Since 1948, the United Nations has been in Lebanon providing support and helping vulnerable Lebanese through decades of hardships.
The United Nations Information Centres (UNIC) just released its United Nations Annual Report detailing the results of its efforts in Lebanon in the year it witnessed unprecedented and devastating crises.
From helping in the response to the pandemic to providing emergency aid in the wake of the Beirut blast, the UN country team has stood by Lebanon in its plight.
“2020 was an exceptionally challenging year for Lebanon, marked by a series of socio-economic and political hardships that wreaked havoc on the people of Lebanon and continue to submerge the country with unprecedented challenges,” said UN Deputy Special Coordinator, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, Najat Rochdi.
“Despite the scale of these challenges, UN Lebanon continues to support the people and commits to defending their rights to dignity, peace, and justice,” she added.
Key results of the UN’s efforts in Lebanon in 2020 include and are not limited to:
- the rehabilitation of 48 schools
- the rehabilitation of around 6,000 residential and non-residential units severely damaged by the devastating explosions
- the provision of multipurpose cash assistance to around 91,500 persons
- ensuring safer water to more than 1,200,000 vulnerable people across Lebanon
- enrolling around 500,000 children, both Lebanese and refugees, into formal education programs
- food assistance for more than 15,000 vulnerable Lebanese households
- cash grants for over 120,000 Lebanese and non-Lebanese children and other vulnerable groups
- short-term decent job opportunities for thousands of Lebanese and Syrian workers
- procuring 73 fully equipped intensive care unit (ICU) beds and 800 equipped regular beds, together with 170 ventilators to expand hospitals’ bed capacity
- providing 50,000 of the poorest Lebanese households with food parcels
- cash assistance for 700 vulnerable migrant workers who lost their jobs due to COVID-19 and the socio-economic crisis
- established solar hot water system and solar street lighting systems, reducing nearly 7,000 tons of CO2/equivalent
- solid waste management for around 17 municipalities (310,000 people)
The UN entities in Lebanon are:
- The World Bank
- The World Health Organization (WHO)
- The World Food Programme
- United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)
- United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL)
- United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
- United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
- United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
- United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
- United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
- United Nations Department for Safety and Security (UNDSS)
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- UN Women
- UN-Habitat
- UN Volunteers
- ESCWA
- United Nations Environment Programme
- OHCHR
- OCHA
- IOM
- IMF
- International Labour Organization (ILO)
- Food and Agriculture Organization
- United Nations Mine Action Service
- United Nations Information Centres (UNIC)