Adib Nehmé is a consultant on poverty and development, affiliated with the Network of Arab NGOs for Development (ANND). Previously, he was a regional expert with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (Escwa), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
The poverty figures in Lebanon are alarming: 82% of the inhabitants live below the poverty line, according to Escwa. These conclusions are disputed by some, who point in particular to the crowds in places of consumption in Beirut. What do you think ?
These figures are based either on projections, or on sectoral surveys, or on the monetary poverty rate – which makes no sense since the exchange rate is constantly fluctuating. Field surveys would be necessary to measure how households adapt their living conditions. Before the financial crisis [qui a éclaté à l’automne 2019], nearly 75% of households had a monthly income of less than 2.4 million Lebanese pounds [l’équivalent aujourd’hui de 120 dollars soit 105 euros, contre de 1 600 dollars ou de 1 412 euros]. Considering that this part of the population currently needs assistance is logical.
But the concept of “poverty line” is no longer relevant: the collapse of living conditions is general. Crowded restaurants are only for the happy few, in a handful of Beirut neighborhoods or a few fashionable ski resorts. Peripheral regions have fallen into extreme poverty. The rich get even richer. And inequalities are widening between those who have access to foreign currencies and those who do not.
Long in denial, is Lebanon taking the measure of its poverty?
The country has already looked poverty in the face: in 1998, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the United Nations Development Program [PNUD] established that 32% of households were poor. It had been a shock. To conduct this survey, launched in 1995 – I was then a regional consultant at the UNDP – we developed a multidimensional poverty index (education, public services, housing, economic conditions). According to a second study, this time published in 2005, 25% of households lived in poverty: that is to say less than in 1998. This improvement was observed at all levels (school, health, etc.), except for the economic deprivation index. Which means that the economic situation had actually deteriorated. Today, what is new is not the awareness of poverty in Lebanon, it is the generalized impoverishment.
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