World Bank approves $300 million for poor people in Lebanon
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Alaina
- . May 27, 2023
- . Update: May 27, 2023 7:50 pm
The World Bank, an international financial institution fighting poverty through sustainable solutions, has approved a $300 million additional financing to help poor people in Lebanon, a country in Western Asia.
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On Friday, the World Bank said in a statement that the financial aid would provide cash payments to help poor families in Lebanon. Jean-Christophe Carret, the World Bank Country Director for the Middle East Department (Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria), said that the aid would help poor and vulnerable people in Lebanon who are suffering due to the economic crisis.
The World Bank’s director for Mideast said, “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.”
Under the additional $300 million in financing, the World Bank would provide cash transfers to 160,000 poor and vulnerable households for 2 years. Vulnerable people would receive up to $145 per household.
The World Food Program (WFP), an international organisation within the United Nations (U.N.), has been handling the project in partnership with Lebanon’s Ministry of social affairs.
Recently, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN Refugee Agency, and WFP said that they would start making financial aid payments to refugees in Lebanon in USD, with an amount of $125 per family per month.
UNHCR and WFP officials said in a statement that the aid would help refugees in Lebanon. However, Lebanon’s caretaker Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar opposed this move. Hajjar said that “paying Syrian refugees in dollars would make them stay in Lebanon.”
Earlier, the World Bank approved a $246 million financial loan to Lebanon to provide emergency cash assistance to poor people in Lebanon.
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The Lebanon economic crisis has affected people in the country. The crisis started in 2019, and it was further exacerbated by COVID-19 and Beirut port explosion in 2020.
