1. Introduction
This research reflects the understanding, perceptions, motivation and experiences of 11 national and local organisations in Lebanon that are active and involved in humanitarian response. It is based on a desire to hear what they have to say in their own terms.
Using and adapting Grounded Theory for data collection and analysis, ALNAP conducted intensive interviews with the organisations, without applying a preconceived hypothesis to validate or refute and without pre-established questionnaires and assumptions as to who these organisations are, how they work and what they should be achieving. The aim of the research was to pose one question to research participants and actively listen to their answers: What are your experiences, motivations, practices and engagement in humanitarian response in Lebanon?
More than 300 pages of transcripts from interviews were analysed and coded line by line, to let the interviewees’ concepts, understandings and meanings emerge.
This report does not claim to represent the wide diversity of Lebanese civil society.
Rather, it delves into understanding how these organisations conceive and implement actions and processes to support individuals and population affected by conflict, inequality, exclusion, discrimination, displacement and violence in Lebanon, showing common patterns and trends that have resonance among the organisations interviewed. Additional country profiling and contextual interviews with national coordination bodies and local think-tanks informed and triangulated the research.
Among the organisations interviewed were large ones established during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990); younger ones – some of them constituted by self-organised Lebanese and Syrian volunteers and activists – derived from the Syrian uprising, conflict and the arrival of an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees; and several feminist ones created at the beginning of the 2000s.
The report is organised in four sections, according to the main themes and processes emerging from analysis of the interviews. These themes were those most frequently raised and discussed with the greatest intensity by the organisations interviewed.
Keeping a close consideration of what participants said about themselves, helps us to go beyond simple description to a deeper analysis of elements which lie at the core of their collective action and organisational work.
The first theme explored in section 2 is around the organisations’ identity, motivations and practices, by looking at emerging patterns as to how they understand collective action and how they shape and define their organisational identity and roles. It is based on the key idea that the organisations interviewed for this research ‘know their wounds.’
This knowledge often enables them to mediate between international actors and affected communities – ‘People come sometimes and ask us how to deal with this.’
Their position and understanding of the Lebanese context and what humanitarian action means for them, enables the emergence of a crafted collective action to heal wounds.
Section 3 addresses the influence the context of Lebanon has on the work of the organisations, and further factors that help shape their work. Fragmentation is defined as a key feature of the context. Two further themes are explored here: the complexities of the recurrent crisis, including violence in all its forms, from armed confrontation to discriminatory and harmful practices towards particular social groups; and organisations’ conflictive relationship with a state, defined by the sectarian nature of Lebanese political and social systems. The overall discussion is on how violence and sectarianism have shaped and influenced the experiences and meanings interviewees give to working with affected communities.
Perceptions around humanitarian response and particularly the international humanitarian system’s involvement in Lebanon are analysed in section 4. It specifically addresses historical aspects of international involvement in Lebanon and the effects of the Syrian uprising and crisis in the country.
Interviewees often expressed their frustration with the forces that led to fragmentation in the Lebanese context, as well as with the perceived impositions by both the state and international actors. National and local organisations challenge these authorities, to claim their own agency and resist the forces of fragmentation and the imposition of authority. It is from their position of knowledge and understanding of their own wounds that they engage in redress and collective action, going beyond basic needs to encompass transformational social goals. Organisations actively defined themselves as much by their common opposition to the fragmentation and impositions that permeate humanitarian response, as by their shared passion to contribute to the dignified treatment of people affected by crisis.