74% of Lebanese population affected by poverty: UN body

ANKARA

Poverty in Lebanon has "drastically increased" over the past year and now affects about 74% of the population, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) said on Friday.

Based in Beirut, ESCWA in its report titled Multidimensional Poverty in Lebanon: Painful Reality and Uncertain Prospects said 82% of the Lebanese population lives in multidimensional poverty, which takes into account factors other than income such as access to health, education and public utilities.

It said that in a report published last year, ESCWA found the headcount poverty rate jumped from 28% to 55% between 2019 and 2020.

But according to today’s updates, the multidimensional poverty rate in Lebanon has nearly doubled from 42% in 2019 to 82% in 2021.

Against this backdrop, ESCWA Executive Secretary Rola Dashti reiterated her call for the establishment of a social solidarity fund to alleviate the country’s humanitarian crisis.

She recalled that in 2020 ESCWA put forward a proposal: the 10% richest decile in Lebanon, who held nearly $91 billion of wealth at the time, could bridge the funding gap for poverty eradication by making annual contributions of 1% of their net wealth.

Inflation soared to 281% between June 2019 and June 2021 in Lebanon, the study said, adding that currency depreciation and inflation has led to a significant decrease in living standards.

The new policy brief showed that the share of households deprived of health care increased to 33%, and the share of those unable to obtain medicines climbed to more than half. Extreme multidimensional poverty affects 34% of the population today, it said.

“Mitigating the impact of the crisis requires solidarity and cooperation between all segments of the Lebanese society,” Dashti said.

Besides political crisis, the Arab country is facing economic difficulties for the past two years. Things got worse after the Aug. 4 explosion last year at Beirut's port, killing at least 216 people and injuring more than 6,500.