Report: Lebanon to Receive USD 700 Million at Most from Kuwait Donors Conference

Lebanon will reportedly receive 700 million dollars at most from the recent donors conference held in Kuwait aimed at helping Syrian refugees, said An Nahar daily on Saturday.

The exact number of funds has not been revealed yet, but it will receive only a third of what it actually needs, it added.

The donors at the one-day conference held in Kuwait on Tuesday pledged 3.8 billion dollars to the refugees.

Lebanon had meanwhile demanded that it needs 2.2 billion to support the burden of the displaced.

These funds would have been spent over a two-year period, explained ministerial sources to An Nahar.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had estimated that eight billion dollars would be needed to address the humanitarian refugee crisis, but only 3.8 billion were pledged.

Lebanon will receive the bulk of that figure compared to countries neighboring Syria given its weak capabilities and resources and the large number of refugees it is hosting, added the sources.

The funds will be dedicated to 70 projects by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, while the rest will be spent on refugees and Lebanese who were negatively affected by them.

There are more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Well over half of them are living in insecure dwellings – up from a third last year. The country has struggled to cope with their burden since the eruption of the Syrian conflict in March 2011.

M.T.