|
This document by Naila Nauphal has been prepared as an input to the Action Programme on Skills and Entrepreneurship Training for Countries Emerging from Armed Conflict. This multidisciplinary and interdepartmental programme, under implementation during the 1996-97 biennium, is geared to contributing to the formulation of policy proposals, guidelines for national and international capacity building, training materials, a database and a compendium of relevant initiatives in conflict-affected countries. The programme has undertaken a number of country-level research activities in the different parts of the world on the diverse issues being investigated by it to generate relevant data and insights for the outputs. Ms. Nauphal's report is one example of the country studies.
The situation of women and gender issues in the conflict-affected context constitute a major challenge. This report on Lebanon examines, in the main, the gender impact of the conflict in the country from 1975 to 1990. It observes that the conflict has accentuated poverty, unemployment, low wages and unequal income distribution which have put the weight of reconstruction of the country on those who can least bear it. Women have been more adversely affected by the conflict, which also contributed to changes in gender relations and differences between men and women, in their post-war activities and survival strategies. Ms. Nauphal, inter alia, criticises the atomized approach of the various interventions so far provided by governmental, non-governmental and other bodies to assist women in the country. She stresses the importance of women's groups in reconstruction efforts and in seeking redress to some of the concerns of women in post-conflict Lebanon. The impact of other factors -- legal, cultural and religious -- is also highlighted.
Owing to the limited gender analysis of the conflicts in the Middle East, the Action Programme is circulating this document in the hope that the parts, which are relatively weak, could be strengthened later through comments received from readers.
|
|
The country's history, since its creation in 1920, has been characterized by successive periods of peaceful coexistence and instability, followed by the outbreak of a war in 1975 which lasted 15 years (1975-90). The intensity and longevity of the conflict has had deep human and structural consequences.
The war had a devastating impact on the economy and the labour market. More than 5 per cent of the population died, combined with a massive movement of out-migration which seriously reduced the human capital of the country that was an essential part of its previous development. A large amount of capital flight has accompanied this emigration, depriving the country of much needed financial resources. The destruction of public infrastructure, buildings and communication networks was large scale. Since the Israeli invasion in 1982, a phenomenal slide of the value of the pound started and continued through the remaining years of the war.
Internal migration was a major determining factor of the demographic and social changes that resulted from the war. More than a million people have been displaced; some were permanently dislocated and the rest returned when hostilities ceased. The social fabric of rural and urban communities was severely affected. In most cases, displacement has disrupted the family and social networks. The imbalance in the population distribution is one of the main compelling reasons for the Government to organize the return of the displaced from over-populated areas to the nearly empty places of displacement.
The post-war picture reflects a definite renewal of economic activity and a good degree of optimism in Lebanon. This should not, however, obliterate anxiety about signs of potential problems facing the sustainability of Lebanon's development. Unemployment, low wages and inequitable income distribution are the most crucial problems: they put the weight of reconstruction on those who can bear it the least. The Government's belief that the "trickle down effect" will resolve social problems is mistaken, especially in light of the experience Lebanon has had prior to the war.
The war has modified the living and working conditions of the Lebanese and has been responsible for the impoverishment of a large part of the population. Almost a third of the Lebanese population is estimated to live below the absolute poverty line. Two thirds of the extremely poor live in the rural areas. The weight of poverty falls unequally on various groups. Women, especially the rural ones, are more discriminated against and tend to be unaffected by poverty alleviation measures.
From 1985 onwards the economic crisis reached unprecedented proportions and resulted in:
- reduction of consumption with a qualitative differential effect on women;
- increased involvement of women in both formal and informal economic activities, because of the temporary or permanent inability of men to fulfil their traditional role as household providers;
- extension of the informal sector, partly due to the disintegration of the public sector;
- migration of a large number of active men.
With the changing social structures and gender relations, the collapse of state institutions and services, male-oriented institutions and organizations, the war had a differing impact on the economic stability, access to resources and survival strategies of men and women.
War affected the physical and psychological well-being of the population, but women's vulnerability in health matters is both socially and biologically rooted. Women had more limited access to health care facilities. Further, the reinforcement of their maternal role during the war has led to increased responsibility towards the well-being of their children.
Legal and cultural factors have also contributed to the marginalization of women. The status and conditions of women are determined by the legal premises which define and confine women in a state of subordination. While the Civil Code grants equality for all its citizens, the Personal Status Laws, which regulate gender relationships, contradict all the basic legal principles of equality and non-discrimination. Thus, the State sets the parameters for women's unequal position in the political and family arenas, by accepting the unequal terms on which family laws are based.
In addition, the rise of religious conservatism is a factor whose negative impact on gender relations and on the status of women should be of great concern. The "confessionalization" of the society as a war-related phenomenon has eroded civility, sharpened the segmentation of the social fabric and led to a breakdown of inter-communal relations. The climate of religious intolerance is paralleled by the reinforcement of patriarchal values and can only further weaken women's position.
