Poverty and livelihoods among unhcr registered refugees in Lebanon

Refugee Survey Quarterly

Volumn 32, Issue 1, 2013, Pages 24-49

  Chaaban, Jad M ^a   Seyfert, Karin ^a   Salti, Nisreen I ^b   El makkaoui, Gheed S ^a  

^a AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT   (Lebanon)

^b The Department of Economics of the AUB   (Lebanon)

Author keywords

Iraqi refugees; Livelihoods assets; Poverty; Targeting

Indexed keywords

ASYLUM SEEKER; HOUSEHOLD SURVEY; POVERTY; REFUGEE; SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS; TARGETING; UNITED NATIONS;

BEIRUT; BEYROUTH; LEBANON;

EID: 84874169248     PISSN: 10204067     EISSN: 1471695X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/rsq/hds022     Document Type: Article

References (50)

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6. UNHCR registers "cases" which most commonly involves a head of household and his or her dependents, if present.
7. The algorithm used was the following: from the chosen starting point, the supervisor will enter the third building on her right. She will approach a household on the left-hand side of the first floor. If the household is not eligible to participate, the supervisor will continue on her random walk. She will leave the building and enter the third building on her left, continuing to the second floor and selecting a door to her right. If she is unsuccessful she will continue on, entering the third building on her left, approaching the household to her right on the third floor. If the supervisor comes to a junction, she will take alternating left and right turns. Once she reaches the top of a building she will start again from the bottom.
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24. G. Bickel, M. Nord, C. Price, W. Hamilton & J. Cook, Guide to Measuring Household Food Security - Revised 2000, Guide, Alexandria, VA, United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Analysis, Nutrition, and Evaluation, 2000, available at: (last visited 17 Oct. 2012http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsec/files/fsguide.pdf
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26. Central Administration for Statistics, Living Conditions Survey, Beirut, Central Administration for Statistics, 2008.
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31. Chaaban et al., Socio-Economic Survey.
32. This excludes single person households.
33. UNHCR, International Organization for Migration (IOM), The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Ministry of Displacement and Migration (Iraq) (MoDM) & Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Socio-Economic Conditions of Internally Displaced Persons and their Intentions, Survey conducted during 2006 and 2007, Limited Distribution, UNHCR, IOM, UNOPS, MoDM & KRG, 2007, available at: (last visited 17 Oct. 2012http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/E088A76E57A90BF58525747900546BFC-Full_ Report.pdf
34. UNHCR, UNICEF & World Food Programme (WFP), Assessment on the Situation of Iraqi Refugees in Syria, Report, UNHCR, UNICEF & WFP, 2006, available at: (last visited 17 Oct. 2012http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/ documents/ena/wfp119686.pdf
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37. Chaaban et al., Socio-Economic Survey.
38. Note that education levels for the Lebanese population are calculated for the population of 3 years and older, while the Palestinian and UNHCR registered rates are calculated for all those 16 years old or older. Lebanese rates cited above are thus lower than they would be had the 16 years or above age bracket been used. As for Iraqis who are 3 years and older, results show that 67 per cent have completed primary school, 46 per cent completed intermediate school, 25 per cent finished secondary school, and 6 per cent have a university degree.
39. Chaaban et al., Socio-Economic Survey.
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41. Chaaban et al., Socio-Economic Survey.
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44. H. Laithy, K. Abou-Ismail & K. Hamdan, Poverty, Growth and Income Distribution in Lebanon, Country Study No. 13, International Poverty Centre, Jan. 2008, available at:(last visited 17 Oct. 2012http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/ IPCCountryStudy13.pdf
45. Our welfare aggregate does not include a "rental equivalent" for durables, as we do not have information on the current prices, age, and condition of durable goods owned by households. Moreover, the imputed expenditure value of owned cars was not included in the expenditure aggregate, as only 5 per cent of refugee households reported owning a car. The household consumption expenditure was adjusted to include equivalence scales when converting to per capita consumption. The following formula was used:
46. This specification follows the common practice of defining poverty lines (M. Ravallion, Pro-Poor Growth: A Primer, Report No. WPS3243, 2004, available at: (last visited 17 Oct. 2012)). This approach identifies the cost of basic nutritional needs, taking into account different age-sex composition, household size, and prevailing prices in each region. The nutritional needs are specified in line with minimum caloric intake, using tables from the WHO. These reflect different age groups, gender, and whether the individual lives in a rural or urban area. The cost of caloric intake is calculated for different regions on the basis of the consumption patterns of the population. Given individuals' specific caloric needs, and region-specific caloric costs, the cost of meeting the nutritional needs is calculated for each household. The cost of non-nutritional needs is calculated on the basis of the non-food share in household expenditure for those whose total expenditure is equal to merely the cost of nutritional basic needs.http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/ WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2004/06/09/000009486_20040609104122/Rendered/PDF/wps3242growth .pdf
47. Chaaban et al., Socio-Economic Survey.
48. J. Foster, J. Greer & E. Thorbecke, "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures", Econometrica, 52(3), 1984, 761-766.
49. Chaaban et al., Socio-Economic Survey.
50. UNHCR, UNICEF & WFP, Assessment on the Situation of Iraqi Refugees in Syria.