Back to Contents “Funding constraints affected the provision of extensive cash support to vulnerable PRL. During the reporting period, the UNRWA Lebanon Field Office (LFO) added supplementary vulnerability targeting criteria to prioritize those PRL in most need of assistance, making the most of available funding.” (Source: UNRWA, “Annual Operational Report 2021” 27 October 2022, p. 115) UNRWA struggles to provide assistance to stateless Palestinians in Lebanon, whilst noting that: “In this challenging context, the humanitarian assistance provided by UNRWA remains a lifeline for the overwhelming majority of Palestine refugees. […] Yet, UNRWA continues to struggle in securing the necessary funds to carry out its operations and implement its mandate […] In Lebanon, UNRWA has not been able to expand the amount of cash assistance to the most vulnerable groups of Palestine refugees, nor was it able to secure further funding to support vulnerable Palestinian refugees from Syria. (Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 6) “In 2022, UNRWA requires US$ 365 million to continue to respond to the increased humanitarian needs of Palestine refugees in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. The funding shortfall faced by UNRWA under all of its funding portals in 2021 jeopardized the continuity of essential services and the provision of emergency assistance. […] The funding shortfall also limited the provision of cash assistance to PRL”. (Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 11) “For Palestine refugees in Lebanon, the situation could not be more precarious, given the multiple and compounding crises affecting all aspects of life in the country in 2021. The economy has crumbled, inflation is at a record beating level and, for those people who are already marginalized, the pressure on earnings and livelihoods has reached an unbearable level. In Lebanon in 2020, 87 percent of Palestinian refugees from Syria were living in poverty and this figure is expected to have increased over the last 12 months as the situation in the country continues to deteriorate” (Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 6) “For Palestine refugees in Lebanon (PRL), the crisis has led to increased poverty with 73 percent of families now living below the poverty line and unable to cover their basic needs, and 58 per cent reported having to reduce meal sizes and frequency, according to UNRWA surveys. The situation for Palestinian refugees from Syria (PRS) is of particular concern with 87.3 percent already living below the absolute poverty line in 2020 and 11.3 percent existing in a state of abject poverty. PRS are being pushed into ever more negative coping mechanisms to survive, including missing meals, child marriages, child labour, debt and unsustainable borrowing practices. Families struggle to provide for the additional needs of the elderly and family members with disabilities.” (Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 9) “The Protection and Humanitarian Principles team will work closely with other Agency programmes to organize referrals and will continue to implement revised standard operating procedures (SOPs) for emergency protection cash, including for clear links to a protection shock (e.g., GBV, eviction), to ensure narrow targeting and less emphasis on previously applied sustainability criteria whereby cash was only given when its impact would be sustained. This is in recognition of the relatively limited impact such an injection of cash is likely to have in the current context of Lebanon where so many people are struggling to maintain dignified lives and their self-protection capacity. (Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 41) 9. Access to labour market, means of basic subsistence 109