Defining Community Vulnerabilities in Lebanon

To better inform vulnerability targeting, the REACH Initiative (REACH), in partnership with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) launched an assessment of community-level vulnerabilities in the most vulnerable cadastral zones across the country. In September 2014, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) joined the assessment effort to significantly expand geographic and thematic coverage. It was hoped that this assessment would guide humanitarian and development actors towards a more comprehensive way of conceptualising vulnerability at community level, and provide key recommendations for developing a vulnerability ranking index to improve targeting in relation to vulnerability. In addition, in support of operational humanitarian
and development actors, 207 individual community profiles have been produced, detailing key indicators related to priority needs, demographic pressure, income & poverty, shelter, WASH and education.