$491 million disbursed
for food and basic needs

Assistance provided by WFP to refugees and Lebanese citizens

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) spent $491.3 million under its Country Strategic Plan (CSP) for 2023 to help Lebanese citizens and more than 1.3 million Syrian and Palestinian refugees meet their food and other basic needs, according to the WFP’s ‘A Year in Review’ report.

The assistance provided to Lebanese nationals, included among other things, cash transfers worth $85 million targeting 416,000 individuals through the government’s Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) as well as $107 million transferred to 412,000 citizens under the National Poverty Targeting Programme (NPTP). Nearly 309,000 Lebanese benefited from in-kind food assistance.

Assistance provided to refugees included cash-based transfers totaling $187 million, according to the report.

“Spurred by October 2023 Gaza war, Lebanon faced rising tensions and conflict along its southern borders displacing over 75,000 individuals. In response, WFP assisted 43,000 affected Lebanese and Syrian households with food parcels and cash assistance,” the WFP said.

The 2023-2025 CSP budget was reduced from $5.3 billion to $3.2 billion. WFP succeeded in mobilizing $468 million in 2023 contributing to a total of $632 million of available resources.

The donors for the 2023 WFP program were Australia, Austria, Canada, Cyprus, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malta, Norway, Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Switzerland, and the USA in addition to private donors and the Lebanese Presidency of the Council of Ministers.