The United States, through USAID, is providing more than $67 million in additional, urgently needed humanitarian assistance for Lebanon’s most vulnerable. With this funding, USAID humanitarian partners will continue providing life-saving aid, including emergency food assistance and nutrition support, emergency health care, humanitarian protection and psychosocial support, and water, sanitation, and hygiene services.
The protracted economic, financial, and humanitarian crises in Lebanon continue to result in acute levels of food insecurity and increased emergency health care needs across the country, driven in part by the rising cost of food, fuel, and basic commodities, the loss of livelihoods, and the departure of critical medical personnel. Regional impacts from the ongoing crisis in Gaza have only further exacerbated these crises with instability in southern Lebanon requiring USAID partners to mobilize existing resources to meet the urgent needs of more than 91,000 Lebanese internally displaced by fighting since October 2023.
The new funding enables our partner, the UN World Food Program (WFP), to continue providing monthly food assistance to vulnerable communities in Lebanon during this period of dwindling resources and persistent needs. This funding, which has allowed WFP to keep reaching the most vulnerable with urgent aid for several months, is providing monthly household food parcels for up to 200,000 Lebanese and monthly electronic food vouchers for more than 300,000 Syrian refugees to use in local shops, bolstering the Lebanese economy. USAID partners’ International Medical Corps and Relief International will also continue to support more than 141,000 people through 13 primary health care clinics across Lebanon and provide home-based health care for patients unable to access clinics through this assistance.
The United States remains committed to delivering critical humanitarian assistance across Lebanon, but the demand continues to outpace resources. USAID support has helped save lives and alleviate suffering among the most vulnerable, including by providing more than $202 million to WFP for food assistance to vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian refugees in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 alone.
Without additional funding, humanitarian conditions will continue to deteriorate, and relief agencies will face challenges sustaining the current level of assistance to those in greatest need. We urgently call on other donors to join us in stepping up to help meet these critical needs and prevent further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Lebanon at this crucial time.
For the latest updates on USAID’s humanitarian assistance in Lebanon, visit: www.usaid.gov/humanitarian-assistance/lebanon