Since 2011, the southern and eastern Mediterranean countries have experienced a succession of revolts and regime changes in what has become known as the Arab Spring. These upheavals focused attention on poor employment prospects as one of the main causes of social instability in the region and highlighted the importance of European Union (EU) cooperation with its neighbours on these issues. A structured Euro-Mediterranean policy dialogue on employment was initiated in 2008 to address this problem. Reform of the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2011 gave greater importance to job creation and inclusive growth in the region (European Commission, 2011a; and 2011b).

This report includes a short description of the recent political context in Lebanon. It covers issues such as the impact of the Arab Spring on the economy and employment, the emergence of new players and actors, and recent policy changes (such as government, donors or funding).

Section 1 provides an overview of the labour market and the impact of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon and Section 2 describes key labour market challenges such as the skills gap and the skills mismatch. Section 3 provides an overview of actors in the policy environment, their roles and institutional capacities, while Section 4 provides an overview of current employment policy measures in Lebanon. Recommendations for the development of employment policies and programmes are presented at the end of the paper.