SDR are a precious resource and the decision on how best to use them rests with our member countries. And this last sentence poses serious questions in Lebanon.
Many would have actually hoped this amount of money be saved for better times, despite how critically relief is needed. Based on the above, and with many being highly concerned that this amount of dollars could be a curse prolonging the present situation and the persistent bad management of public funds, voices have risen to propose various ways of benefiting from it without allowing the present elites to misspend it before the upcoming elections.
Options vary from immediate consumption to long term investment, including subsidies, central bank support, relief, hospitals, fuel imports, power plants, schools, and others. The Citizen Foundation believes in options that leverage this amount over the long term, instead of depleting the resources in one shot, but such options require an institutional setup that is missing in Lebanon today, with no will to establish it.
The remaining amount — the largest part — should be used along the same guidelines. Schools could be gradually followed by universities, hospitals, municipalities, and the airport. As a matter of example, an existing study shows that providing all schools in Lebanon with the required energy has a payback that is below two years. The calculation is based on the number of public and private schools, on the surfaces of their roofs, and the solar energy that can be generated from those surfaces.
The same applies for universities, municipalities, and Beirut airport. And schools and universities nationwide use about MW, which brings the total cost of solar to about. Using a minor part of the SDRs to finance such an operation and to leverage further financing from international institutions would have a very positive long term impact on the energy sector, and would provide a sustainable solution to the education sector, on top of a flow of revenue from the gradual reimbursement of the investment by private institutions.
