Lebanon has met the conditions necessary for a $246 million World Bank loan meant to provide relief to vulnerable families to take effect

BEIRUT — After missing the original May deadline to meet conditions necessary for a $246 million World Bank loan intended to provide relief to needy families to take effect, the Lebanese government met yesterday’s extended deadline, the World Bank said in a statement.

Here’s what we know:

• Originally approved by the World Bank’s board in January and by Parliament in March, the Emergency Social Safety Net program is intended to provide cash assistance to some 147,000 of the country’s poorest families.

• The program’s implementation has been delayed by months. This is in part because of a series of changes to the original loan agreement that were made by Parliament without having been officially approved by the World Bank, and in part because of delays by the government in meeting bureaucratic requirements such as developing a labor management plan and getting a legal opinion confirming that the agreement complies with Lebanese law.

• The World Bank and the government have also gone back and forth on whether the recipients would get the aid in US dollars or in the local currency at a preferential rate. A World Bank official told L’Orient Today that the government has given verbal commitment that it would disburse the aid in dollars, which the Bank previously said was nonnegotiable, but has not yet given its commitment in writing.

• On Thursday, World Bank officials said in a statement that Lebanon had met these basic conditions for loan effectiveness in time for the extended July 28 deadline, but some additional hurdles remain before recipients can start receiving the aid. The government must sign an agreement with the World Food Program for implementation of the cash transfers, appoint a third-party monitor to oversee the program, verify that all prospective beneficiaries meet eligibility requirements and establish a grievance redress mechanism.

• Saroj Kumr Jha, the World Bank’s regional director for the Levant area, told L’Orient Today, that the bank “would like the program to start disbursing [aid] in USD to beneficiaries as soon as possible. ... As soon as disbursement conditions are met, the program can start disbursing cash to poorest and vulnerable households.”