According to bank documents, the objective of the Project is to: (a) provide cash transfers and access to social services to extreme poor and vulnerable Lebanese populations affected by the economic and COVID-19 crises in Lebanon; and (b) in case of an Eligible Crisis or Emergency, provide an immediate and effective response to such emergency or crisis.

Similar to the parent project, the proposed Additional Financing (AF) applies paragraph 12 of Section III of the Investment Project Financing (IPF) Policy (Projects in Situations of Urgent Need of Assistance or Capacity Constraints). The special consideration of paragraph 12 of Section III of the said Policy is triggered based on the urgent need of assistance caused by the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak in December 2019, as well as the prevailing economic and financial crisis in Lebanon.

The AF Grant (US$4 million) is funded from the Lebanon Syria Crisis Trust Fund (LSCTF) and will be used to supplement existing financing under Component 1 (Provision of Cash Transfer for Basic Income Support) and will have one component. Approximately 2,700 households (approximately 12,300 individuals) out of a targeted 147,000 households will benefit from the provision of CTs for basic income support, verified as falling under the extreme poverty threshold. The proposed AF will contribute to offsetting the resulting financing gap, currently standing at US$16 million, resulting from the increase of the transfer value. The remaining financing gap after the reallocation and the AF grant will stand at US$12 million. This amount is expected to be filled through seeking additional grants. Households will receive US$20 per household member per month, to cover basic survival food needs, in addition to a flat amount of US$25 per month per household to meet fixed costs and economies of scale incurred by households for non-food basic expenditures. Eligibility is determined based on households who applied on the DAEM platform and simultaneously satisfy two conditions – as per the targeting approach adopted
in the parent project PAD: (a) their verified Proxy Mean Test (PMT) scores are below the eligibility cut-off corresponding to the extreme poverty line, and (b) they belong to defined socially vulnerable categories.

World Bank:
Haneen Ismail Sayed
Lead Operations Officer

Borrower:
Lebanese Republic
Youssef El-Khalil
Minister of Finance
minister@finance.gov.lb

Implementing Agency:
Prime Minister's Office
Marie Louise Abou Jaoude
Project Manager
maboujaoudeh@pcm.gov.lb 

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