The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors approved USD 300 million of additional financing to the Emergency Crisis and COVID-19 Response Social Safety Net Project (ESSN).

“The additional financing will expand and extend the provision of cash transfers to poor and vulnerable Lebanese households and further support the development of a unified social safety net delivery system in Lebanon to allow a better response to ongoing and future shocks,” the World Bank said in a press release on Thursday.

The latest finance package represents the second additional financing to the ESSN project of USD 246 million originally approved in January 2021 to aid the Lebanese people during times of crises. The first additional financing amounted USD 4 million in May 2022. Lebanon has been plunged into an economic and financial crisis for more than three years, a crisis which the World Bank has described as among the worst the world has witnessed.

“On the sectoral level, Lebanon lacks a comprehensive and inclusive social protection system that provides its citizens equal access and opportunity,” the organization pointed out in a statement.

The ESSN project – also known as AMAN – has established a social safety net system to aid the poor in Lebanon through DAEM, the first fully digitized national social registry. “DAEM has facilitated the effective, efficient, and transparent provision of cash transfers to approximately 82,000 households meeting extreme poverty and social vulnerability criteria for up to 14 months,” the World Bank stated.

The money transfers were mainly spent on food (43% of spending), whereas 12% of spending was on healthcare, according to a Post Distribution Monitoring survey conducted on beneficiary households.

“Around 99% of beneficiary households reported improved living conditions after the transfers, while 66% of beneficiary households with children reported that the transfers facilitated school attendance,” the World Bank’s survey found.

“The additional financing will enable the Government of Lebanon to continue to respond to the growing needs of poor and vulnerable households suffering under the severe economic and financial crisis,” said Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank Middle East Country Director.

“The financing will also facilitate the integration of existing SSN programs into a unified SSN program in line with the Government’s vision articulated in the National Social Protection Strategy, and ensure simplification of implementation, reduce fragmentation and duplication, and promote efficiency and effectiveness of SSN spending,” Carret noted.

The ESSN project and its additional financing aim to provide money transfers to 160,000 households for 24 months. This includes current beneficiary households in addition to new households who meet poverty and vulnerability criteria. Thus, USD 25 flat amount will be transferred to eligible households on a monthly basis, in addition to USD 20 per household member (up to 6 members), with a maximum monthly amount of USD 145 per household.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and the Central Management Unit at Presidency Council of Ministers jointly implemented the project and contracted the World Food Program to carry out eligibility verification visits and payments of the cash transfers.

The additional financing will also aid 92,000 students in beneficiary households between the ages of 13 to 18 years old in school registration fees, parents’ council fees, school textbooks and stationery costs, transport, and school uniform expenses.

“Eligible students will receive between USD 285 to USD 425 per scholastic year depending on school grade and education stream to be paid directly to the beneficiary household,” the World Bank mentioned.

The Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education will be monitoring and reporting the attendance and the academic performance of eligible children.

The ESSN additional financing will also aim at increasing access to quality social services provided by the Social Development Centers of the Ministry of Social Affairs for 400,000 people and will provide capacity building activities to the social workers at the Ministry and centers to facilitate their work.