The UN and humanitarian partners on Friday announced a $383
million Emergency Response Plan (ERP) for Lebanon to provide
critical life-saving assistance and protection to some 1.1
million citizens and migrants over the next 12 months.
For the past two years, Lebanon has been grappling with multiple
challenges, including economic and financial meltdown, political
deadlock, as well as the disastrous impacts of the August 2020
explosions in the capital, Beirut, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the
ongoing war in neighbouring Syria.
Najat Rochdi, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for
Lebanon, said many people now find themselves in situations which
were inconceivable even a year ago, when Lebanon was considered a
high middle-income country.
Families barely surviving
“More and more Lebanese households are unable to afford basic
expenses like food, health, electricity, water, internet, fuel
and education. For the most vulnerable among the poor, the impact
is extremely devastating, and surviving has become their only
goal,” she said, speaking at the
launch in Beirut.
A staggering 78 per cent of Lebanon’s population, or three
million people, are estimated to be living below the poverty
line, while extreme poverty has reached as high as 36 per cent.
Starvation has become “a growing reality” for thousands of
families, and acute malnutrition rates have increased
substantially among children under five.
For ordinary people, the situation is “a living nightmare”, she
said, causing unspeakable suffering and distress for the most
vulnerable.
Fearing the future
Ms. Rochdi told reporters about the countless “heartbreaking,
sometimes outrageous and shocking” stories she heard during
recent field visits. “I met breadwinner mothers who were
‘ashamed’ of waiting in lines to pick up their food parcel,” she
recalled.
“Never in their life have they depended on others to feed their
children, they told me with tears triggered by feelings of
despair. Yet, their main concern is to put food on the table and
get a job that pays the rent. They worry about the safety of
their children, about their education and their blurry future.”
Education has been hit hard. At least 1.2 million children,
including Syrian and Palestinian refugees, have had their
education disrupted for more than a year, according to the UN
Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
‘Hefty price’ of healthcare
Lebanon’s public health system has also been “stretched beyond
its limit”, Ms. Rochdi added, due to the double impact of the
economic crisis and the pandemic. Skilled health workers, as well
as teachers, have fled the country.
“People are increasingly unable to access and afford healthcare
amid the growing shortages of medicines and medical supplies.
Pharmacy shelves are empty, hospital stocks are nearly depleted
and home medicine cabinets are bare,” she said.
“Cancer patients are paying a hefty price, with the majority
forced to stop their life-saving treatment. And this is
unacceptable. This is like a ‘death penalty’ for all those whose
lives depend heavily on medication!”
Lebanon's health system is under severe strain as the country
struggles with a political, economic and humanitarian crisis.
Meanwhile, electricity shortages and the potential collapse of
water supply have affected critical services, including
hospitals, while jeopardizing the school year. Ms. Rochdi warned
that should the situation worsen, up to four million people will
be affected, including one million refugees.
Saving lives, alleviating hardship
The ERP covers 119 projects in the sectors of education, food
security, health, nutrition, water and sanitation, child
protection and protection against gender-based violence.
It also contains an emergency logistic operational plan focused
on establishing a fuel supply chain. The aim is to ensure
humanitarians can continue their work, but also to provide fuel
to critical health, water and sanitation establishments across
Lebanon, for a limited time period.
Activities are centred around providing direct support, including
distribution of food and cash assistance to some 500,000 people,
improved access to doctors for roughly 250,000 people,
nutritional surveillance and food supplements for 400,000 young
children and mothers, and provision of distance and in-person
learning to children.
This past August, donors attending a conference to boost support
for Lebanon, co-chaired by the UN and France, pledged $370
million to fund the plan.
“We count on their boundless generosity to urgently fulfil their
pledges to allow for timely delivery of the emergency plan’s
life-saving projects. The funding they provide will save lives
and make an enormous difference in alleviating the hardship of
the most vulnerable,” said Ms. Rochdi.
In the interim, the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund
(CERF)
in New York, as well as another fund focused on Lebanon, managed
by its humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, disbursed $10 million
last month to finance the fuel delivery component of the ERP.
