FRENCH STATE AID TO

LEBANON SINCE 2020

2020-2022 Financial years

FLASH AUDIT

June 2023

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Executive Summary

Since 2019, the difficulties that Lebanon had already been experiencing, due in particular

to the heavy consequences of the war in Syria, have been exacerbated by a multifaceted

political, economic, financial and social crisis. The day after the explosion in the port of Beirut

on 5 August 2020, the President of the French Republic expressed the solidarity of the French

nation and launched an aid operation that is intended to continue in the long term. The aim is

to bring relief to the Lebanese people by supporting the efforts of civil society organisations,

and to help them find a way out of the crisis.

From 2020 onwards, annual French government funding for Lebanon has been

multiplied by 2.7. B

etween 2020 and 2022, €214m was spent from public resources

2,45% of

which was devoted to education and training, 25% to health, 10% to food and agriculture, 10%

to reconstruction and the economy, and 10% to civil society.

Four stakeholders have been particularly involved:

-

the Crisis and Support Centre (CDCS) of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign

Affairs (MEAE), which was heavily involved in the days and weeks following the

explosion at the port on 4 August 2020; the CDCS spent €14.56m over three years

and facilitated the delivery of donations in kind from various sources, valued at

€17.7m;

-

the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement, AFD),

which distributed €111m in aid between 2020 and 2022, 90% of which was in the

form of grants;

-

the Agency for French Teaching Abroad (Agence pour l’Enseignement Français à

l’Etranger, AEFE)

, which has a network of 63 approved schools in Lebanon with over

60,000 students; the additional budget allocated to support schools and families

amounted to €33.56m over the period;

-

the United Nations, International Organisations, Human Rights and Francophonie

Department (NUOI) of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, which, over three

years, has disbursed €32.5 million in voluntary contributions to various multilateral

organisations, instructing them to address the needs of the Lebanese and/or refugee

population.

Over the period in question,

the Treasury Directorate General (DGT) committed €7.30m

to finance new bilateral aid projects and €2.1m as part of its contribution to multilateral aid to

Lebanon, via a trust fund dedicated to Lebanon by the World Bank. Of this €9.40m, €4.59m

was disbursed between 2020 and 2022.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General for Globalisation (DGM) at the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs has carried out bilateral aid initiatives directly, in addition to the funding it was already

providing for Lebanon to the aforementioned operators for which it is solely (AEFE) or jointly

responsible (AFD).

Other entities have been asked to contribute smaller amounts, such as the Directorate

for Defence and Security Cooperation (DCDS) of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs,

or the Ministry of Culture and the bodies attached to it.

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In addition to the report on its work produced by each public contributor, the Court's

investigation showed that the process of ensuring data reliability and aggregating it required

additional measures. As the Lebanese crisis has become a long-term one, it is now important

to establish permanent mechanisms for consolidating statistics, in order to provide the tools

needed to measure the consistency, effectiveness and impact of French public aid and

streamline the channelling of financial flows towards the needs of the Lebanese population.

Main conclusions of the audit

Since 2020, the French state has been heavily involved in helping the Lebanese people to cope

with the multifaceted crisis affect

ing them. €214m was spent between 2020 and 2022 on the budget

programmes entrusted to the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the appropriations managed by the

Treasury, the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Culture. This expenditure has mainly

benefited the education (45%) and health (25%) sectors and, to a lesser extent, food and agriculture

(10%), reconstruction and the economy (10%), and civil society (10%).

The main aid stakeholders have been the MEAE's crisis and support centre (CDCS), the AFD

and AEFE operators, and the United Nations and international organisations (NUOI) directorates. Each

public contributor can report on its own activities. But the difficulty in collecting data, ensuring its

reliability, and aggregating it reveals a lack of cross-functional financial management. It is important to

introduce permanent mechanisms for consolidating statistics in order to deliver the necessary tools to

measure the consistency, effectiveness and impact of French public aid and to streamline financial flows

towards the needs of the Lebanese population.