The Human Development Report is published by UNDPsince 1990 as independent, empiricallygrounded analyses of major developmentissues, trends and policies.  

This report assesses the impact of Lebanon’s current economic crisis on the socio-economic status of 180,000 Palestinian refugees living in the country. Since 2019, Lebanon’s economy has been locked in a prolonged crisis triggered by a debt default that has seen the currency lose 98 per cent of its value and inflation rocket to 200 per cent. This has caused a surge in the prices of daily necessities such as food, domestic fuel and transportation. Palestinians have been on the frontline of this economic crisis. Displaced from their homeland since 1948, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have never been naturalized, are excluded from 39 syndicated occupations and denied property rights. Their marginal status has been exacerbated by the arrival of 29,000 Palestinian Refugees from Syria (PRS) who have fled the civil war in Syria. This has created a race to the bottom in terms of competition for low paying jobs in the informal sector. Palestinians have also been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and their health, education and living conditions are deteriorating as a consequence of Lebanon’s economic meltdown. The report is based on three field visits to nine Palestinian camps in Lebanon in 2022 and the latest research by UN agencies working in the country.

This report examines the impact of the near decade long war in Syria on Palestinian refugees.  Since 2011, 60 per cent of Palestinian Refugees Syria (PRS) have been displaced at least once, more than 4,000 have been killed and three Palestinian camps in Syria have been destroyed. In the same period, 77,329 Palestinian refugees have been born into highly vulnerable and impoverished communities with the UN reporting 95 per cent of PRS in need of ‘sustained humanitarian assistance’.  29,000 PRS have fled to neighbouring Lebanon where Palestinian Refugees Lebanon (PRL) endure a permanent ‘foreigner’ status without citizenship, property rights and access to nearly 40 occupations.  The report considers the impact of the ongoing Syrian war on PRS and PRL in the context of the current economic upheaval in Lebanon, cuts to the budget of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and the COVID-19 pandemic.