Conflict Analysis Project

For a decade, Jordan has been witnessing a severe economic stagnation impacting wages and access to welfare, with average GDP growth of around 2% per year, against average inflation of 2.4%. Stagnation has been accompanied by an increase in the unemployment rate (25% of the active population as of 2021), especially among youth (48.1%). The effects of these structural challenges have been further amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic, which left several unprotected workers’ groups deprived of their main sources of income for long periods.

Tunisia witnessed a rise in contentions action over the past years, in a context of acute economic contraction exacerbated by the socio-economic effects of Covid-19 pandemic. Socioeconomic grievances and demands, voiced in the 2011 Revolution of “Aish, Hurriyah, Karamah Insaniyah”, came again to the fore.

The social policy-making landscape in Lebanon is generally characterised as being, on the one hand, reactive, fragmented, and ad hoc, and by overall relying on a charity approach, on the other. The compounded crises that Lebanon has been going through, have not however led to a more strategic, comprehensive, and inclusive policy design, especially regarding social and economic issues.

This infographic gives an overview on the social security sector in Lebanon that is tied to formal employment in a highly informal market and over-relying on social assistance programmes. This undermines a life-cycle approach to social security and protection that is universal, inclusive, and based on human rights.
The visual highlights this system’s intersecting patterns of discrmination, and proposes recommendations for reforming the Lebanese social security system.