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Add to Preferred SourcesThe UK will step up its commitment to helping Lebanon’s most vulnerable, by pledging a further package of £20m in urgent humanitarian support at a virtual summit of world leaders.
The UK is one of the biggest donors to the crisis, and at the ‘International conference on assistance and support to Beirut and the Lebanese people’, convened by French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan pledged £20 million on behalf of the UK to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).
This support will help the country’s most vulnerable through the existing economic uncertainty and additional suffering caused by the explosion by going directly to those families most at risk to cover essential survival needs, including access to food and medicine.
World leaders gathered virtually to support Lebanon after the explosion put the country’s already-strained economy and food security under extra pressure.
“Today the world is coming together to stand by the Lebanese people, and as one of the biggest donors to this crisis so far, the UK is pledging more urgent support to help all those affected by this terrible disaster,” said International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
The UK has already made £5 million available to the response, £3 million of which will go to the British Red Cross for the emergency relief effort following the devastating explosion, which has left over 250,000 people homeless.
Since the start of the Syria Crisis, the UK has provided over £740 million to help promote stability and support for refugees and vulnerable people in Lebanon. Since 2011, DFID has supported sustainable water and sanitation facilities to over 1.1 million refugees, provided education to 300,000 children, helped create 1,400 new jobs for both Lebanese and Syrian communities, and improved infrastructure and services in over 200 municipalities.
Original source: DFID
Published on 9 August 2020