Table 1 Key definitions

LMIC (Low and Middle-Income Country): According to the World Bank’s definitions, drawing on 2020 figures, low-income economies have a gross national income (GNI) per capita of $1025 or less; the GNI per capita of lower middle-income is between $1025 and $3995; and upper middle-income economies like Lebanon have a GNI per capita of between $3996 and $12,375 [8].

Capacity strengthening: As a working definition, capacity strengthening can be understood as a process of developing, upgrading and/or expanding pre-existing capabilities at individual, organisational, and institutional levels to plan, conduct, and disseminate evidence-based knowledge [9]. The individual level includes researchers and research teams; the organisational level is composed of university research departments, think tanks and similar organisations; and the institutional level encompasses the regulatory environment and includes governmental bodies and policymakers [10].

Conflict and conflict-affected: Conflict, as used here, refers to violent armed struggle between hostile groups, resulting in over 25 battle-related deaths per year [11]. We use conflict-affected in accordance to the World Bank’s definition to indicate areas that may not be bearing the brunt of violence, as it is the case in Lebanon, but still experience high levels of institutional and social fragility as a result of conflict, for example in the form of an influx of refugees or internally displaced populations [12].

Protracted Conflict: Hostile interactions that extend over long periods with sporadic outbreaks of open warfare fluctuating in frequency and intensity [13].

MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Region: Covers 24 countries, namely the 21 members of the Arab League (Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen), as well as Iran, Israel and Turkey [14, 15].

East Mediterranean Region (EMR): As indicated by WHO, it includes 19 members of the Arab League (Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen), along with Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan [16].