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National strategy needed to fight poverty in Lebanon
19-10-2018
In its issue of today, Al Akhbar newspaper highlighted the national program to support the poorest families (http://www.lkdg.org/ar/node/12106), citing a memo released earlier this month by the director general of the ministry of social affairs (MoSA) that allows poor families to apply in order to benefit from the program launched since 2011. This type of programs, Al Akhbar wrote, while aimed in part to help needy households, is but a partial solution that does not achieve the desired results, or replace a national strategy to combat the prevalent poverty. In the absence of accurate official statistics on the absolute number of people under this category, excluding MoSA estimates which puts the average rate of families living in extreme poverty between 8% and 12%, the above program does not cover all the poor families in the country, Al Akhbar said. The newspaper quoted one of the program’s sponsors as admitting the loopholes that could emerge in its implementation, in terms of the inflated number of inapplicable recipients on the one hand, and those who are virtually in need of assistance, on the other. In this respect, the newspaper pointed to the exaggerated number of applicants (exceeding 200,000), while the number of those who benefitted stood at 44,000, including 10.000 on the bottom rung. To recall, the program benefits include, obtaining a 3-year card which enables its holders to benefit from hospitalization and education services, in addition to a food card, which entitles each family member to get USD 27 each month, provided the maximum number of members be not more than five. (Al Akhbar, October 19, 2018)
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- العربية
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