UN-Habitat Lebanon has produced two guides that detail how to mainstream housing and transport–mobility into a future National Urban Policy (NUP) in the country. The making of inclusive and sustainable communities is deeply rooted in the interconnectedness of the housing and transport sectors, along with other sectors.

Access to affordable, adequate and secure housing presents a major challenge in Lebanon, especially in big urban centres. The housing sector is characterized by a persistent housing–income disconnect and supply–demand mismatch. Besides long-standing issues, the sector’s challenges have also exacerbated due to the multiple crises facing the country – protracted Syrian refugee crisis, 2020 Beirut Port explosion, and socioeconomic crisis.

The Beirut City Profile offers an important multisectoral and spatial analysis of the City of Beirut, including a diagnosis of the wide spectrum of challenges that the city has encountered over the past decades, including the most recent and devastating shock, the Beirut Port explosion. The profile aims to help offer a common understanding of how multiple shocks and vulnerabilities manifest across the city.

The Beirut City Profile offers an important multisectoral and spatial analysis about the City of Beirut, including a diagnosis of the wide spectrum of challenges that the city has encountered over the past decades, including the most recent and devastating shock, the Beirut Port explosion. The profile aims to help offer a common understanding of how multiple shocks and vulnerabilities manifest across the city.

The overarching goal of the Lebanon 2021–2023 Habitat Country Programme Document (HCPD) is to contribute to improving the living conditions of children, youth, women and men in Lebanon – regardless of their nationality – by creating liveable urban areas that are effectively planned and managed, environmentally sound, financially viable and competitive, and socially cohesive through good and inclusive governance and equitable distribution of resources.

To promote evidence-based programming and coordination among state and non-state actors, UN-Habitat and UNICEF have jointly completed 28 profiles of disadvantaged neighbourhoods across Lebanon. This collaboration responds to the long-standing need for reliable, multi-sectoral spatial data required to inform sustainable development and humanitarian response by all actors.

The Global Compendium of Practices on Local Economic and Financial Recovery includes experiences and lessons from different cities on COVID-19 recovery. The provision of global practices gives cities across the globe an opportunity for peer-learning in developing and implementing their immediate response and recovery plans.

Urban profiling is a methodology implemented in various conflict-affected countries in the region. Through urban profiles, UN-Habitat seeks to provide up to date, holistic documentation and analysis of the impact of the crisis in key cities, synthesising information and insight from existing sources and priority sectors, supplemented by direct field research by UN-Habitat teams based in each city.

The 4 August 2020 Port of Beirut explosions resulted in devastating loss of life, injury and the destruction of vast tracts of urban fabric within the Municipality of Beirutand beyond. Based on initial assessment undertaken by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE), and according to UNESCO, within a 20km radius of the blast, around 80 per cent of schools experienced moderate damage and 20 per cent sustained heavy damage.