{"title":"Possibilities and Challenges: Social Protection and COVID-19 Crisis in Jordan","authors":"A. Alijla","doi":"10.28943/cskc.002.90003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.28943/cskc.002.90003","url":null,"abstract":"The social protection systems in Jordan face significant challenges, which undermine the country’s ability to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. In fact, this crisis has highlighted the need for economic and financial reform, as the current institutions are not honouring their promises despite the developments in the past decade. Moreover, the crisis has left a tremendous impact on families and communities, including the loss of income and the lack of access to adequate healthcare. The Jordanian government has taken measures to curb the spread of the pandemic but could not establish an effective plan to protect the most vulnerable groups who lack access to advanced social protection systems. The government of Jordan has developed several programmes to cushion the social and economic effects of the pandemic on the most venerable workers in the country. This report describes the different programmes and the mechanisms used to reach the country’s most vulnerable groups. It focuses specifically on informal workers, women, and the youth. The report also shows that Jordan has used its existing social protection systems to reach vulnerable people through emergency cash transfer programmes, either by expanding the already existing programme (Takaful) or creating new ones (Tamkin Iqtisadi, Himaya, Musanid). The Jordanian government’s responsiveness and effectiveness were conditioned and restrictive towards women, informal workers, and refugees. This report analyses the government's response in an attempt to identify gaps in the Jordanian social protection system and how it can be further developed.","PeriodicalId":241337,"journal":{"name":"Civil Society Knowledge Centre","volume":"169 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126927597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gulf States’ Humanitarian Assistance for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon","authors":"S. Schmelter","doi":"10.28943/CSKC.001.70000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.28943/CSKC.001.70000","url":null,"abstract":"The humanitarian engagement of Gulf States has globally increased over the last two decades. This trend also manifests itself in Lebanon, where the displacement from Syria has lead to an unprecedented growth of Lebanon’s diverse humanitarian sector. Due to the weakness of state institutions and the absence of a concerted government strategy, UN-institutions took a leading role in the coordination of international and local NGOs. However, numerous Gulf-funded organisations function largely outside the UN-coordinated response and rely on their own coordination structures. This paper explores these structures and characteristics of humanitarian assistance for Syrians displaced in Lebanon running primarily on Gulf funding. Thereby it focuses particularly on two umbrella organisations, URDA and I’tilaf, that are largely Gulf-funded and coordinate the work of numerous faithbased humanitarian organisations. Based on ethnographic field research – which was mainly conducted in 2014 and 2016 – the paper examines positions and negotiations within these humanitarian structures. These ethnographic insights are completed by an analysis of the available data and literature on Islamic charitable giving and funding trends in Lebanon. Coordination among the different humanitarian actors has repeatedly been a matter of complaint and discussion in both interviews and international reports: The lack of comprehensive coordination structures, the subsequent inefficiency in the use of funds, and the unsatisfying inclusion of local stakeholders are among the main points of critique. Here, Gulf-funded humanitarian assistance for Syrian refugees in Lebanon shows alternative models and approaches in regard to operating standards, administrative procedures, planning, reporting, and contact to the local population. Yet, ad hoc deliveries with few administrative procedures and a lack of transparency simultaneously expose the Gulf donors also to accusations of the misuse of funds and diminish accountability towards donors, beneficiaries and possible cooperation partners. This, finally, raises questions regarding the possibilities of the multilateral system to provide forums for exchange, efficient coordination, and mediation between conflicting positions.","PeriodicalId":241337,"journal":{"name":"Civil Society Knowledge Centre","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121917846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Civil Society in Lebanon: the Implementation Trap","authors":"Marie-Noëlle AbiYaghi, Léa Yammine, Amreesha Jagarnathsingh","doi":"10.28943/CSKC.002.70000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.28943/CSKC.002.70000","url":null,"abstract":"This article sheds light on how funding dynamics contribute to shaping the civil society sector in Lebanon.","PeriodicalId":241337,"journal":{"name":"Civil Society Knowledge Centre","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132154667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Government (non-)formation in contemporary Lebanon: sectarianism, power-sharing, and economic immobilism","authors":"Catherine Batruni, M. Hallinan","doi":"10.28943/CSKC.002.60002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.28943/CSKC.002.60002","url":null,"abstract":"Four months after the parliamentary elections, the Lebanese state is still without a government. Politicians have been hindering the configuration of a new cabinet in order to maximise their own personal gains. This paper probes the positions of the most prominent political parties in the country, namely the Lebanese Forces, Free Patriotic Movement, Progressive Socialist Party, Lebanese Democratic Party, Future Movement, and Hezbollah, and examines the repercussions of this political vacuum on the economy. We raise the question: why does Lebanon continually find itself in this recurring situation where it is incapable of forming a timely government after elections? We argue that the political structure and sectarian arrangement of the Lebanese government allow such dysfunction to flourish through an absence of accountability measures in the constitution and a prioritizing of sectarian equilibrium as the primary factor in electing a government.","PeriodicalId":241337,"journal":{"name":"Civil Society Knowledge Centre","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129073126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Robustness of Sectarian Politics in Lebanon: Reflections on the 2018 Elections","authors":"M. Arnous","doi":"10.28943/CSKC.002.60000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.28943/CSKC.002.60000","url":null,"abstract":"Nine years after the last parliamentary elections, almost half of Lebanese voters cast their ballots on 6 May 2018, against expectations of a much higher turnout. The results of the elections marked a shift in the weight of coalitions among established political parties within a robust political system that is divided along sectarian lines, at the expense of new independent voices from civil society actors, that a proportional law should have advanced. This article attempts to analyse the results of the elections with regard to traditional parties, as well as the new so-called “civil society” candidates, while drawing inferences on the behaviour of the Lebanese voter.","PeriodicalId":241337,"journal":{"name":"Civil Society Knowledge Centre","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127681248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"المراكز البحثية ودورها في صنع السياسة الخارجية المغربية","authors":"Rachid El-Bazzim, Amal El Houasni","doi":"10.28943/cskc.002.90000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.28943/cskc.002.90000","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":241337,"journal":{"name":"Civil Society Knowledge Centre","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127242316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The October 2019 Protests in Lebanon: Between Contention and Reproduction","authors":"Marie-Noëlle AbiYaghi, Léa Yammine","doi":"10.28943/cskc.001.80000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.28943/cskc.001.80000","url":null,"abstract":"The Lebanese power sharing consociational system has structurally engendered recurring protest cycles: student mobilisations, labour and union mobilising, left-wing collectives, as well as a more routinised associative sector. In a long temporality, and looking at these movements in a longitudinal approach, changes they appear to be seeking appear to be marginal or quite limited, which may lead to the observation that contentious movements play the role of mere relief outlet within the system they are challenging, hence, contributing to the permanence of the social and political structures they are challenging. The past year has witnessed the emergence of a mobilisation cycle in the country that displays a continuity with previous forms of organising, although unprecedented in terms of its geographical spread over the territory. To understand how this current protest cycle unfolds, its dynamics, and limits, we propose to consider how social actors “move” in a contested, competitive, ever-shifting and evolving arena, rather than a homogeneous one. We rely on a three-fold conceptual approach that focuses on the analysis of the interactions and dynamics between actors, and the strategies they employ: persuasion, coercion, and retribution.","PeriodicalId":241337,"journal":{"name":"Civil Society Knowledge Centre","volume":"125 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124202300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}