The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
OCHA Press Conference Lebanon
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32:09
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MP4
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2.3 GB
STORY: Lebanon Humanitarian Update – OCHA
TRT: 2 mins 52s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH/ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 1 July 2022, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Wide shot, UN Geneva flag alley.
- Wide shot, Press room, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (FRENCH): Najat Rochdi, Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon: “L’impact de la guerre en Ukraine sur le Liban est le même qu’ailleurs, il faut le dire, l’impact de la guerre en Ukraine sur les pays, c’est bien évidemment les prix, comme vous l’avez si bien dit, du fioul, etcetera, c’est aussi un impact par rapport à la sécurité alimentaire, c’est aussi un impact par rapport à l’approvisionnement; donc le Liban n’est pas une exception.”
- Mid shot, TV camera operators.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): Najat Rochdi, Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon: “Lebanon’s crisis is affecting everyone, everywhere across the country, with women bearing the brunt of the profound impact of this multi-layered crisis.”
- Mid shot, journalists, participants typing on laptops.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): Najat Rochdi, Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon: “2.2 million vulnerable Lebanese, 86,000 migrants and 200,000 Palestine refugees in Lebanon currently require emergency aid; in addition to 1.5 million Syrian refugees that are unable to afford or even access health, food, electricity, water, education and waste water management, not to mention lifesaving protection services.”
- Close-up, pen in hand, notes being written on notepad.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): Najat Rochdi, Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon: “Hospitals suffer from an acute shortage in medical supplies and power shortages, at a time when over 40 per cent of Lebanon’s doctors and 30 per cent of nurses have left country, since the beginning of the economic meltdown”
- Close-up, microphones in foreground, blurred, Najat Rochdi in focus, side shot.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): Najat Rochdi, Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon: “Alarmingly, gender exploitation and sexual exploitation and abuse are on the rise. We have received widespread reports of women and children feeling unsafe in public spaces, such as streets, markets or when using public transport.”
- Close-up, hands typing on laptop keyboards.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): Najat Rochdi, Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon: “Through the emergency fuel provision, we have been able to support over 600 health facilities and water pumping stations to ensure the provision of lifesaving services to the most vulnerable populations affected by this ongoing energy crisis and maintain the provision of basic services across Lebanon.”
- Medium shot, participants typing on laptops, podium speakers to rear.
- Close-up, TV viewfinder showing Ms. Rochdi in frame and to rear.
- Medium shot, participant writing on notepad, microphone on desk, TV camera and tripod to rear.
Lebanon not spared global food and fuel crisis made worse by Ukraine war: UN senior aid official
Veteran UN aid coordinator Najat Rochdi on Friday signalled grave concerns about rising humanitarian needs across Lebanon linked to the global food insecurity crisis, which is affecting “everyone, everywhere”.
Since last year, the number of people in urgent need of support has risen by 46 per cent, said the UN Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon and UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, speaking in Geneva.
“Lebanon’s crisis is affecting everyone, everywhere across the country, with women bearing the brunt of the profound impact of this multi-layered crisis…2.2 million vulnerable Lebanese, 86,000 migrants and 200,000 Palestine refugees in Lebanon currently require emergency aid; in addition to 1.5 million Syrian refugees that are unable to afford or even access health, food, electricity, water, education and waste-water management, not to mention lifesaving protection services.”
Asked specifically about the fallout on global food and fuel insecurity in already struggling Lebanon from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Ms. Rochdi told journalists that the country was “no exception”, after suffering a spike in fuel prices, greater food insecurity and difficulties importing food.
Even hospitals had been affected, faced with an “acute shortage in medical supplies and power shortages, at a time when over 40 per cent of Lebanon’s doctors and 30 per cent of nurses have left country, since the beginning of the economic meltdown”, she added.
Unemployment – and in particular growing youth unemployment – has forced many of the country’s youngest and brightest jobseekers to leave Lebanon, she noted, with almost one-third of the population out of work now, compared with 11.4 per cent before COVID-19.
Women are also facing an alarming rise in sexual exploitation, in inverse proportion to the country’s “economic meltdown”, the UN official said, pointing to widespread reports of women and children “feeling unsafe in public spaces, such as streets, markets or when using public transport”.
To help meet these and many other challenges, Ms. Rochdi issued a revised humanitarian appeal for $546 million for more than one million Lebanese, refugees and migrants.
