Struggling economy

In the past two years, three successive crises converged to push Lebanon to the brink. First, there was the economic collapse in late 2019 which worsened over time. In early March, the Lebanese pound plummeted to a historic low. Salaries are now worth one-10th of what they used to be two years ago.

Second, a deadly port explosion ripped through the capital, Beirut, on August 4, 2020, killing more than 200 people and causing massive destruction. Reconstruction is only in its early stages and it would cost more than $4bn. Third, the country has also been badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. It has further put pressure on Lebanon’s struggling economy and severely strained its health sector.

These crises have fuelled public anger and desperation. People continue to take to the streets in protest, blocking roads and burning tyres. Meanwhile, crime is on the rise, with burglaries becoming much more frequent. Fights break out often in public, sometimes over food. Many fear a social implosion.

All three crises have had tremendous humanitarian consequences and they have all been driven or massively exacerbated by a failure of governance rooted in political corruption and mismanagement. These factors continue to undercut efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Lebanese people.

International donors are trying to help Lebanon recover, just as they previously tried to assist the country’s one million Syrian and 200,000 Palestinian refugees. But they are going about it in their old ways – through close engagement with state institutions. This approach kept the country afloat in the short term, but it ignored the predatory governance, which created much of the problem in the first place.

The international aid community now has limited time to avert a disaster. In order to be successful, it will need a new approach that avoids the mistakes of the past – one that finally confronts the country’s pervasive structural corruption and that finds ways to work around it.

For decades, Lebanon’s political parties have siphoned off a significant amount of resources from the public sector and have bolstered their respective sectarian-based patronage networks. These practices prevail across a bloated public sector. There are many state employees who have been appointed based on partisan allegiance alone and there are also many ghost employees who are on the payroll but do not actually work for the state. Public tenders have also been given out along partisan lines.

Leaders of sectarian parties have closed ranks to protect these clientelistic networks. They enjoy the support of certain sectors of society that still believe they need the protection of sectarian patronage.

This also explains why despite the country’s alarming state of devastation, no significant reforms have been commenced and no measures to alleviate the plight of the Lebanese people have been taken.

Excerpted: ‘Lebanon needs an aid paradigm shift’ Aljazeera.com