A sobering reality emerges in the shadow of the long-awaited 2019 budget, declared by Prime Minister Saad Hariri as the most austere in Lebanon’s history. As a stop-gap fiscal rescue package, it falls short of the transformational budget, based on a grand national vision for debt reduction and upgrading of critical infrastructure that is sorely…
Lebanon’s new electricity plan adopted in the dark
The Council of Ministers approved a new electricity policy paper on April 8. Although this was a long-awaited reform, the Lebanese were expecting better governance and more transparency, especially in view of the commitments made at CEDRE. However, the government already seems to be falling short on its promises of reform, with no development of…
Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health issues decree on reimbursement for palliative care
When H.S. was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer she made it clear to everyone around her that she was going to put up a fight. She had surgeries, took chemotherapy, and continued to manage her home and business as if nothing had changed. I met her two years into her illness during her last hospitalization. She…
Internet copyright laws
As the growth of a few digital giants with base in the United States and state intrusion into the online world have reached dimensions that were unimaginable just a decade ago, some critics speak of ‘surveillance capitalism’ as the new form of dictatorship. In the middle of the uncertainty about our digital future, lawmakers are…
Lebanon’s new electricity plan
On April 8, the Council of Ministers adopted a new electricity policy paper, aimed at reforming the sector. However, the plan is lacking the key components it aims to address—the financial analysis and the impact on the economy—and also highlights structural issues in the government decision-making process. The electricity sector is a heavy contributor to…
Crisis-struck Venezuelans turning to Lebanon
Venezuela teeters on the brink of further deterioration from years of political and economic instability. With self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guiado on one side standing in opposition to current president Nicolas Maduro, the county’s future is uncertain. As with most modern conflicts, what happens in Venezuela has global implications, and this Latin American crisis may…
Rethinking social entrepreneurship
January’s Mashreq Conference on Women’s Economic Empowerment was a welcome initiative at a time where socio-economic conditions for women in Lebanon are dire. In addition to a discriminatory legal, political, and social environment, women continue to make up less than 25 percent of the labor force, according to 2018 World Bank estimates. Donor pledges to…
Preserving Lebanon’s water resources requires multisectoral collaboration
In winter, Lebanon seems to have an abundance of rainfall. When the rainy season is over, however, the country’s traffic woes are often compounded by large tankers blocking roads as they supply buildings with water. Lebanon is rich in water resources, but these are replenished seasonally, through rain and snow that generally falls between October…
Public finances reach Court of Audit
On April 6, 2018, at CEDRE, donor countries pledged $10.2 billion in loans and $860 million in grants to Lebanon to fund long-awaited infrastructure projects in the country. However, the donor countries and organizations require of Lebanon a long list of fiscal, structural, and sectoral reforms in order to release the funds, of which anti-corruption…
Bel Lebnééné calls for Lebanese Arabic to be standardized
Lebanon has a long history as a shipping and trading hub, leveraging its geographical location on the Mediterranean Sea and connecting mainland Europe to the Arab hinterland. It was several thousand years ago that religious texts referenced the peoples of Mesopotamia (in what is now modern day Iraq) first migrating and settling on the coastal…