Publication: Lebanon Poverty and Equity Assessment 2024 - Weathering a Protracted Crisis
Loading...
Published
2024-05-29
ISSN
Date
2024-05-29
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report provides an assessment of the current state of poverty and inequality in Lebanon. It documents the impact of a protracted economic crisis on households, that is well into its fifth year, along with their responses and investigates how the crisis has potentially affected labor market dynamics in the country. The report aims to be a resource for policymakers, researchers, and organizations working to identify and address the multifaceted socioeconomic challenges in Lebanon.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2024. Lebanon Poverty and Equity Assessment 2024 - Weathering a Protracted Crisis. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41619 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Argentina - Crisis and Poverty 2003 : A Poverty Assessment, Volume 1. Main Report(Washington, DC, 2003-07-24)Argentina has gone through a major crisis in the past year, resulting in severe social dislocations, and a reduction of welfare by its poorest. The collapse of the Convertibility Plan, the freezing of bank deposits and the default on foreign debts, and the resulting high inflation, falling output and exchange rate devaluation, carried with it severe consequences for the poor. The break with the Convertibility Plan also meant that the adjustment in the labor market, occurred more through wages, rather than by an increase in unemployment. Inflation reduced real wages substantially, and, unlike previous recessions, unemployment arose largely from the formal sector, with an increase in employment in the informal sector. Many of the middle class, faced with both declining wages and freeze on bank assets, moved into poverty for the first time, carrying characteristics somewhat different than the traditional poor, including higher levels of education. Households appear to cope through a variety of strategies, including the entry into the workforce of those not previously employed, and reduced consumption of food, and other products. The Government's response to move to a floating exchange rate, and the consequent reduction in real wages, has provided the basis for a potential recovery. The reduction in real public sector wages, and pension obligations with inflation, while nominal revenues increased, has temporarily provided for an improved fiscal balance. The government, however, still faces serious issues in fiscal, and financial sector management. And Government programs still do not provide an adequate safety net for the unemployed on a permanent basis. Safety net programs are costly and duplicate other programs. Smaller, inefficient programs should be combined. Educational services need to be maintained, particularly with regard to payment of teachers, as the welfare effects go beyond the immediate income levels of teachers; in the health sector, gradual implementation of an infant and maternal health insurance, and the definition of, and agreement on provincial health goals (with monitorable health indicators) seem to be two key initial steps towards more effective protection for the uninsured poor, including other chronic inefficiencies in the health sector. Longer term poverty reduction measures include policy reforms towards higher levels of employment, access to basic services by the poor by improving infrastructure, and, improved human capital, and their productivity.Publication Argentina - Crisis and Poverty 2003 : A Poverty Assessment, Volume 2. Background Papers(Washington, DC, 2003-07-24)Argentina has gone through a major crisis in the past year, resulting in severe social dislocations, and a reduction of welfare by its poorest. The collapse of the Convertibility Plan, the freezing of bank deposits and the default on foreign debts, and the resulting high inflation, falling output and exchange rate devaluation, carried with it severe consequences for the poor. The break with the Convertibility Plan also meant that the adjustment in the labor market, occurred more through wages, rather than by an increase in unemployment. Inflation reduced real wages substantially, and, unlike previous recessions, unemployment arose largely from the formal sector, with an increase in employment in the informal sector. Many of the middle class, faced with both declining wages and freeze on bank assets, moved into poverty for the first time, carrying characteristics somewhat different than the traditional poor, including higher levels of education. Households appear to cope through a variety of strategies, including the entry into the workforce of those not previously employed, and reduced consumption of food, and other products. The Government's response to move to a floating exchange rate, and the consequent reduction in real wages, has provided the basis for a potential recovery. The reduction in real public sector wages, and pension obligations with inflation, while nominal revenues increased, has temporarily provided for an improved fiscal balance. The government, however, still faces serious issues in fiscal, and financial sector management. And Government programs still do not provide an adequate safety net for the unemployed on a permanent basis. Safety net programs are costly and duplicate other programs. Smaller, inefficient programs should be combined. Educational services need to be maintained, particularly with regard to payment of teachers, as the welfare effects go beyond the immediate income levels of teachers; in the health sector, gradual implementation of an infant and maternal health insurance, and the definition of, and agreement on provincial health goals (with monitorable health