Highlighting how the UN and its partners have taken action to help, she noted that emergency fuel supplies had been distributed to more than 600 health facilities and water pumping stations “to ensure the provision of lifesaving services to the most vulnerable populations affected by this ongoing energy crisis and maintain the provision of basic services across Lebanon”.
ends
Teleprompter
[Other language spoken]
Welcome to this press conference here in Geneva.
We have the great pleasure to have with us Najat Rushdi.
You, you know her well, but I will still introduce you to her.
Najat is the Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon for still a little more time, and she's here today to tell us about the humanitarian situation in Lebanon.
As usual, we will have Mrs Rajdea giving you introductory remarks and then we will take questions from the journalist.
So you have the floor nature.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much.
It's always really a pleasure to be here.
And, and to meet with you, I'm, I'm very grateful for your interest actually and your, and your willingness to still amplify the situation in Lebanon.
You have definitely a very important role to play in keeping the word informed about the development in the country and the unfortunates, you know, deterioration of the humanitarian situation in, in Lebanon.
As you know, I, I go very often to the field and it's always telling so much stories.
And lately I have really listened to many, many stories of shock and of loss and of pain.
But I think the most painful for me was really the young people whose dream is now becoming simply to go to school and who are now chasing informal jobs to provide for their families because of the impoverishment that is happening in the country.
Others desperately seek to live and start a new life elsewhere.
And there is really a bleeding, a bleeding of the of the brains from Lebanon.
They are leaving the country, almost void actually, of its most rich and promising human capital that characterised since ever Lebanon as the greatest asset.
As you all know, according to the World Bank estimates, real GDP is projected to contract by a further 6.5% in 2022, on the back of a 10.5% and 21.4% decline in 2021 and 2020, respectively.
The exchange rates continues its sharp decline, losing 95% of its value by June 2022, while the cumulative inflation reached a devastating 890% since the onset of the crisis.
The social economic meltdown in Lebanon has been further exacerbated by the impact, of course, of the Ukrainian crisis on the country, which is mainly reflected in the depletion of wheat reserves and the soaring prices of fuel items that are leading to drastic increases in bread prices and threatening food security in Lebanon.
Unemployment, another facet of poverty, has significantly increased and the minimum monthly wage has currently become less than $25, resulting in a significant decline in income and purchasing power.
Ilo's Labour Force Survey issued in January 2022 paints A morbid picture of Lebanon's struggling labour force, as almost 1/3 of Lebanon's labour force is unemployed, with the total unemployment rate tremendously increasing from 11.4% in 2018-2019 to 29.6% in 2022.
The situation of youth unemployment is even intolerable as it stands at 47.8% among youth age 15 to 24.
According to a recent UNICEF IELOS report, 51% of small scale enterprises in Lebanon has temporarily stopped operation, with 84% of their workers laid off and 94% of those retained seeing their wages largely reduced.
In short, joblessness has become the tip of the iceberg, throwing away an entire productive and creative generation that would have been able to build forward a better Lebanon.
Furthermore.
Furthermore, increases in the price of crude oil on the global market in recent months have been mirrored by further spikes in the prices of gasoline, diesel and gas in Lebanon.
And the spillover effects of the shark price have been detrimental to the people.
It threatens to tip thousands of families over the edge into food insecurity and nutrition, and in some cases, possibly hunger.
Our recent assessment shows that 2.2 million people require urgent support to secure access to food and other basic needs until the end of the year, an increase of 46% compared to last year.
It also shows that 90% of families in Lebanon are now consuming less expensive food, 60% are limiting portion size and 41% are reducing the number of meals with children hardest hit.
These are mind blowing numbers that raise the alarm about food insecurity in the country.
They also spur me to stress again on having a comprehensive and inclusive social protection strategy that helps ensure people's access to basic services and adopt A recovery and reform agenda in line with human rights standards.
This is the only possible exit strategy and adopts a recovery and reform agenda that bridge between the short term emergency interventions and a long term rights based approach that guarantees obviously a more dignified future for all the people in Lebanon, be it refugees, be it Lebanese, be it migrants.
The United Nations has worked very closely with the Government of Lebanon to finalise this the the Social Protection Strategy, and I welcome the Government's decision and endorsement of the emergency social safety net, the ESSN, earlier this year.
However, despite this progress, the ESSN is not enough, given the continuously increasing needs of families.
Concurrently, the health sector in Lebanon is on the verge of collapse at a time when the needs are significantly increasing.
For example, 1.99 million people across Lebanon are requesting humanitarian health services, an increase of 43% since August 2021.
