[4] In 2021, as the country experienced a severe economic crisis,[5] the United Nations estimated than more than eighty-two percent of the population lived in multidimensional poverty.
[7] Until today, poverty in Lebanon is mostly dealt with from the angle of charity and donation and not from the perspective of citizens' rights and state obligations.
During the six years of Fouad Chehab's presidency, Lebanon developed the first national plan to provide social welfare and tackle poverty.
He was the first to adopt the slogan of "balanced development":[8] He aimed at ensuring that Lebanon's most deprived regions also benefit from the economic boom the country witnesses.
Hence a decree law (5/1977) replaced the Ministry of the Plan with the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) which became the main vehicle for international aid money.
The central administration of statistics (CAS), together with the World Bank, have nonetheless worked on measuring poverty using several proxies.
[11] The 2011–2012 household budget survey estimated that 27% of the total population was leaving below the poverty line, set at £L4,729,000 per person per year (US$3,137 at the official exchange rate at the time).