Policy Responses to Working Street Children in Lebanon

Policy Responses to Working Street Children in Lebanon

Abstract

This report recommends policy responses to address the issue of Working Street Children (WSC) in Lebanon in a manner that is evidence-based and sustainable over the long-term. Accordingly, this report’s recommendations aim to form the basis of a wider policy response to address child labour and its developmental consequences in Lebanese society. The report finds that Lebanon suffers from a dearth of policies and capacity to address WSC and child labour at the legal, institutional and policy levels. Accordingly, this report recommends the Lebanese government implement a series of structural reforms to bolster the effectiveness of a conditional cash transfer programme and a conditional microfinance programme according to a means-tested nationality-based eligibility scheme for households that subsist below the poverty line. In line with the ethical clearance grated to the author by The University of Edinburgh, this report did not collect primary evidence from WSC.

Author: Sami Halabi

Sami Halabi is a policy consultant who covers a range of policy issues and analyses development programmes, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. Sami specialises in analysing policies and programmes in order to provide evidence-based recommendations to policy-makers and international development agencies. Sami holds a Master of Public Policy with Distinction from The University of Edinburgh. View all posts by Sami Halabi