Women were not passive victims of conflict and their active contribution to the survival of their families and groups remains largely unacknowledged. Women's survival strategies in this context included selling assets such as gold and land which jeopardized their long-term financial security, transforming their domestic skills into marketable ones, and in the worst cases, resorting to socially unacceptable jobs such as prostitution. Women have also taken on tasks usually carried out by men. Their new responsibilities put additional burdens on them as their workload in the domestic arena was not alleviated accordingly. The heavier burdens are shouldered by women heads of households especially in rural areas which were more affected by displacement.
Despite the fact that they were absent from military and political decision-making positions, many women performed war-related tasks and provided essential support for militiamen. Thus, their involvement was through "active resistance".
The war has opened new avenues for women by redefining their role and increasing their involvement in public life. Many women have reorganized their social life around associations and participation in social work and benevolent aid. In Lebanon, new social configurations have emerged as a result of the war. A new organizational life seems to be forming in an attempt to fill a space left by the destruction of the social fabric and the disruption of family life.
The relationship between some war-related phenomena (such as the disruption of the social fabric in Lebanon due to massive population transfers and migration, paralleled by the re-enforcement of sectarian cleavages) with the development of civil society should be studied. In the gap created by the breakdown of family ties there is a potential for the development of a civil society as a base for democracy. Women in post-war Lebanon are eager to join associations which represent alternative support groups.
The reorganization of social interests in a way that cuts across sectarian denominations and traditional affiliations is essential to the establishment of a solid democracy. The importance of labour unions and women's associations in the reconstruction of the country, lies in the fact that they could constitute a cross-cutting, organizational basis which could bring people together around vital issues such as employment, civil and political freedoms. These organizations can thus help overcome the regional, sectarian, and partisan politics that prevailed during the war.
Women have always lacked the public space where they could express their concern and organize their interests in a politically meaningful manner. These groupings are important support systems to women while providing an important escape from an environment that puts too many demands on them. The autonomy they have gained through the war has encouraged them to resist traditionally defined roles and identities imposed on them by their families and society.
The imbalance in policies for intervention in a country emerging from war, in which "war-affected" women receive insufficient attention, is partly due to a lack of sensitivity to gender differences. The difficulty in adequately addressing war-affected women's needs also stems from reasons which are inherent in their condition. Women become even less visible during and following conflict because of increased isolation. They are also less able to voice their needs in times when resources are scarce because of cultural restrictions on their behaviour and expression. The lack of visibility entails restricted access to economic and political resources and inadequate needs assessment by non-governmental and inter-governmental agencies.
Another fundamental issue regarding intervention towards war-affected groups in the country is the lack of a clear, defined strategy with the creation of permanent mechanisms and budget allocations. Governmental and non-governmental interventions can be characterized by an atomized approach that does not address problems at their roots. |
|
The report begins by presenting the historical, political and economic context in which reconstruction is taking place in post-war Lebanon. It offers an analysis of the impact of war on the economic and social structures of the country and their subsequent repercussions on the living and working conditions of the Lebanese. It then identifies how these changes have affected women's lives. Finally, it focuses on the policies of intervention by governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, towards women most affected by war. The report is based upon field work undertaken in Lebanon in 1966.
The paucity of data and research
The establishment of a system of proportional representation of the different communities by the Ottomans in 1860, created a precedent for the National Pact in 1943 which organized power distribution in the country. Henceforth, with political representation being regulated by numbers on a sectarian basis, demography became a highly political issue. This explains the lack of censuses and the paucity of demographic data in Lebanon. Every statistic would raise the question of the distribution of power(Hanf, 1993). The last Lebanese census was undertaken in 1932. Later figures are all estimates based on this census and are often biased.
The war has exacerbated the problem even further with the destruction of the existing -- although limited -- data collection system. The Government realises the need for appropriate data for adequate decision-making and its importance in targeting and addressing the real needs of the population.
In October 1996, the Government made public the results of a major survey, the Population and Housing Database, undertaken by the Ministry of Social Affairs (hereafter MOSA) with the assistance of the UNFPA. The sample of the survey covers 65,000 households. Another survey undertaken by the Ministry of Health, the Pan Arab Programme (PAP) Mother and Child Survey, covers 5,431 families.
The surveys have generated long-needed data about the Lebanese population. During the research for this report, the raw data has not been processed and the limited time attributed for this report did not allow for an in-depth analysis of the tables. In the absence of definitions and descriptions of the sampling frame, a rigorous comparison with pre-war figures was not possible. The definition of categories was also not available during fieldwork. Therefore other surveys have been used to give an idea of present trends and to build a comparative framework with pre-war tendencies. The discrepancies found between the different surveys often do not allow conclusions to be drawn.
