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STORY: UN / UNFPA LEBANON INTERVIEW
TRT: 06:07
SOURCE: UN NEWS / UNFPA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 11 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY / RECENT, BEIRUT, LEBANON
UNFPA - 20 MAY 2026, LEBANESE UNIVERSITY, FACULTY OF PEDAGOGY, BEIRUT, LEBANON
1. Various shots, displaced children and people in the courtyard
UN NEWS - 11 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Anandita Philipose, Representative in Lebanon, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):
“There are now 1.4 million displaced people in Lebanon, which is well over 20 percent of the population. In terms of percentage of population displaced, it's among the highest in the world, because it's a small country. The displacement orders have also continued. Even though there was a ceasefire that was announced on the 17th of April that's still in place, hostilities have not ended. And we still get displacement orders every single day for different parts of Lebanon that people have to leave in a hurry. What this means is that for UNFPA that works on health and protection is that protection needs have risen exponentially.”
UNFPA - 20 MAY 2026, LEBANESE UNIVERSITY, FACULTY OF PEDAGOGY, BEIRUT, LEBANON
3. Various shots, workers build wood frames for shelter
UN NEWS - 11 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Anandita Philipose, Representative in Lebanon, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):
“You've got women and girls who make up more than half of the displaced population living in extremely vulnerable situations; on the streets, in their cars, in overcrowded shelters, in places that deepen their vulnerability and expose them to gender-based violence. We've also got 16,000 pregnant women among those displaced. Again, women who have lost the medical system that they knew and trusted, their doctors, their nurses, their midwives. What this means is that the escalation of the conflict in Lebanon has a direct and disproportionate impact on the women and girls we serve, particularly on their health and protection.”
UNFPA - 20 MAY 2026, LEBANESE UNIVERSITY, FACULTY OF PEDAGOGY, BEIRUT, LEBANON
5. Wide shot, UNFPA Deputy Executive Director for Management Andrew Saberton, and UNFPA Representative in Lebanon Anandita Philipose visits the shelter
6. Med shot, Saberton and Philipose meet with shelter staff
7. Med shot, children in the courtyard
8. Close up, a child getting water from the water tank
9. Med shot, Saberton and Philipose
UN NEWS - 11 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Anandita Philipose, Representative in Lebanon, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):
“The services that they had, which were already extremely limited in the South, were damaged. So, they cannot get life-saving services there. Secondly, we have to understand that if healthcare is constantly under direct attack, people will not go and seek services. Women and girls will rather suffer at home, give birth in difficult situations, than risk going into a hospital that may be bombed.”
UNFPA - 20 MAY 2026, LEBANESE UNIVERSITY, FACULTY OF PEDAGOGY, BEIRUT, LEBANON
11. Wide shot, temporary toilet
12. Med shot, University building
13. Med shot, workers assemble trash bins
14. Wide shot, children in the courtyard
15. Med shot, piles of clothes and personal belonging stored on school desk
UN NEWS - 11 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Anandita Philipose, Representative in Lebanon, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):
“We're reaching both displaced people in shelters on the streets elsewhere, but also people who are still stuck in the south, which is under, you know, daily airstrikes. But the mobile health clinics are basic services. If you still need to do a delivery, it needs to be in a hospital to ensure that you're truly safe. So, while the mobile clinics are absolutely critical for us to reach people with basic health care services, with counselling, with referrals. For pregnant women that are required to give birth, they still need the secondary health care service. So, we also support them at the secondary health care level. But we are unable to do that if health care is under attack.”
UNFPA - 21 MAY 2026, MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH'S CENTRAL DRUG AND SUPPLIES WAREHOUSE, KARANTINE, BEIRUT, LEBANON
17. Various shots, UNFPA supplies and emergency reproductive health kits in the warehouse
UN NEWS - 11 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Anandita Philipose, Representative in Lebanon, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):
“If funding drops dramatically, we will have to start making impossible choices. Which are the centres we stop providing support to? Which are hospitals that we can no longer support people at? The choices we make will have a direct impact on the women and girls. So, I often tell people, don't think of it as funding a UN agency. Think of it funding the women and girls who need that support every single day in the worst circumstances you can imagine. That is the impossible decision we're going to come up against if funding drops or is not sustained.”
UNFPA - 20 MAY 2026, DEKWANE TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, BEIRUT, LEBANON
19. Various shots, tents in the shelter
UN NEWS - 11 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Anandita Philipose, Representative in Lebanon, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):
“Alongside the safety audit, we are also working with partners to do what we call an assessment, a rapid assessment. This is outside of shelters. This is where people are living in cars, on parks, on the beach. And we are saying, what are your protective, all risk factors for gender-based violence. And the preliminary results are deeply, deeply alarming. We are only going to get the final results in another couple of weeks. But the preliminary result show that risk factors are not only high but are growing every single day that people stay in a protracted displacement context.”
UNFPA - 20 MAY 2026, LEBANESE UNIVERSITY, FACULTY OF PEDAGOGY, BEIRUT, LEBANON
21. Various shots, a woman carries a baby
22. Various shots, UNFPA staff meet with women residing in the shelter
23. Med shot, a woman carries a baby
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative in Lebanon, Anandita Philipose warned that the ongoing escalation of violence and displacement is having a severe impact on women and girls across the country.
Four months into the crisis, Philipose told UN News, “there are now 1.4 million displaced people in Lebanon, which is well over 20 percent of the population,” which she said is “among the highest in the world.”
The UNFPA official said, “displacement orders have also continued. Even though there was a ceasefire that was announced on the 17th of April that's still in place, hostilities have not ended. And we still get displacement orders every single day for different parts of Lebanon that people have to leave in a hurry. What this means is that for UNFPA that works on health and protection is that protection needs have risen exponentially.”
She said, women and girls “who make up more than half of the displaced population living in extremely vulnerable situations; on the streets, in their cars, in overcrowded shelters, in places that deepen their vulnerability and expose them to gender-based violence” while there are “16,000 pregnant women among those displaced.”
Philipose said, “services that they had, which were already extremely limited in the South, were damaged. So, they cannot get life-saving services there. Secondly, we have to understand that if healthcare is constantly under direct attack, people will not go and seek services. Women and girls will rather suffer at home, give birth in difficult situations, than risk going into a hospital that may be bombed.”
She said UNFPA is reaching people “who are still stuck in the south, which is under, you know, daily airstrikes,” and noted that “while the mobile clinics are absolutely critical for us to reach people with basic health care services, with counselling, with referrals. For pregnant women that are required to give birth, they still need the secondary health care service.”
The UNFPA official said, “if funding drops dramatically, we will have to start making impossible choices. Which are the centres we stop providing support to? Which are hospitals that we can no longer support people at? The choices we make will have a direct impact on the women and girls. So, I often tell people, don't think of it as funding a UN agency. Think of it funding the women and girls who need that support every single day in the worst circumstances you can imagine. That is the impossible decision we're going to come up against if funding drops or is not sustained.”
She said UNFPA is conducting a preliminary assessment and stressed that “preliminary results are deeply, deeply alarming,” showing that “risk factors are not only high but are growing every single day that people stay in a protracted displacement context.”