These rising needs are obviously driven by the inability to access health services including the unavailability and unaffordability of medications, the sky rocketing hospitalizations costs and the overstretched Primary Health care facilities to name a few.
The situation is even dire for patients in need of medication for chronic illness, which are either an exorbitant prices or an available all the more.
Hospitals suffer from an acute shortage in medical supplies and power shortages at a time when over 40% of Lebanon's doctors and 30% of nurses have left the country since the beginning of the economic meltdown, according to WHO.
Lately, the caretaker Minister of Public Health, Doctor Firas Abyad, said the health sector is a bomb waiting to explode.
This is really alarming.
Another concerning impact of the electricity shortages is people's access to safe water.
Almost 4 million people are at immediate risk of being denied access to safe water in Lebanon, with alternative water supplies expected to be unaffordable to the most vulnerable households due to sovereign cost of fuel and the inefficiency of water establishments.
With summer already blazing heat waves, access to safe water is becoming extremely challenging for many families who cannot afford to buy bottled water, hence will be more likely forced to use unreliable sources that put the health of their families members at risk.
Lebanon's crisis is affecting everyone everywhere across the country, with women bearing the brands of the profound impacts of this multilayered crisis.
Alarmingly, gender based violence and sexual export exploitation and ***** are on the rise.
We have received widespread reports of women and children feeling unsafe in public spaces such as streets, markets or when using public transport.
The multi prolonged crisis has compounded the structural and endemic gender inequality and discrimination against women.
The majority of women in Lebanon, around 75%, are jobless and among the 25% who are in the labour force, 10% are unemployed compared to only 5% of men.
The crisis is also having a dramatic impact on children's living conditions.
According to recently published report by UNICEF, 100 of thousands of children in Lebanon are going to bed hungry and not receiving the health care they need and are unable to attend school due to their engagement in child labour, one of the most adverse coping strategy adopted by poor families.
This reality is worsening by the day and Children's Health and safety are being jeopardised.
Our reports also show that since December 2020, routine vaccination of children under 5 has been steadily dropping.
On the education front, more than 65,000 boys and 70,000 girls struggle to access education, mainly due to economic vulnerability as well as engagement in child labour, whereas 43% of migrant children are not enrolled at all in schools.
In addition, 350,000 children need protection services due to the continued worsening social economic situation and the lack of basic goods and social services.
The level of psychological distress of caregivers and children's has also dramatically increased, leading to a rise in cases of child labour, Child Exploitation and *****.
This must end.
Children are the future of Lebanon and of the country and we all have a moral obligation to support them, empower them and above all, protect them now to avoid a lost generation.
The rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Lebanon required a steadfast response.
Accordingly, the Humanitarian Country team launched a 12 month coordinated Multi Sectoral Emergency Response Plan ERP to address the needs of the most vulnerable population among the Lebanese, the migrants and Palestine refugees in Lebanon.
The ERP complement the ongoing Lebanon Crisis Response Plan LCRP that addresses the impact of the Syria crisis in in Lebanon.
And while we recognise the immense challenges Lebanon is currently facing and the generosity Lebanon has extended hosting this large number of refugees, we still count on Lebanon to continue to uphold its commitments to the principles of refugee protection in Lebanon, including the principle of non roful more and the right to voluntary repatriation in safety and dignity.
Over the years, Lebanese officials have reiterated their commitments to the international principles governing the return of refugees and how it needs to be voluntary, safe and dignified.
And I have full trust that this commitment will continue.
We cannot though, continue to find short term solution to end these humanitarian needs.
We need instead sustainable solutions that addresses the root causes of Lebanon's compounding crisis.
This lies in the concept of emergency development that shaped the recently signed UN Cooperation Framework and presents a transitional phase to achieve sustainable developments, which helps put an end hopefully and ultimately to humanitarian needs.
Since its launch in August 2021 and thanks to our generous donors, the ERP has received so far 51, four point 4% of its initial requirements, which amounts to $197.3 million.
Through this amount and as of May 2022, humanitarian actors were able to assist more than 6600 65,000 of the most vulnerable Lebanese migrant and Palestine refugees in Lebanon who were affected by the crisis.
To elaborate further, from August 2021 till May 2022 / 700,000 persons were provided with food assistance on monthly basis through in kind or cash support.
400,000 people were supported with health interventions, including medicine for acute and chronic diseases, psychotropic medication and reproductive health commodities and about 300,000 people were provided with the minimum quantity of clean water per day.