Funded by the UNDP and in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, the ILO has undertaken labour force and manpower surveys and development of employment offices. These surveys will "generate for the first time in Lebanon since 1970, a fresh and up to date set of employment and labour market data" and "establish a labour market information system"[1].
Fieldwork
Given the lack of data in a post-war context, and the lack of current research, the report is based on qualitative analysis of field interviews, field notes and data collected from six weeks of intensive fieldwork. The report has drawn information from four sources: the ILO questionnaire; interviews with government officials, NGOs' and IGOs' representatives; their publications, and different material collected during fieldwork. The research is not comprehensive. Within the limits of time and the information available, a review of the literature was undertaken and interviews and visits were made.
Different types of documentation were collected: reports and accounts of activities undertaken by those agencies, statements and reports designed for fund-raising, working papers, educational material, and academic research. A collection of unpublished documentation was also made available.
The report presents preliminary information, and more in-depth fieldwork needs to be undertaken to answer with certainty the questions raised by the report. For instance, the documentation which was made available by governmental and non-governmental agencies, the United Nations and multilateral donors present in the country, only provides descriptive accounts of their activities or statements for future plans concerning reconstruction and development. Very little information is available concerning the politics and practices involved in their actual implementation.
The research was conducted in different geographical areas and economic settings. The main focus was on the capital, Beirut, and its suburbs where the large majority of inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as government offices are based. Research was also conducted in other cities (Tripoli for instance) and small towns in the North (Zghorta); towards the south (Nahmeh, a village of returning nationals); and in rural areas such as Akkar (north) in order to collect an indicative sample for comparative purposes. Thus, research revealed the different situations of some women in the remote rural areas neglected by governmental and non-governmental agencies prior to the war and in its aftermath. The sample also included social groups from different social strata: urban upper middle-class women, often heading women's associations or other NGOs, urban and rural working-class women.
Interviews were conducted with government officials,[2] with representatives of inter-governmental organizations,[3] social workers, women's associations and other NGOs, labour unions,[4] and finally with women such as displaced women and heads of households.
Interviews were also conducted with academics[5] and practitioners in national and international governmental organizations. Visits were made to centres for training, workshops, centres for the disabled, for drug rehabilitation and for literacy mainly in a few of the suburbs of the capital where a majority of the inhabitants are destitute, as well as in some rural areas.
The situational context where these interviews took place varied. Consequently, in each one of those contexts the questionnaire was modified and adapted to serve as a base for interviews. With government officials, the questionnaire aimed at evaluating the degree of gender integration in public institutions and development programmes. It sought to identify the opportunities and constraints for women in the reconstruction process. It also tried to determine the degree of sensitivity to women's needs in general, and to "war-affected" women in particular, as well as the degree of sensitivity to a gender differentiated impact of war.
A preselection of 120 active NGOs was provided by UNDP offices in Lebanon. Interviews conducted with 20 NGOs (rural and urban based) were semi-structured and followed the ILO questionnaire.[6] Although formal interviews were the starting point for receiving information, subsequent multiple visits on a more informal basis became the main approach to collecting data. In those informal gatherings, people would come with their grievances which gave me insight into some of their problems. The information received from those encounters with NGOs was also used to cross-check other NGOs' experiences and views on issues such as the impact of war on women's living and working conditions.
The questionnaire was distributed to 100 NGOs[7] of which 70 were completed and returned. Its aim was to determine the extent to which gender considerations and women's special needs were the focus of their activities. The interviewees were also asked to describe their approaches to promote women's empowerment and the modalities of their interventions. The information drawn from the questionnaire is mainly discussed in Chapter 7, but whenever relevant it was referred to in the report, for instance to determine the changes in the role and situation of women, in their involvement in public life (Chapter 5), and to assess some of their needs. It was most instructive for the understanding of NGOs' perceptions of women's problems and needs
Some of these interviews were recorded and direct quotes from their transcription were used in the report, while others were paraphrased. The selection of these quotes was made on the basis of a degree of representativeness.
Some of the methodological difficulties encountered during fieldwork related to the hesitancy, sometimes unwillingness, of some informants to supply information. NGOs were more cooperative than governmental agencies. The most active and willing cooperation came from small local NGOs, despite the fact that they were bombarded with questionnaires. Some seemed to be motivated by a desire for publicity and the hope to receive some attention from the international community. There was a growing sense of despair and frustration, and a manifested mistrust of the Government and its ability to respond to the indigent and the needy.
They felt that the essential role they had played during the war had been forgotten in the process of reconstruction. Multilateral and bilateral donors are now channelling funds through governmental agencies and have decreased their support to non-governmental ones.
