Low-income households are bearing the brunt of economic crisis in Lebanon as the majority of people in the country are unable to secure their social and economic status, according to a report by Human Watch Rights.
“The Lebanon national government and World bank should take urgent action to invest in a rights-based social protection system that ensures an adequate standard of living for everyone,” the report urged.
The research has revealed concerning levels of poverty and food security in the country caused by decline in economic activity, political instability, and rising costs of living. The country’s social protection system is highly fragmented leading to the lack of protection for the most vulnerable, reinforcing social and economic inequalities.
“Millions of people in Lebanon have been pushed into poverty and have cut back on food,” said Lena Simet, senior economic justice researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Three years into the economic crisis, the government has not acted sufficiently, and the existing system reaches an exceedingly small share of those with low incomes, leaving the majority entirely unprotected,” she added.
There are existing programmes funded by the World Bank. However, these do not have significant coverage and instead narrowly targets households in extreme poverty, leading to the exclusion of a majority of the population.
Between November 2021 and January 2022, Human Rights Watch conducted a representative survey of 1,209 households in the country to gather information about people’s economic conditions and their access to basic needs and rights. The survey revealed that the current system fails to provide during the crisis. Almost 70 percent of households struggled to make ends meet and were behind expenses as compared to the year before.
Despite this, less than 5 percent in the country received some sort of government assistance. It was reported that households that are female-led, have a disabled individual or are low-income would have difficulty in making ends meet.
While nearly 94 percent of the lowest income quintile reported difficulty paying for essentials, 26 percent of those with the highest incomes also did.
There are multiple factors that create an obstacle in the attempt for individuals to meet basic needs; rising rate of unemployment, depreciating currency, rising inflation and removal of subsidies for medicines and fuel.
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has said that to fulfil the right to social security, countries are required to meet a minimum level of protection for those who need it and then progressively realize universal coverage.
“Establishing a well-designed social protection system fulfills important human rights obligations to an adequate standard of living and to social security,” Simet said. “It creates a powerful tool to help reduce poverty and economic inequality.”
In more than one out of four households, an adult had to skip a meal due to the lack of money to obtain food or other resources. 43 percent of households surveyed said that an adult went a full day without food.
The United Nations estimated that in late 2021, more than half of the population had been pushed into poverty since the start of the economic crisis in 2019.
The result of low incomes and triple digit inflation is that majority of people are unable to afford goods and services.
“Nobody else is helping,” a 54-year-old woman who lives with her sick mother said. “We’re not even getting food aid. I signed up for the ration card but no one helped. The [ration card] application was straightforward, I don’t think the questions were difficult. At the end I got an SMS confirmation. I was happy, I thought someone is going to help, but no one did. I think they are liars. I think they’re playing us,” reported Human Rights Watch.
Several people reported receiving assistance from UN agencies, humanitarians or religious groups due to the lack o state-provided social protection.
Follow us on
