Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic placed additional stress on governmental hospitals, which have been experiencing financial hardships due to the decreasing purchasing power of citizens in Lebanon. A stable, reliable, and affordable electricity supply is vital for the governmental hospitals to continue providing the first line of defense against the pandemic as well as health services. Without adequate electricity supply, health facilities cannot run equipment such as vaccine refrigerators or use many of the most basic, life-saving medical devices, in an optimal fashion. As such, Lebanese health facilities have been forced to run diesel generators to preserve uninterrupted cold chains for 24 hours, further constraining their already scarce financial resources and threatening sustainable service provision. Given the worsening financial situation in Lebanon, there is a risk that the cost for stable and reliable electricity could further increase or even be unaffordable for these hospitals. Thus, initiatives that assist the public health-care sector in freeing income for backstopping services in a budget-constrained environment, such as energy provision services, will provide more resilience and sustainability in the provision of healthcare. To address this issue, the UNDP project, funded by the German Government through KfW Development Bank, will assist Lebanese public health care institutions (15 institutions) that are tasked to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic to become more cost-effective, comfortable, and environmentally responsible, especially with respect to energy-use. 

Background

The lack of access to modern and reliable energy services, resulted in a negative impact throughout all sectors in Lebanon. Energy provides services to meet many basic human needs, particularly heat, motive power, and light. Without adequate power, healthcare facilities and educational establishments, amongst others, cannot properly provide any of their services. Most facilities are resorting to running diesel generators at excessive costs to ensure business continuity and this is further constraining their already scarce financial resources. Initiatives that thus assist the healthcare and educational sectors in freeing income for backstopping services in a budget-constrained environment, such as the services of energy provision, will provide more resilience in the provision of healthcare and education.