Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar (left), Prime Minister Najib Mikati (center) and World Bank Regional Director for the Middle East Saroj Kumar Jha (right) at press conference at the Grand Serail in March to announce the launch of financial aid payments under the ESSN program. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT — The World Bank-funded Emergency Social Safety Net program is continuing and at the expected pace, Caretaker Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar’s office wrote in a statement Tuesday, announcing that a dashboard for the program on the government’s IMPACT platform has been updated to show the latest figures.
Here’s what we know:
• According to the dashboard, to date 45,779 families have received payments under the $246 million ESSN program, which was designed to provide cash assistance to Lebanon’s most vulnerable households.
• To date, 113,320 household visits have been conducted by teams from the World Food Program to verify eligibility for the program. Most of these visits were carried out in Mount Lebanon, followed by the South, the North, Nabatieh and Baalbek-Hermel, in that order, according to data tracked by the IMPACT platform. Beirut, Akkar and Bekaa households were the least visited.
• The registration platform for the ESSN was launched at the beginning of December 2021 some two-and-a-half months after it was initially due to launch.
• In total some 150,000 families will benefit under the program, a spokesperson from the Social Affairs Ministry told L’Orient Today on Tuesday.