In general, the attitude of people was positive. Women, especially those belonging to the vulnerable groups identified in the ToR, were willing to divulge personal history. Some government officials, principally men in those positions, appeared unwilling to volunteer information. They generally showed mistrust, particularly due to the fact that I was seen as an insider who had, through exile, become an outsider. I encountered hostility from some women in high positions. A director of an important centre of research on women, particularly resented the fact that research was being done by an outsider and did not involve her or the centre. The consequences were lack of collaboration and institutional rivalry and a " what is in there for me?" attitude, sometimes explicitly expressed by an informant when asked for a document.
Other difficulties were due to the slow progress on the ground. For instance, many appointments were rescheduled, or informants arrived with considerable delays. At times, personal contacts needed to be used in order to access informants. The "snowball method" was useful to rapidly identify the main actors in each context.
Personal experience
The tension between the distance and the involvement of the researcher conducting empirical investigation, especially in the context of war and human suffering, has been the centre of a wider debate about the desirable, or attainable, degree of objectivity, particularly in the case of "anthropology at home" where the researcher undertakes fieldwork in his own country. The experience of conducting fieldwork in Lebanon as a woman and as a national, raised such questions. However, I tried to maintain a balance between the necessary distance and the advantage of an insider view of how society operates and my own experiences of war.
My status as a national abroad has also affected attitudes and responses. Many, when dealing with a member of the war-diaspora, started defining themselves in contradistinction with those who had left. In the post-war, the meaning and degree of suffering experienced during the war is one of the ways issues of identity and authenticity are negotiated. Those left behind often perceived that their war experience had set them apart and allowed them a higher/greater claim of "true citizenship" and belonging. Further, skills acquired during the war for daily survival are now redundant and resentment was expressed at times towards those who had the freedom of choice and -- what was perceived as -- a more adequate education to meet the requirements of reconstruction.
Surprisingly, there was an "observable silence" in terms of how people interacted, attempting to make the war an invisible experience. The issue of war was rarely brought up and when unavoidable it was referred to obliquely, in an understated manner. Although most people were not willing to talk, continuous comparisons between the past and the present were made. In the older generations, the past referred mostly to the pre-war, idealized life. It is possible, however, that the current silence vis-à-vis the experience of civil war, is itself a coping strategy people are adopting, or a commentary on their current priorities for economic survival. People in the country, showed obvious signs of war fatigue.
Theoretical framework
It has been argued that WID and GAD[8] approaches cannot fully capture the situation of women in the context of war. However, both theories can provide an understanding of the gender dimension of conflict. The WID approach brings an insight into the differing impact of war on women's (and men's) economic stability and survival strategies, highlighting processes of impoverishment and disempowerment in an economic perspective (El Bushra et al., 1993). While the GAD perspective on women's status within society is useful to identify how conflict increases the marginalization of women, it helps in examining "ways to support women's efforts to claim and retain a space during conflict" (El Bushra et al., 1993).
Over the last ten years, there has been an increasing tendency for development agencies and other donors to attempt to raise the profile of women. This shift in focus is part of a much larger theoretical development which began in the 1970s in the social sciences and lent greater "analytical visibility" to gender issues (Indra, 1993). It has helped to rehabilitate traditional perceptions of women as "muted groups" (Ardener, 1972), by giving them a voice (Tannen, 1992).
Women in development (WID) is an approach which grew out of a modernization theory of the early 1970s. It is mainly concerned with issues of access and control over resources. It contends that the different and specific needs of women have to be integrated into the development models. The opportunity to participate in processes of development is seen as a critical factor.
The gender and development (GAD) which was developed later is informed by feminist theory and class analysis. It looks more at power sharing and at the structures of gender subordination (Parpart, 1989) and includes debates about vulnerability and poverty to this political analysis (El Bushra, 1993). Women have been persistently marginalized from structures of power, and they need a public space to be able to express their concerns and organize their interests in a politically meaningful manner.
A third appproach reflects the growing concern for development agencies and planners concerning the disruption of gender structures and relations as a result of conflict and the impact of war on women. The focus on development in conflict, and on the gender dimension of conflict stems from the belief that the condition and position of women is aggravated in war. Society undergoes changes which contribute to further weaken women. Women's suffering is usually ignored; the burdens they have to shoulder as a result of economic and social disruption, are undervalued. Even their contribution to the survival of the family and the group is left unacknowledged.
This approach seeks to redress the imbalances in policies for intervention in countries emerging from war, in which women's issues receive insufficient attention. It holds that women are even more invisible during and after conflict and end up more marginalized since the gender-differing impact of war is not being addressed (El Bushra et al., 1993). On the other hand, war opens new avenues for women by redefining certain parameters of their lives, and these opportunities have to be identified and exploited.
This report has used these approaches for the insight they can provide into the condition and position of women during and after the war in Lebanon.
|
