Re-globalization of macro-social responsibility

ENAR

Due to a combination of emergency needs and years of efforts, Lebanon has at the beginning of the year signed off with the World Bank on a USD 246 million loan for implementation of an Emergency Crisis and Covid-19 Response Social Safety Net project, or Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) for short [Editor’s note: the loan was voted upon on March 12th by the Lebanese Parliament]. Following more than a decade in which the country had seen numerous proposals for reform of its antiquated national social security system and subsidy regime, the establishment of the ESSN – which had been pushed forward inch by inch by the earlier creation of a limited National Poverty Targeting Program (NPTP) – conceptually could be a big step towards establishing a more-welfare-inclined Lebanese state. In terms of social and fiscal policies, it could be the turning point on a journey from a free-market practice