This paper attempts to identify some of the many aspects of poverty in Lebanon and the structural conditions that underlie them. It presents relevant findings from two ethnographic research projects led by the author in rural and urban areas of the country. Data collected using qualitative methods, such as interviews and observations of groups and individuals, has been subjected to thematic analysis, which reveals the presence of two major poverty-related themes in both of the communities studied: economic hardship and the inadequate marketing of local agricultural produce; and poor access to the health services and education available to more affluent sectors of the population. The paper indicates that the root causes of poverty and its manifestations in Lebanon are structural in nature and are the consequences of an interplay of factors at many levels. At the national level, the lack of a development policy and of appropriate regulation of foreign labour, in addition to regional political and economic conditions have exacerbated social inequality in Lebanon’s low-income and war-affected areas.