Japan will donate more than $2 million to support the rehabilitation of various buildings and public spaces in Lebanon, the Japanese Ambassador to Lebanon, Takeshi Okubo, has announced.
“Japan will support, through a grant of over 2 million US dollars to UNHABITAT, the rehabilitation of 10 multi-story buildings, public spaces, and community infrastructure severely damaged by the Beirut blast,” Ambassador Okubo said in a tweet on Friday.
UN-HABITAT (the United Nations Human Settlements Programme) is a U.N. program that promotes transformative change and sustainable urban development in cities and human settlements around the world.
Between 2014 and 2019, the program carried out a total of 24 projects in Lebanon, focusing on inclusive and sustainable urban development, improved planning systems and frameworks, and effective urban crisis response.
The total value of these projects is about $22.4 million.
Following the August 4th Beirut explosion in 2020, UN-HABITAT acted to provide 800 vulnerable households, or 4,000 people, with shelter for four months. Around that time, the Japanese Red Cross was raising money for Lebanon to support relief efforts in Beirut.
Earlier this month, Japan donated $1.5 million to restore food safety laboratories and animal quarantine centers in Lebanon.
This was days after the Japanese government allocated $747,000 to support thousands of underprivileged people in the crisis-hit country. Also in April, Lebanon launched a Japan-funded program to support small farmers.
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