“Lebanon, a small country with a surface area of 10,452 km2 and a mountainous nature, is located on the east of the Mediterranean Sea in western Asia and bounded by Syria in the north and the east and Palestine in the south. Since it is located in a water-deficient region, Lebanon’s most valuable natural resource is water; yet, it is substantially lost due to suboptimal management. Lebanon was founded in September 1920 and the Lebanese constitution was written in 1926 declaring it as a free economy, parliamentary democracy, and secular Arab state. Amended after the independence in 1943 and revisited in 1990 through the Ta’if Accord, the constitution acknowledges the rights of each religious community, but demands the eventual elimination of political confessionalism, officially recognizing over 18 religious sects.1, 2 Approximately, 4.467 million is the total estimated population,3 but no precise numbers on the population distribution per sect are present, since the only population census that was performed was when Lebanon was still under the French mandate in 1932. More than 220,000 Palestinians live in refugee camps and ~40,000 Iraqi refugees as well as an additional 100,000 workers including domestic workers and semi-skilled workers, majorly from Egypt, African, and South East Asian countries, reside in the country.2 While Lebanon’s demographic and confessional diversity is considered a national resource, it also represents significant challenges to political and national unity during a period of regional unrest. The hardness in establishing a new government and reconciling on a new electoral law exhibit the magnitude of political polarization.1” (Zeinab et al 2016, 165-166)
Citations
UNDP . About Lebanon. 2015. UNDP; 2013. [Accessed December 1, 2015]. Available from: http://www.lb.undp.org/content/lebanon/en/home/countryinfo/
2. Country Cooperation Strategy. Cairo: World Health Organization; 2010. Country Cooperation Strategy for WHO and Lebanon 2010–2015; pp. 15–18.
3. PreventionWeb Basic Country Statistics and Indicators (2014) [Accessed December 1, 2015]. Available from: http://www.preventionweb.net/countries/jpn/data/
Cherri, Zeinab, Gonzalez, Pedro Arcos, and Delgado, Rafael Castro, “The Lebanese–Syrian crisis: impact of influz of Syrian refugees to an already weak state”, Dove Press Journal: Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 2016. Pages 165 – 172. Retrieved open access: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4948691/pdf/rmhp-9-165.pdf