World Food Program donates $5 billion to Lebanon

The United Nations World Food Program has agreed to disburse $5 billion in aid of Lebanon over the next 3 years, Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Monday.

He added that an agreement has been reached with the WFP to increase the number of Lebanese benefiting from the organization's food assistance.

Currently 70% of those who benefit from the WFP aid are Syrians and 30% are Lebanese, Mikati said after a meeting with WFP Lebanon Country Director Abdallah Alwardat at the Grand Serail.

Lebanon has a population of roughly 6 million people, among them over 1 million Syrian refugees who fled the war-torn country over the past decade.

The WFP once allocated $700 million in food assistance to Lebanon every year, and scaled that up to $1.3 billion in 2022. Now, it has earmarked $5.4 billion for the next three years, increasing its annual food assistance budget by $500 million.

The new budget will allow the WFP to feed about 2 million people, split evenly between Syrian refugees and vulnerable Lebanese.

“Food prices in Lebanon are 16 times higher than they were in October 2019 before the onset of the current deep financial crisis,” WFP spokesperson Rasha Abou Dargham told The Associated Press. "Families’ incomes are not enough to keep up with skyrocketing food and other basic needs prices."

The WFP delivers food parcels to families and works with farmers and small businesses, but also works with the Lebanese government to execute an emergency cash-assistance program to vulnerable Lebanese families currently funded by a World Bank loan.

Earlier this month, the United States announced it will give the crisis-battered country $80.5 million in aid for food assistance and solar-powered pumping stations. The World Bank in May approved a $150 million loan to stabilize bread prices in Lebanon.