Towards an Inclusive, Integrated, and Sustainable Social Protection System in Lebanon:  Policy Dialogue Series Report

Lebanon stands at a critical juncture in the evolution of its social protection system. In recent years, a succession of shocks, including the financial and economic collapse since 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic, the August 2020 Beirut port explosion, and the 2023-2024 conflict between Israel and Lebanon, has exposed deep structural weaknesses in the country’s fragmented social protection architecture. These shocks have amplified poverty, widened social disparities, and revealed the limited ability of existing schemes to provide universal, equitable, and shock-responsive protection to the population.

Yet, the same crises have spurred unprecedented momentum for reform, culminating in the adoption of the National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS), the launch of the National Disability Allowance (NDA), consolidation of poverty-targeted programs into the scaled-up emergency social assistance program (AMAN), and the passage of Law 319, which introduces a new pension system.

The three policy dialogues, complemented by insights from interviews conducted with five key experts and stakeholders, converge on a central message: Lebanon must transition from a patchwork of donor-dependent programs and ad hoc emergency responses to an integrated, rights-based social protection system. Achieving this will require addressing three interlinked imperatives, starting from strengthening governance and coordination of the social protection system, ensuring financial sustainability, and adopting a systemic and coherent approach that links social assistance, social insurance, and humanitarian aid, all the while learning from the failures and successes of previous programs.

This publication was funded by the European Union and the United Kingdom Government. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the International Labor Organization and its partners, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the United Kingdom Government.

The views represented in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Arab Reform Initiative, its staff, or its board.

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