Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

The aim of the programme is to provide food insecure refugees, including school-age children, and crisis-affected host populations with access to life saving, nutritious and affordable food throughout the year (Contribution to SDGs 2 and 17).

Expected results

Food-insecure refugees – including school-age children – and crisis-affected host populations have access to lifesaving, nutritious and affordable food throughout the year.

Target group / Beneficiaries

With the Austrian contribution, WFP will be able to assist populations affected by crisis, which includes both Syrians and Lebanese with unconditional food assistance through in-kind food to meet their basic food and nutrition needs. Total number of direct beneficiaries: 300,000 individuals (75,000 households) – 52% of whom are female and 48% male.

WFP currently counts six national and international cooperating partners for In-kind assistance throughout the country, including: Anera, Basmeh & Zeitooneh (B&Z), Caritas Lebanon, Development Culture and Leadership (DCL), Social, Humanitarian, and Economic Intervention for Local Development (SHEILD), and World Vision International (WVI).

Activities

Unconditional resource transfers to support access to food, through which WFP proposes to provide in-kind food assistance to meet the basic food and nutrition needs of targeted vulnerable Lebanese households. Beneficiaries will receive nutritious food parcels covering energy needs of kcal 1,950 per capita per day. Distributions are conducted once per month at forty dedicated distribution sites in each of the 26 districts in Lebanon. In certain locations and for specific cases, such as beneficiaries with limited mobility, door-to-door distributions may also be organized.

Context

Lebanon continues to host the largest number of refugees per capita in the world while its economy is now in its fourth year of consecutive economic crisis. The Lebanese pound has lost more than 94 percent since the start of the crisis, resulting in a drastic drop in purchasing power. Inflation by currency depreciation has been a major driver of increased poverty and food insecurity in the country, resulting in record-high prices of the food Survival Minimum Expenditure Basket (SMEB). On top of contextual complexity and the ripple effects of the protracted economic crisis, the consequences of the Ukraine war are further affecting food security in import-dependent Lebanon. Specifically, the country imports more than half of its monthly 50,000mt wheat needs from Ukraine. Since the start of the war (coupled with the effect of the depreciating currency), the local price of wheat flour increased by 177 percent followed by sunflower oil (86 percent) and sugar (64 percent).

The human impact of this crisis is sobering. Already in 2021, both the Lebanese and refugees suffered from high levels of poverty and food insecurity. As pertains to Lebanese population, over three-quarters have fallen below the poverty line including 36 percent under the extreme poverty line. Taking into account vulnerability criteria not limited to monetary poverty, such as food insecurity, 53 percent of the Lebanese, corresponding to 2.06 million people in 436,500 families, were found to be vulnerable and in need of assistance by the end of 2021 as a result of rising food insecurity, high unemployment, stagnating household incomes, and poor access to health services. Among them, 172,000 families (21 percent of the population) experienced deprivations that led to a severe vulnerability condition.