WFP is working with the government of Lebanon to strengthen Lebanon’s social protection system, using experience from supporting Syrian refugees.
Background
At the start of the Syrian crisis, it was estimated that 27 percent of the Lebanese population – around one million people – were poor, living on less than US$ 4 a day, and 8 percent–300,000 people–were extremely poor, living on less than US$ 2.4 a day.
Through the National Poverty Targeting Programme (NPTP), the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) has placed poverty alleviation as a main priority; Lebanon’s first poverty-targeted social assistance programme. The objective of the NPTP was to provide social assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable Lebanese households based on transparent criteria that assess each household’s eligibility to receive assistance, given the available public resources.
In 2014, the provision of food assistance to vulnerable families was introduced to the NPTP.