Last week, a group of economists and public policy specialists launched a task-force focused on supporting Lebanon by providing independent analysis and policy recommendations.
The task-force started by publishing a position paper on the economic and social impacts of the Israeli war on Lebanon.
Members of the force include experts on various socioeconomic affairs, they are:
- Rasha Abou Zaki, Economic Journalist
- Ali Noureddin, Economic Journalist
- Jad Chaaban, Economist and University Professor
- Joanne Haddad, Economic Researcher, Free University of Brussels
- Karim Daher Lawyer and Lecturer in tax law and public finance, USJ
- Kanj Hamadeh Economist, Economic Development Solutions
- Roland Riachi Professor of economics, University of Paris
- Karim Safieddine Researcher at the University of Pittsburgh
- Ali Chalak Professor of economics, American University of Beirut
- Mounir Younes Economic journalist, L’Orient-Le Jour
Position Paper on the socioeconomic impacts of the Israeli War on Lebanon
In its first major document, the task-force addressed a range of socioeconomic issues. It started by situating the wider war in the context of an unprecedented socioeconomic crisis in Lebanon, which started in 2019, highlighting the skyrocketing inflation rates, food basket costs, and cross-sectoral deterioration.
The description particularly dives into issues in the agricultural, tourism and industrial sectors – Lebanon’s most profitable sectors.
The paper then follows with a description of the major monetary and financial policy issues, focusing on the public finance, banking sector and supply chain crises, as well as the impacts on internally displaced people and hosting communities.
It ends with a series of recommendations that includes key general recommendations, starting with the immediate halt of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, “without accepting any delays or scenarios to prolong the war.”
The paper’s recommendations are mainly targeted at the Lebanese State, urging it to provide rent allowances and other accommodations to displaced families, approve amendments to the current year’s budget and amend it based on the response needs, develop appropriate plans for managing supply chains of sensitive goods, utilize the increased reserves in the Central Bank, strengthen the Central Bank’s oversight of commercial banks, reject the sale of state assets and issue a law exempting all cash and in-kind aid provided to displaced persons or organizations supporting them.
Finally, the recommendations section also addresses international donors, urging them to modify the governance and distribution mechanism of aid to include representatives of war victims, local organizations, and civil society, direct support programs toward local producers, provide technical assistance to the Lebanese government to enhance tax collection – particularly to cover the costs of crisis response – and develop preliminary statistics on displaced and impacted families and those in areas that could be potentially targeted in future attacks to prepare evacuation and sheltering plans.
The Task-force’s Activities
The task-force’s platform on X has posted recurrent socioeconomic updates, including articles and content from its founders and other experts and general information on the socioeconomic costs of the Israeli war on Lebanon.
The full position paper can be found here.
As the conflict continues expanding and the socioeconomic crisis in Lebanon prolongs further, there remains a lack in socioeconomic and political products, particularly ones with concrete recommendations and suggestions for pathways forward. It is this gap that the taskforce seeks to cover.