Socio-Economic Rights Base

Missing Blocks, The Gaps in Lebanon’s Social Protection System.

Lebanon’s social protection system is exclusionary, discriminatory, and fragmented by design, with various funds available, the largest being the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Social security is tied to formal employment leaving all individuals in the informal sector with no protection. Moreover, universal healthcare is not available, nor unemployment allowances. With the aim of alleviating poverty, successive governments have relied on social assistance and targeting programmes.

Bailing out on rights: The high cost of an IMF deal in Lebanon.

This policy report analyzes the winding road towards an agreement between the IMF and Lebanon, since the request of the government for IMF support, going over main conditions required by the IMF and their high social cost. The report critically highlights the risks of adopting one-size-fits-all austerity measures - as suggested by the IMF - and argues for the necessity to adopt a more integrated approach to the diagnosis of the crisis, and recovery and reform plan, beyond mere financial and macro-economic indicators. It concludes with recommendations tailored to the Lebanese context.

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Webinar summary: Aging in dignity? A webinar on the impact of the crisis in Lebanon on older persons | ملخّص الندوة: شيخوخة بكرامة؟ ندوة حول تأثير الأزمة في لبنان على كبار السنّ

“Aging in dignity? A webinar on the impact of the crisis in Lebanon on older persons” was held on Thursday 13, October 2022 as part of our Centre’s webinar cycle “The Politics of Social Justice in Lebanon: Between Citizenship, Identities, and Compounding Crises”.
 
The discussion, introduced and moderated by Miriam Younes (CeSSRA), featured panelists Maya Abi Chahine (consultant and researcher in aging and an advocate for older people’s rights) and Rania Eghnatios (social protection officer at the ILO regional office for Arab States).
 

Crisis and Retirement: Elderly in the Public Sector are struggling to secure their needs

Social Insurance in Lebanon accounts for the highest share of Social Protection related expenditures (85% of the total spending – as per the 2019 budget); pensions alone accounted for approximately 3% of the GDP in 2020 and benefited only 2% of the population (World Bank, 2022). Moreover, the pension system in Lebanon covers only civil servants and military personnel, which correspond to less than 10% of the active population (World Bank, 2022).

عاملون وعاملات ضدّ التقشّف. نظرة حول التحرّكات المناهضة لصندوق النقد الدولي في تونس في العام ٢٠٢٢

لا زالت التحرّكات العمّالية مستمرّة في تونس منذ العقد الماضي. فقد نظّم/ت العاملون/ات بين ١ كانون الثاني/يناير ٢٠٢٢ و٣٠ حزيران/يونيو ٢٠٢٢، ١٦٧ تحرّكًا اجتماعيًا من أصل ٢٧٥ تحرّكًا شهدته البلاد بشكل عام* (ما يعادل ٦١ في المئة من الرقم الإجمالي). ويتبيّن عند إلقاء نظرة مفصّلة على هذه التحرّكات، كيف أنّ السياسات التي فرضها صندوق النقد الدولي شكّلت الإطار العام لها، بالإضافة إلى تدابير التقشّف الناجمة عن تلك السياسات والتي فُرِضَت خلال السنوات القليلة الماضية.

Workers against austerity. A look at anti-IMF mobilisation in Tunisia in 2022

Workers’ mobilisations have been ongoing in the last decade in Tunisia. Between 1 January 2022 to 30 June 2022, workers organised 167 collective actions out of a total of 275* (amounting to 61% of the total). A detailed look at these mobilisations shows how they were framed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed policies, and their corollary of imposed austerity measures over the last few years. 

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