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.

This policy brief analyzes the shortcomings of the social protection system in Lebanon against intersectional forms of discrimination. It questions the fragmentation and the deficiencies of the social protection system highlighting the articulation of exclusionary logics linked to gender, ethnicity, work and residential status, age or disability. This briefing paper then stresses that the shortcomings of the social protection system reflect, sustain and (re)produce more profound social hierarchies characterizing the Lebanese social and political landscape.