Vulnerability Assessment of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, 2020 - Lebanon

Abstract
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Nine years into the Syria conflict, Lebanon remains at the forefront of one of the worst humanitarian crises. The economic downturn, steep inflation, COVID-19 and finally the Beirut blast have pushed vulnerable communities in Lebanon - including Syrian refugees - to the brink, with thousands of families sinking further into poverty.
The Government of Lebanon (GoL) estimates that the country hosts 1.5 million1 of the 6.6 million Syrians who have fled the conflict since 2011 (including 879,529 registered with UNHCR as of end of September 2020 ). The Syrian refugee population in Lebanon remains one of the largest concentration of refugees per capita in the world.
The 2020 Vulnerability Assessment of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon (VASyR) was the eighth annual survey assessing the situation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon to identify changes and trends in their vulnerabilities. Given the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon, most assessments and other activities requiring in person visits were either cancelled or postponed. Considering the prolonged socio-economic status in Lebanon and COVID-19, it was crucial to provide needs-based estimates on Syrian refugees in the country. Thus, the VASyR 2020 was one of the few assessments that were conducted face-to-face; the implementation was accompanied by a comprehensive protocol to ensure the safety of families and field workers. The criticality of conducting the VASyR 2020 was to provide insights about Syrian refugees impacted by the political and economic crisis that hit Lebanon in late 2019 and by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Geographic coverage
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National coverage

Analysis unit
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Household and individual

Kind of data
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Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure
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Sampling for the VASyR follows a two-stage cluster approach, keeping with the methodology of previous years. UNHCR database of known Syrian refugees as of June 2020 served as the sample frame. Cases with missing addresses were excluded. Sampling was based on a "30 x 7" two-stage cluster scheme initially developed by the World Health Organization. This method outlines a sample size of 30 clusters per geographical area and seven households per cluster which provides a precision of +/- 10 percentage points. Districts were considered as the geographical level within which 30 clusters were selected. There are 26 districts in Lebanon, where Beirut and Akkar each represent a district and a governorate. As such, to ensure similar representativeness with other governorates, an additional two cluster samples were considered for each, yielding 90 cluster selections for each. The governorate of Baalbek Hermel is made up of only two districts, as such, and to ensure an adequate sample in that governorate, one additional cluster sample was considered.

The primary sampling unit was defined as the village level (i.e. cluster) and UNHCR cases served as the secondary sampling unit. A case was defined as a group of people who are identified together as one unit (usually immediate family/household) under UNHCR databases. Using Emergency Nutrition Assesment (ENA) software, villages were selected using probability proportionate to size where villages with a larger concentration of refugees was more likely to be selected and 30 clusters/villages were selected with four replacement clusters, per district.

In order to estimate the sample size needed to generate results that are representative on a district, governorate and national level, the following assumptions were used:
- 50% estimated prevalence
- 10% precision
- 1.5 design effect
- 5% margin of error

Using the above parameters, 165 cases per district/cluster selection was required, leading to a target of 5,115 cases nationally. Due to the known high level of mobility of the Syrian refugee population and based on experience in previous rounds of VASyR and other household level surveys, a 40% non-response rate was considered.

Mode of data collection
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Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument
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The 2020 VASyR questionnaire consisted of around 580 questions that collected data at the household level and individual level including demographics, legal documentation, safety and security, shelter, WASH, health, food security, livelihoods, expenditures, food consumption, debt, coping strategies and assistance, as well as questions specifically relating to women, children and people with disabilities.

{'Abstract': '在叙利亚冲突持续九年之际，黎巴嫩依然处于全球最严重的人道主义危机的前沿。经济衰退、恶性通胀、COVID-19疫情以及最终的贝鲁特大爆炸，将黎巴嫩脆弱的社会群体——包括叙利亚难民——推向了深渊，成千上万的家庭进一步陷入贫困。
黎巴嫩政府（GoL）估计，该国收容了自2011年冲突以来逃离的660万叙利亚人中的150万人（截至2020年9月底，联合国难民署注册的有879,529人）。在黎巴嫩的叙利亚难民人口，依然是全球每平方公里难民集中度最高的地区之一。
2020年黎巴嫩叙利亚难民脆弱性评估（VASyR）是对叙利亚难民在黎巴嫩状况的第八次年度调查，旨在识别其脆弱性的变化和趋势。鉴于黎巴嫩COVID-19大流行的影响，大多数评估和其他需要现场访问的活动要么被取消，要么被推迟。考虑到黎巴嫩长期的社会经济状况和COVID-19疫情，提供基于需求的叙利亚难民估计数据至关重要。因此，2020年的VASyR是少数面对面进行的评估之一；其实施伴随着一套全面的协议，以确保家庭成员和现场工作人员的安全。进行2020年VASyR的关键性在于，为2019年底袭击黎巴嫩的政治和经济危机以及COVID-19疫情爆发对叙利亚难民的影响提供洞见。', 'Geographic coverage': '全国范围', 'Analysis unit': '家庭和个人', 'Kind of data': '样本调查数据 [ssd]', 'Sampling procedure': 'VASyR的抽样遵循两年级聚类方法，与往年方法一致。截至2020年6月，联合国难民署已知的叙利亚难民数据库作为样本框架。地址缺失的案例被排除在外。抽样基于“30 x 7”两年级聚类方案，该方案最初由世界卫生组织开发。此方法规定了每个地理区域的30个聚类样本和每个聚类7个家庭，提供±10个百分点的精确度。区被考虑为包含30个聚类的地理级别，其中贝鲁特和阿卡各代表一个区和省。因此，为了确保与其他省的相似代表性，每个省额外考虑了两个聚类样本，从而产生了每个省90个聚类的选择。巴勒贝克赫尔梅尔省仅由两个区组成，因此，为了确保在该省有足够的样本，额外考虑了一个聚类样本。
主要抽样单位定义为村庄级别（即聚类），联合国难民署案例作为二级抽样单位。案例被定义为在联合国难民署数据库中被识别为同一单位的群体（通常是直系家庭/家庭），使用紧急营养评估（ENA）软件，根据概率比例大小选择村庄，其中难民集中度较高的村庄更有可能被选中，并在每个区选择了30个聚类/村庄，每个区有四个替换聚类。
为了估计生成具有代表性的区、省和国家级别结果的所需样本量，使用了以下假设：
- 50%的估计患病率
- 10%的精确度
- 1.5的设计效应
- 5%的误差范围
使用上述参数，每个区/聚类选择需要165个案例，导致全国目标为5,115个案例。由于已知叙利亚难民群体的高度流动性以及基于之前VASyR轮次和其他家庭水平调查的经验，考虑了40%的非响应率。', 'Mode of data collection': '面对面 [f2f]', 'Research instrument': '2020年VASyR问卷包含约580个问题，收集了家庭层面和个人层面的数据，包括人口统计、法律文件、安全与保障、住所、WASH、健康、食品安全、生计、支出、食物消费、债务、应对策略和援助，以及专门针对女性、儿童和残疾人士的问题。'}