All the more and through OCHA LED pool funds, namely the Central Emergency Response Fund, the SURF and Lebanon Humanitarian Fund, the LHF are I have look allocated as a humanitarian coordinator since mid 2021.
To date a total amount of $53,000,000 to sectoral and multi sectoral projects to save lives and protect affected civilian across all population groups in Lebanon.
Through the emergency fuel provision, we have been able to support over 600 health facilities and water pumping stations to ensure the provision of life saving services to the most vulnerable population affected by this ongoing energy crisis and maintain the provision of basic services across Lebanon.
This time bound fuel operation ended by the energy crisis continues to threaten the supply of basic water and health services across the country, which jeopardise the life of thousands of families in Lebanon.
Therefore, I reiterated my urgent appeal to the governments to find a sustainable solution to this persisting energy crisis and take decisive actions in adopting the necessary reforms to address this problem.
Dear all, 11 months after the launch of the ERP, the humanitarian needs continue to grow exponentially.
Unfortunately, according to the recent Countrywide Multi Sector Needs Assessment, MSNA humanitarian needs have increased by 31% between 2021 and 2022.
A strategic number of 2.2 million vulnerable Lebanese 86,000 migrants and 200,000 Palestine refugees in Lebanon currently require emergency aid in addition to the 1.5 million Syrian refugees.
They are unable to afford or even access health, food, electricity, water, education and wastewater management, not to mention life saving protection services.
According to the MSNA, 85% of Lebanese household reported that they did not receive any type of assistance at the household level during the three month prior to the assessment.
While this percentage reached as **** as 95% among migrant households and 6066% among the Palestine refugees in Lebanon, this is appalling and clearly indicates the imperative for action to address the plight of million of people in Lebanon who are in disparate needs of help and humanitarian support.
For this reason, together with humanitarian actors, the Government of Lebanon and our long standing donors, we have extended the emergency response plan until the end of 2022.
An additional $163 million is needed to fulfil the additional humanitarian needs of the mounting number of vulnerable people in Lebanon.
This makes the total required funding of the the ERP from August 2021 until December 2020 two $546 million.
The revised ERP will provide lifesaving humanitarian support to more than 1,000,000 vulnerable Lebanese Palestine refugees and migrants affected by the ongoing crisis.
I am heartened by the donor support for the people of Lebanon, and I count on their continued efforts to advance on the ground despite the challenges.
We all know, ladies and gentlemen, despite the scale and magnitude of the hardships, I personally see Lebanon's crisis as an opportunity to unlock the potential of this country has in the path of development and recovery.
Humanitarian assistance alone is not the solution.
It is still an imperative.
And providing this assistance is actually really given a chance for Lebanon and the Lebanese to build forward better.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you very much for this update, dire situation and words of all at the end.
I will open now the floor to questions.
Let me see if on the platform any of our journalists would like to ask you a question.
You've been very exhaustive, but maybe still.
[Other language spoken]
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[Other language spoken]
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[Other language spoken]
I mean, the question was about the government's the the Minister of Social Affairs in Lebanon who said that the cost of the Syrian refugees is $26 billion and that is important to support the return of the refugees.
So I don't have any comment on the $26 billion obviously.
But in terms of the return of the refugees, as humanitarian, we consider that we have been successful once.
Of course, everybody who wants to return is able to return.
But obviously this return has actually to be compliant with the principles of safe, voluntary and dignified return.
As I said in my statement.
I mean, it is very important that those those principles are definitely met and to remind the government of Lebanon about its commitment to the non of full moon principles.
That said, we acknowledge that the situation is very dire in Lebanon because of the crisis.
We acknowledge that that the the Lebanese people have really demonstrated a lot of generosity since 12 years now in in receiving and in hosting the Syrian refugees.
And we commit, obviously, that whenever the conditions and enabling environments is there, of course, that we would support that again according to the safe, dignified and voluntary return of the Syrian refugees.
Thank you very much for this summary.
I see Catherine Fiancon, Franz Mancat has a question for you.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Thank you for your statement and congratulations for your new appointment.
We look forward to having you often in Geneva.
Would you be kind enough please to share this statement with us because there it contains a lot of information.
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[Other language spoken]
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I'm sorry.
I've also gone to French, sorry for that, It's easier.
But thank you very much to everyone.
[Other language spoken]
This is in French.
And thank you very much again, Naja Trujdi.
And we hope to see her again soon.
Here to brief the Geneva Prescor.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]