Ground Truth Solutions · InflueAnswers · Lebanese Humanitarian and Development Forum
"We are not numbers in reports and statistics; we are human beings with dreams and aspirations."
Community views on aid and recovery, to drive a more effective and localised crisis response in Lebanon.
Since the March 2026 escalation, Lebanon has faced one of the most severe waves of displacement in its recent history: at least 135 mass displacement orders covering entire villages, more than 375,000 people still displaced from a peak of over a million, and the vast majority - 92% - living outside formal collective shelters, hosted by relatives or renting accommodation. It is precisely this majority, largely invisible to shelter-centred response systems, that this study set out to hear.
Co-written by Ground Truth Solutions and InflueAnswers, and validated with the Lebanese Humanitarian and Development Forum (LHDF) - a platform of more than 90 local and national NGOs - the report brings forward what people told us they need to move from surviving this crisis to rebuilding their lives. The project was funded by the H2H Network's H2H Fund, supported by UK aid.
What People Told Us
- Only 23% of respondents feel any control over decisions affecting their lives; 41% feel explicitly out of control, driven by psychological stress and financial hardship.
- People expect aid to reach those most in need - but only 36% believe that happens in practice.
- 87% expect duty bearers to be transparent about how money is spent in their communities; just 27% perceive that transparency around them.
- Household self-reliance has reached a breaking point: only 8% of households can cover priority needs independently.
- People prioritise stability over temporary relief: 59% identify cash assistance as their most immediate priority, followed by employment (43%) and education (40%).
The findings point to a profound disconnect between communities' expectations and their lived experience of aid operations - and to the under-recognised role of local and national organisations that carried the frontline response for people outside shelters while holding limited influence over planning, funding, and decision-making. The recommendations in the report were developed by LHDF members, with a strong contribution from the advocacy working group.
How the Research Was Done
InflueAnswers led field operations end-to-end. Between May 25 and June 27, 2026, our enumerators conducted 1,006 face-to-face interviews across six governorates - Akkar, North, Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Bekaa, and the South - with Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian respondents, sampled from IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix data and supplemented by LHDF members' operational presence. The survey was complemented by six key informant interviews with local organisations and a focus group discussion with shelter social workers, and preliminary findings were workshopped with LHDF members to develop locally led recommendations.
Fieldwork ran on our proprietary real-time data collection dashboard, giving the research team live visibility into survey progress, enumerator performance, and data quality throughout - under bombings, evacuation orders, and shifting ceasefire lines.