Press conference in the government palace today (Hussein Beydoun)
Today, Monday, the Lebanese government announced the start of payment cash assistance Within the emergency program for the social safety net “Aman” funded by The World BankThe program will reach the beginning of 150,000 Lebanese families from the poorest families, provided that the program will provide about 680,000 individuals. cash transfers A monthly amount of $20 per family member (6 per family maximum), and a fixed amount of $25 per family, which also covers direct school costs for 87,000 children aged 13-18, to reduce school dropouts.
And economic experts in Lebanon look at this step with concern, which would increase the burdens andDebtswhile the Lebanese state is in a state of cessation of payment, and because of the randomness in implementation, distribution and waste that it includes, in light of the continuous disregard for addressing the basic problems of curbing the collapse of the exchange rate and the high cost of living in the first place, and at a time when all this aid loses its value in conjunction with the upward trajectory of fuel prices food andcommodity and life services.
Aside from considering aid as scarce, experts stop at the number of families that will benefit, at a time when more than 75% of Lebanon’s population lives in poverty and needs assistance.
The World Bank said, in a statement, that this emergency assistance will provide urgent relief to Lebanese families living in extreme poverty, and the total number registered on the support platform has reached 583,000 families, 200,000 of whom met the initial screening criteria for the “Aman” program, and has begun On February 17 last, home visits were made to families to check the eligibility of potential beneficiaries.
The World Bank confirmed that “the World Food Program is managing this verification process, which will continue until mid-June, and in order to secure cash transfers to those who are entitled to it as quickly as possible, verification processes, determining eligibility and payment are currently being carried out in parallel.”
He pointed out that “the World Food Program will pay cash transfers to eligible families through local money transfer agents, and it is expected to cover 150,000 families in full by June 2022, with the transfers being paid to all families with a retroactive effect from January 2022 for a period of one year.
The World Bank renewed its call on policy makers in Lebanon to proceed with the adoption of an economic and financial recovery plan expeditiously, and to implement urgent and long overdue reforms, in order to avoid the complete destruction of its social and economic networks and stop the dangerous bleeding in human capital.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced the start of payment in a press interview held today, Monday, in the Grand Serail, with the participation of Minister of Social Affairs Hector Hajjar, and Director of the Mashreq Department at the World Bank, Saroj Kumar Jah, considering that “this step has become more than urgent in these difficult circumstances that Our country is going through it, and it constitutes a specific support that takes into account the available financial capabilities and the priority of going to the families in need.”
For his part, the Minister of Social Affairs said that “this support alone is not the solution, and we hope to quickly launch the economic recovery plan, stabilize the dollar exchange rate, and release depositors’ money and their monthly pensions.”
For his part, the Director of the Mashreq Department at the World Bank said that “the third-party monitoring of the project is a prerequisite for releasing funds from the World Bank.”
Kumar Jah sent 3 basic messages to officials in Lebanon, in which he considered that “there is a need to reach the launch of an economic recovery plan, and the government must adopt a reform plan for the electrical sector immediately, and that the implementation of these programs must begin without delay, after launching such programs. You can get support from the international community.”
Kumar Jah announced that “the World Bank has about 800 million US dollars being used in many projects in Lebanon, and we asked the Lebanese government to review and reallocate these resources. There are projects that were designed before the crisis and are no longer a priority, and today it is required to allocate them to more priority projects for the Lebanese people.” .