The food system in Lebanon has been pressured by a series of intersecting crises, notably the war in Syria and influx of 1.5 million refugees, economic collapse, the Beirut Blast and the Ukraine war. As a result, poverty is on the rise and a large proportion of people across Lebanon are officially considered vulnerable and experiencing increasing food insecurity. Vulnerable populations in Lebanon rely on various food assistance systems, broadly falling under 1) mainstream regulated emergency food assistance, and 2) informal and ad hoc unregulated food safety nets. The latter is the focus of this project: it comprises local and international ad hoc food support initiatives operating without regulation, reportedly fast-developing, and under-researched. They also often operate through the involvement of large food corporations, though this is poorly understood: following the Beirut Blast, in-kind donations of breast milk substitutes, therapeutic foods and commercial complementary foods were widely distributed without proper needs assessments and outside international standards and regulated channels. Moreover, the Food Banking Regional Network which includes organisations serving Lebanon, is supported by Coca Cola, Kelloggs and Nestlé, though this is not widely advertised and the mechanisms of support are unclear.

A complex systems approach provides a way of conceptualising the particular intricacies and sometimes conflicting demands of informal and ad hoc food safety nets in Lebanon, situating the role of commercial interests within it. The key empirical systems methodthis project will apply is groupmodel building (GMB), an established way of co-producing, with stakeholders, a representation of the multiple variables involved in a given complex problem. The resulting system map is used to identify potential interventions for ‘rewiring’ the system to reach its goal and collaboration opportunities, and as a catalytic ‘touchstone’ for ongoing work. GMB is well suited to capturing the complexities of humanitarian and other crisis settings. It is useful for capturing poorly understood and complex drivers of how and why informal and ad hocfood safety nets are being established, who are the key actors including partnerships with food industry, and what are the mechanisms and power structures within. This research will directly contribute to extending the utility of GMB as an accessible, inclusive, participatory method in and beyond crisis or conflict settings like Lebanon.

The aim of this project is to apply participatory complex systems methods to characterise the informal and ad hocfood safety nets in Lebanon and to identify the drivers and influence of large food corporations within that system, with a view to determining the usefulness of these methods in emergency situations, and developing a toolkit of qualitative systems methods for future use in crisis settings.