Economic and digital empowerment of women and girls in Lebanon

Lebanon is facing an unprecedented multidimensional crisis. While the country has been in a systemic crisis for a decade, the situation has worsened considerably since 2020. The explosion of the port of Beirut, the global Covid-19 pandemic, growing political instability and economic collapse have contributed to the rise of extreme poverty in the country. The World Bank estimates that one in five people have lost their jobs since October 2019 and 61% of companies have reduced their permanent staff by an average of 43%. According to the UN Women estimates, more than one in four women (26%) are now unemployed in Lebanon, while nearly 40,000 women have left the labour market, giving up economic activities altogether.

Women’s low economic participation is also explained by social and cultural restrictions and limited access to productive resources, especially finance, and training opportunities. In the digital sector in particular, which offers many economic opportunities, women’s participation is hampered by many barriers, such as unequal access to digital literacy, hardware and mobility (World Bank, 2022). Another barrier is often a lack of confidence in a predominantly male environment.