indicators) seem to be two key initial steps towards more effective protection for the uninsured poor, including other chronic inefficiencies in the health sector. Longer term poverty reduction measures include policy reforms towards higher levels of employment, access to basic services by the poor by improving infrastructure, and, improved human capital, and their productivity.Publication Understanding the Poverty Impact of the Global Financial Crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014-06-18)Any time there is an economic crisis; there is the very real potential that its consequences for human welfare will be severe. Thus when the developed world plunged into such a crisis in 2008 and growth rates in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) began to plummet, fears rose that the region will suffer rising unemployment, poverty, malnutrition, and infant mortality, among other things. This study confirms and quantifies many of the sobering links between crisis and poverty, but it also shows how powerful good policy in stable times is in attenuating those links. It thus underscores the need for sound growth policies, good macro prudential care, fiscal balance, low debt, reasonably flexible exchange rates, and the like to help prevent and manage crises. It equally shows how effective social protection responses built on adequate existing programs can be. This study documents the effects of the 2008-09 global financial crisis on poverty in 12 countries in the LAC region, and it comes away with six big picture messages, each with much nuance and many caveats that are explained briefly in this overview.Publication Tonga - Poverty and Equity Assessment 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-10)Tonga’s economic growth, historically weak due to structural factors facing many Pacific Island countries, has been particularly sluggish in recent years due to several large shocks. Tropical cyclones in 2018 and 2020, border restrictions and surging inflation due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HT-HH) volcanic eruption all have battered the population and have potentially reversed previous welfare gains. This World Bank Poverty and Equity Assessment (PEA) report aims to fill critical knowledge gaps regarding the extent, nature, and drivers of poverty and inequality in Tonga. The report extensively utilizes the 2021 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) in Tonga and the official monetary poverty estimate from the survey. The 2021 HIES is the first survey containing significant welfare information that was entirely fielded after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and can more fully illustrate some of the pandemic’s impacts. To estimate the change in monetary poverty, the report utilizes the 2015/16 HIES to impute the monetary poverty estimate in that year given that the government did not report an official monetary poverty estimate from the survey. In addition to identifying poverty and inequality patterns, this report highlights several thematic topics to which information from the HIES can contribute and inform the ongoing policy dialog. These topics include vulnerability of the population to shocks, human capital development, and social protection systems.Publication Argentina : Sources of Growth, Seeking Sustained Economic Growth with Social Equity(Washington, DC, 2005-10)This report attempts to analyze selected topics, chosen in collaboration with the Argentine authorities, regarding the inter-linkages between economic growth, income distribution and poverty, as well as the respective roles of these factors in explaining the historical underperformance of the Argentine economy. The report aims to identify relevant issues for policy formulation and further economic work. Its emphasis is on longer-term structural factors which are thought to determine productivity and income distribution. The report is organized as follows. Chapter 2 briefly reviews the time-dynamics o f economic growth, poverty and inequality in Argentina. Sections of the chapter study the evolution of poverty and inequality. It is noted that inequality has increased dramatically, though not monotonically, since 1990 and, notably, increases in inequality were observed in periods of both growth and recession. Chapter 3 reviews the latest episode o f economic volatility in Argentina, a period that started with the sharp decline o f economic activity in 2002 and continued with a recovery since 2003. Special attention is paid to the impact of this recent volatility on economic growth, poverty and inequality. The sections study the social impact of the recent crisis and recovery; employing different methodologies to test whether the recent recovery was pro-poor. It also analyzes the recession and recovery at the sector level, while identifying the economic sectors that contributed most to poverty reduction during the latest upturn o f the economy. Chapter 4 then turns to a selected set of government policies that could help to deliver high economic growth. The section highlights the idea that macroeconomic stability is crucial to reducing poverty rates since the empirical evidence indicates that economic crises disproportionately affect the poor. Another major lesson from this section is that tax policy is not a good tool for redistribution in developing countries. Further it analyzes the potential impact of various trade initiatives on employment opportunities for relatively unskilled workers in Argentina; and presents the results o f a recent study on the returns to education for workers across income groups. Finally, it reviews some key issues involved in ensuring a favorable environment for private sector development.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.