Needs of refugee crisis
get 45 percent funding

Over one million people received food assistance

Lebanon has received $1.24 billion, or 45 percent of its 2017 appeal for a response plan drawn up to mitigate the impact of Syrian refugees, according to the Inter-Agency Coordination Office annual report.

The response to the Syrian crisis is guided by the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP), jointly developed by the government, United Nations, national and international NGOs, and donors. The latest plan covers a four-year period from 2017 to 2020.

The top six LCRP donors were the US ($369 million), Germany ($355 million), European Union ($125 million), UK ($114 million), Norway ($50 million), and France ($31 million).

Over one million individuals received food assistance, both in kind and cash based. The Food Security and Livelihoods sectors were the only two sectors that surpassed their beneficiary target, by 15 percent and five percent respectively.

The Food Security sector was funded up to 62 percent of its 2017 appeal. As for the Livelihoods sector, its focus on the supply side of the labor market, and continued to expand in 2017 as partners provided short term market-skills training to a more people than initially planned.

The LCRP’s overall funding dropped slightly for the second year in a row, sliding one percent compared to 2016, signaling donor fatigue.

The funding also included more than $207 million to strengthen service delivery, policy development, capacity building, and institutional stability in the public sector. It represented a 20 percent increase since 2015.

The report found that protection risks of the vulnerable population remained high, with a lack of legal status for displaced Syrians and ongoing violence against youth.

Meeting basic humanitarian needs continued to be difficult but access to these services has improved. For example, access to education services improved, with around 430,000 students enrolled in formal public education across the country for the 2017/2018 school year, an eight percent increase compared to the previous school year.

The employment status of the vulnerable population deteriorated, with only 56 percent of displaced Syrian men aged 15-64 doing some work in 2017.

Around 2,300 jobs were created or maintained in local businesses and 6,500 people engaged in labor-intensive public work programs.

The LCRP’s four priorities in 2017 were to ensure protection of vulnerable populations, provide immediate assistance, support service provision through national systems, and reinforce the country’s economic, social, and environmental stability.

Funding remained focused on short-term humanitarian needs and limited progress has been made in attracting predictable and multiyear funding.

The report recognized improvement in the tracking of the impact of the response through an inter-sector monitoring and evaluation, and greater accountability through improved tracking of referrals to services.