Lebanon Country Brief

About

Country Context

Lebanon is a country in the Middle East that lies on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea with a population of around 6 million people living in an area of 10,452 km². The country is bordered by the Syrian Arab Republic to the north and east and the occupied State of Palestine to the south.

For more than three decades, Lebanon has been grappling with multiple crises that have led to a situation of fragility and transition. The 15-year Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), which severely impacted all aspects of the Lebanese economy, including the health sector, resulted in the degradation of public services, the exodus of human resources, and the destruction of most infrastructure. Since 2011, the ongoing refugee crisis, which increased Lebanon’s population by around 30 percent, has placed undue pressure on infrastructure, service delivery, and public finances of the health care system.

More recently, the economic crisis, the October 17, 2019, popular uprising, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Beirut seaport explosion in 2020 have left the country struggling with increased poverty levels and higher unemployment rates.

Overview of Community Health

The Lebanese health system is best described as a fragmented and pluralistic system with service delivery predominantly dispensed by a private sector whose resources are heavily dependent on public licensing and funding. Given the fragmentation of the health system and to counter the lack of resources, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has developed an inclusive, participatory, and negotiation-based leadership model of collaborative governance. This model brings together both public and private stakeholders in consensus-oriented networks.

Consequently, the national primary health care network (PHCN) was established by the MoPH in 1996 as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). This network incorporates Primary Health Care Centres (PHCCs), mostly affiliated with NGOs and municipalities, with the aim of regulating and maintaining service delivery at PHCCs and improving access to quality health care, particularly for the most vulnerable.

While PHCCs provide an agreed-upon comprehensive package of services, the MoPH offers in-kind support, including guidelines, training, health education materials, vaccines, essential drugs, medical supplies, and occasionally equipment. Moreover, community outreach is intended to be part of the national accreditation programme for primary health care centres within the PHCN. Therefore, although community health is not formally integrated into health service delivery systems in Lebanon, it is accounted for within the PHCN.