As Lebanon faces dire socio-economic deteriorations, state institutions remain incapable of responding to urgent community needs. Human security in the country is, thus, challenged on many fronts. Among the urgent priorities is mitigating the consequences of collapsing state institutions on critical food security and community livelihood. Partnerships between communities and local non-governmental civil society organizations emerge as one of the critical strategies to optimize resources and decentralize responses.

The objective of this report is to reveal how Lebanese NGOs are responding to the livelihood and food security challenges confronting the country that have been aggravated by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the resulting disruption of supply chains and hikes in global food and energy prices. It also aims to provide a rapid assessment of NGO relevance to these objectives and their effectiveness in managing and responding to current crises, while evaluating their interactions with the various stakeholders. Finally, it seeks to identify the needs of NGOs that are to be addressed in any future national action response, in order to guarantee the sustainability of their activities.

Building on the findings of the report by Dr. Imad Salamey, many ideas emerged from the roundtable discussion conducted on November 21, 2022, to improve food security and livelihood in Lebanon. The concluding remarks were summarized by Dr. Elie Mekhael at the end of the conference.

The Recommendation Report is shown in the lower right-hand column (available in English and Arabic).