Taking stock of the present to urgently build sustainable options for the future
Since the outbreak of the crisis in Syria in March 2011, Lebanon has felt the impact politically, socially and economically. More than four years into the crisis and with an all-out war on its doorstep, the country is experiencing ever greater repercussions. Lebanon now hosts the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, with one in five inhabitants a refugee. This paper draws on Oxfam's research among refugees and host communities in Lebanon in 2015. It aims to contribute to an urgent discussion of both interim and longer term solutions to address protection issues, living conditions, access to services and reduced aid dependency for refugees; along with stronger social protection, access to services and greater employment opportunities for poor and vulnerable Lebanese.
SUMMARY
Oxfam has been present in Lebanon since 1993. Over the past four years Oxfam has, like many humanitarian organizations, scaled up activities in Lebanon in response to the Syria conflict and resulting refugee flows. It is increasingly apparent that traditional approaches to displacement response are failing to meet the needs of refugees, but also of neighbouring countries as economics, poverty and displacement become increasingly intertwined. In Lebanon in particular, shaped by sectarian politics and subject to regional political dynamics, governance challenges add an additional layer of complexity.
Considerable analysis has been undertaken to date on the challenges and impacts on and of Syrian refugees in Lebanon – including by Oxfam3 – but the bulk of this analysis is seen through the lens of the wider Syria crisis and often fails to take into consideration Lebanon itself as a country in crisis or use a wider inequality and poverty lens. This discussion paper aims instead to bring together the key areas of displacement – including pre-existing refugees – economics, poverty and governance in Lebanon and from a Lebanon perspective, highlight some of the challenges that the country and the people in its territory are confronted with.
In doing so, the paper deliberately raises difficult realities for populations within Lebanon, reflecting very real policy and programme challenges drawn from Oxfam’s programmes, partnerships and community consultations over the past year as it attempts to reconcile its response to poverty with a humanitarian response to displacement, using a comprehensive rights based approach relevant to all segments of the population. Many of these realities echo global concerns around asylum, migration and host community fears, but they also point to the need for a fundamental shift in national and international engagement in Lebanon.
The paper also outlines policy propositions rooted in national and international rights frameworks as a basis for dialogue – which, if used to build a more comprehensive framework for engagement in Lebanon, could help to re-think approaches to long-term solutions for Lebanon as a whole, and for the displaced populations living there.