The Impact and Implications of Three (I)NGO Women Empowerment Programs on Displaced Syrian Women in Lebanon

Abstract

This thesis explores, through a critical post-colonial feminist lens, the impact and implications of three humanitarian and development organizations women empowerment programs on Syrian women’s lives in displacement. The study draws on the discourses of empowerment (or disempowerment) and humanitarianism from the literature, explores discourses of empowerment as perceived and practiced by the interviewed humanitarian and development practitioners, and narrates displaced Syrian women’s experiences with humanitarianism and development and their own empowerment journeys. In this course, the dissertation addresses the varied perceptions of refugee-ness, vulnerability, and gender roles. The thesis also draws attention to the “unintended consequences” of empowerment projects, whereby displaced Syrian women practice “hidden pathways” towards empowerment in their daily lives, without such pathways being an outcome on the agenda of aid organizations, agencies and their donors. The study proposes that there is tangible evidence on the formation of alternative frameworks of empowerment practiced amongst displaced Syrian women through informal and grassroots women to women initiatives and support groups.