Summary of the Study

A decade since the start of the Syrian crisis, nearly all Syrian refugee families in Lebanon live in poverty and struggle to meet their basic needs. As part of their response, the World Food Programme (WFP) provides multi-purpose cash (MPC) assistance to 23,000 Syrian refugee households in Lebanon, supporting some of the most vulnerable refugees in meeting their basic needs.

Hosting the largest per capita refugee population in the world, Lebanon has been coping with nine years of refugee influxes and prolonged displacement which has invariably impacted the country’s social fabric.

In 2018 and 2019, CAMEALEON partnered with the Overseas Development Institute to examine the role of WFP MPC in shaping relations, social cohesion and stability among Syrian refugees as well as between Syrian refugees and their host communities in Lebanon.

Drawing on the experiences and perceptions of 270 respondents at three sites in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, this research is based on in-depth interviews and focus group discussions to understand whether MPC played a role in influencing opportunities for interactions; sources of solidarity, support and tension; and the experience and perceptions of discrimination, safety and security.