WFP Lebanon: 2025 Mid-Year Highlights

OVERVIEW

Lebanon remained in the grip of a worsening humanitarian crisis during the first half of 2025, driven by prolonged economic collapse, persistent conflict, and regional instability. While the long-awaited election of a President after a two-year deadlock offers a glimmer of hope, recovery remains fragile and contingent on sustained peace, structural reforms, and continued international support. The World Bank estimates conflict-related damages at US$14 billion, with US$11 billion needed for recovery and reconstruction.

Despite a ceasefire in November 2024 and Israel’s partial withdrawal from southern Lebanon, hostilities persist. Israel retains five positions in South Lebanon, and over 200 people have been killed in cross-border attacks since January 2025. By June 981,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) had returned home, while 82,700 remained displaced. Concurrently, a new humanitarian crisis unfolded as 98,800 Syrians fled to Lebanon following Syria’s political transition, including 30,000 escaping renewed violence in Syria’s coastal areas. In parallel, the Government of Lebanon, in coordination with UN agencies, approved a UN-backed Voluntary Return Plan for Syrian refugees. UNHCR’s self-organized return programme, launching in July 2025, includes cash grants, staff training, and community engagement to support safe and dignified returns.

Food security in Lebanon continues to be undermined by conflict aftershocks, inflation, economic stagnation, and widening funding gaps. As a result, food insecurity is projected to rise, with 1.24 million people (23 percent of the population) expected to face acute food insecurity by October 2025, up from 1.17 million people affected between April and June, following some stabilization immediately after the displacement crisis.

Due to severe funding shortfalls and delays, WFP was forced to reduce assistance by 37 percent, reaching 876,000 people in June, down from 1.4 million in January. By June, support to Syrian refugees dropped to 677,000 (from 859,000), while assistance to vulnerable Lebanese fell to 184,000 (from 530,000 at the peak of the crisis). In response to the new arrivals from Syria, WFP also provided emergency food assistance to 55,200 newly displaced Syrians.

WFP continued to support national institutions in building a sustainable, government-led, shock-responsive Social Safety Net (SRSN), by strengthening the Ministry of Social Affairs’ capacity through centralized coordination, data protocols, and onboarding of 17 partners. This led to an unprecedented cash assistance coordination to conflict-affected Lebanese during the recovery phase, with MoSA in full lead of the entire coordination process. WFP also collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) to support conflict-affected farmers and enhance MoA’s lab capacity; advanced school meals planning with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) and initiated a food fortification cost-benefit analysis with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).

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