Situation analysis and context
Impact of the crisis on food security situation
Over the last eight years, the effects of the protracted Syria crisis have severely affected food security in Lebanon. The Food Security and Agriculture sector supports three population cohorts who have been affected differently since the beginning of crisis. Directly affected displaced Syrians and Palestinian refugees from Syria are considered the most vulnerable, respectively representing 1.5 million displaced Syrians and around 28,800 Palestinian refugees from Syria in need. The population of Palestinian refugees from Lebanon is estimated at 180,000 people in need. The Lebanese community has been affected at the micro and macro levels with about 10 per cent living under extreme poverty and more than 20 per cent under poverty (estimated about 1 million people).1 Seventy-three per cent of smallscale Lebanese farmers also require agricultural support2 to increase food production.
The 2018 Vulnerability Assessment of Syrian Refugees (VASyR) results demonstrated some improvements with an increasing trend in the proportion of food secure households, up to 10 per cent in 2018. The proportion of the marginally food insecure households increased by 4 per cent up to 57 per cent from 2017, while the proportion of moderate and severe food insecure households decreased by 4.5 per cent to reach 33.8 per cent in 2018 compared to 2017. The proportion of those moderately food insecure also improved despite the protracted nature of economic vulnerability due to increased debts, less income opportunities, lack of sufficient food and/ or resources to purchase food.
The consumption and dietary diversity of displaced Syrians also improved. On average, households with poor and borderline food consumption decreased by 5.3 per cent reaching 33 per cent in 2018 (38 per cent in 2017).
Gender analysis of heads of households, indicate femaleheaded households are burdened with a larger share of poor food consumption and lower dietary diversity than male-headed households.
The analysis of households’ expenditure on food items decreased by four per cent reaching 40 per cent in 2018,3 compared to 2017. Households general expenditure reached about US$ 111 per capita per month on average in 2018 compared to the US$ 98 in 2017. Field discussions undertaken during the VASyR 2018 linked the recent advances in food security to improvements in economic conditions as a result of WFP’s increased food assistance and introduction of MultiPurpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) in 2018.4 The VASyR results also showed that the average monthly expenditure on food per person was US$ 44.
Besides, female-headed households showed significant overall improvements compared to 2017 across all food security and vulnerability indicators, with the proportion of female-headed households below the Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB) decreasing from 82 per cent in 2017 down to 68 per cent in 2018. Despite improvements, female-headed households remain more vulnerable compared to maleheaded households. This could be partially explained by the fact that 55 per cent of female-headed households lack a working household member, compared to 27 per cent of male-headed households.
On average, 32 per cent of displaced Syrian households do not have a member working within their household (in the month prior to the survey) while 68 per cent reported having at least one member working.5 The absence of working members is correlated with the food insecurity with 43 per cent of severely food insecure households reporting in 2018 having at least one household member compared to 86 per cent of food secure households reporting the same. Food secure households have relatively more reliable sources of income such as working in the agriculture, environment, construction and/or services sectors, whereas food insecure households lack remunerated activities, relying more heavily on debts, credit and food assistance. In terms of poverty analysis, even though 69 per cent of displaced Syrians remain below the poverty line, there was a 7 per cent decrease compared to 2017. In addition, restriction on access to labour, lack of income opportunities, constrained access to food, and their ability to pay rent remain. The proportion of households unable to cover their Survival Minimum Expenditure Basket (SMEB) decreased by 7 per cent in 2018 to reach 51 per cent of households.
Meanwhile, as per 2018 VASyR results 85 per cent of severely food insecure households and 59 per cent of moderately food insecure households fell below the Survival Minimum Expenditure Basket due to limited resources and income opportunities. The percentage of households buying food on credit increased by 2 per cent to reach 79 per cent in 2018 (77 per cent in 2017).
The 2018 VASyR results showed that, on average, 90 per cent of displaced households use some form of coping strategy to meet immediate food needs compared to 96 per cent in 2017 while 67 per cent of the households have acceptable levels of food consumption. Food-related coping strategies such as reducing the number of meals, skipping and reducing food rations can decrease a household’s long-term food security status. However, in 2018 households reported a general tendency to adopt less severe coping strategies, decreasing the percentage of households adopting crisis coping strategies from 55 per cent in 2017 to 51 per cent in 2018. This could be associated with regular food assistance and access to the multi-purpose cash assistance in 2018.
The protracted nature of the crisis affects the capacity of displaced households from attaining a medium to long-term sustainable source of income with 12 per cent of households’ still using emergency coping strategies such as children working in economic activities and begging and engaging in high-risk jobs/activities that may severely affect their wellbeing in the long term.
A baseline study conducted in 20156 among Lebanese households showed that 10 per cent of the population was vulnerable to food insecurity. These tended to be households headed by widowed, divorced or separated individuals.i In order to cope with emerging shortfalls, 56 per cent of the Lebanese households reported employing food related coping strategies, of which 5 per cent were heavily reliant on severe food coping strategies. Over 50 per cent of households incurred debts mainly to purchase food and acquire agricultural inputs. In general, 49 per cent of Lebanese households interviewed reported worrying about not having enough food and some 38 per cent reported eating fewer kinds of food groups, while others reported being unable to access healthy and nutritious food.7 To better inform decision making in 2019, food security among Lebanese should be further assessed and updated.
In 2018, the National Poverty Targeting Programme (NPTP) targeted 41,372 households (229,760 individuals) through different modalities including subsidised access to health and education services, with plans currently in place to increase the target to 45,000 households by 2020. In 2018, another 10,000 households (57,553 individuals) also received monthly food assistance. However, needs remain, including: increased funding, establishment of a Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM), poverty mapping, updating the poverty survey, targeting of additional host community members, raising awareness of programmatic concepts, and developing the monitoring and evaluation process. The role of the sector and more-so, that of WFP, will involve facilitation and strengthening of the National Poverty Targeting Programme’s systems and Social development centres (SDCs) to sustain the management of the Programme in future.
With regard to employment in the agriculture sector, Lebanon has historically been characterized by economic migration of foreign workers, particularly Syrians as seasonal labourers. The size of the labour force has continued to increase, including the use of child labour, due to food insecurity among other root causes including poverty, lack of income generating activities, limited access to adequate education and harmful social norms. According to the 2016 FAO Agriculture Labour study,8 26 per cent of farmers reported employing children under age of 18, while 16 per cent reported employing children under 15 years of age. During the past years, child labour in agriculture has been masked under family work support, where children may be exposed to serious risks to their health and safety. However, the current rate of child labour is 4.6 per cent compared to 4.8 per cent in 2017.9