This study examines efforts towards refugee self-reliance through waste picking among Syrian refugee children in Beirut and interrogates the gap between global policy discourse and local realities. While self-reliance is promoted in the Global Compact on Refugees as a pathway to support refugees to meet their needs and sustain livelihoods until durable solutions – such as integration, resettlement, or voluntary return – are realised, in Lebanon it often unfolds in conditions of legal exclusion and informal governance, pushing refugees into precarious livelihoods rather than enabling genuine autonomy.

Drawing on qualitative research with refugee waste pickers and institutional stakeholders, the study shows that children play a central role in Beirut’s informal recycling economy, yet remain unprotected and exposed to criminalisation, health risks, and economic exploitation. In response, the report proposes short-term policy measures focused on urban inclusion and work-based learning to improve immediate work conditions. It further outlines medium-term pathways to expand alternative livelihoods and calls for longer-term structural reforms to strengthen refugees’ access to legal residency and education, while regulating the recycling sector to reduce exploitation.

Read the full study here.