“The additional financing will enable the government of Lebanon to continue to respond to the growing needs of poor and vulnerable households suffering under the severe economic and financial crisis,” Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank’s director for Middle East disclosed.
The new funding, according to the World Bank, would allow financial disbursements to about 160,000 families for 24 months, including incumbent recipients. According to the bank, eligible households would receive up to $145 each. The World Food Program and Lebanon’s Ministry of Social Affairs are both in charge of overseeing the project.
Since the onset of the economic crisis, the value of the Lebanese pound has decreased by more than 95%, putting Lebanese citizens including over a million Syrian refugees, in need of humanitarian assistance.
Aid For Syrian Refugees
Following a separate announcement, the U.N. agency for refugees and the World Food Program announced the commencement of aid payment to Syrian refugees in Lebanon in dollars, rather than Lebanese pounds, up to a maximum of $125 per household.
Since the collapse of the Lebanese pounds, United Nations’ organizations have been providing aid to refugees in Lebanese pounds, just to help bolster the value of the currency. Prior to the modification made this week, refugee households could only receive up to 8 million Lebanese pounds, thus an equivalence of $80 at the current currency rate, every month.
The recent shift was brought about by “the rapid depreciation of the pound, increased exchange rate fluctuations, and the strain on the financial provider to supply large volumes of cash in Lebanese pounds,” UNHCR and WFP officials released a statement to explained the sudden turn from paying aids in Lebanese pounds, to US dollars.
According to U.N. representatives, the Lebanese government was consulted before the adjustment was made. Hector Hajjar, the Interim Minister for Social Affairs in Lebanon, asserted that Beirut opposed to paying Syrian refugees in dollars.
“We rejected this because paying Syrian refugees in dollars would make them stay in Lebanon,” Hajjar said. He added that most of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon are “economic refugees and not refugees who fled because of security and political reasons.”
Since the beginning of the recession, and since the government’s forces assumed power in much of the Lebanon’s next door, attitudes against Syrian refugees in Lebanon have gotten worse.
Many Syrian refugees can now safely return home, according to several Lebanese. The Lebanese army conducted a number of searches on refugee camps in the past few weeks, detaining and frequently deporting anyone found to lack proper documentation for residency.
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