The World Bank issued a statement on July 29, 2021 in which it notified the Lebanese government of the effectiveness of the Emergency Social Safety Net Loan (ESSN) as of July 28, 2021 pursuant to the fulfillment of the Lebanese government of all the terms & conditions of the loan agreement. It is worth noting that the $246 million project was approved on January 12, 2021 and aims to secure emergency cash transfers and access to social services to around 786,000 poor and vulnerable Lebanese who are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the World Bank mentioned that it is looking forward to the immediate and effective fulfillment of the disbursement conditions under the loan so that the project kicks-in. According to the announcement, the conditions precedent of the loan agreement to enter the implementation phase are as follows:

-       Establishing the “Grievance Redress Mechanism” within the Ministry of Social Affairs

-       Signing the “Output Agreement” with the World Food Program to implement cash transfers

-    Appointing a third party monitoring agent that will conduct independent external validation and verify the implementation of the project

-       Verification of the beneficiaries eligible to receive cash transfers as agreed upon with the World Bank

Furthermore, the World Bank stated that it remains committed to guaranteeing the immediate and rapid implementation of the project in order to provide support to the extreme poor Lebanese households in full transparency.