Lebanon’s strong civil society model should be preserved

This time it is not our fault. We cannot take the blame for Donald Trump’s funding freeze or EU aid cuts. But these will affect Lebanon more than other countries because of the strength of the nongovernmental organizations sector and its dependence on aid. It is chaotic out there in the NGO and civil society world — many risk closure and were not even aware that their grants were originally part of a chain of US Agency for International Development subcontracts. Thousands of lives will be affected and it seems to have happened almost overnight, with little warning.

It is not ideal, but the Lebanese have long since had no choice but to learn how to manage with a weak, absent, hijacked or paralyzed state, especially since the civil war. They have done so through civil society, communal and nongovernmental bodies, and the private sector. It has worked for them because it builds on existing traditions and age-old associations. While it is crucial to restore a functioning state, it is even more urgent to rescue society’s homegrown institutions. It is not a zero-sum game between the state and civil society — they have learned to work together.

To illustrate this, consider the aftermath of the Beirut Port blast of August 2020. The government was in complete paralysis and had actually just resigned, while the banking sector was in collapse mode after the state declared its bankruptcy and defaulted on loan payments. Major hospitals were partly destroyed by the blast and were overwhelmed with casualties. Someday, an admirable story will be told of how society mobilized to help clear up and rebuild and rehouse, feed and care for itself, while no politician even dared show up to face the angry crowds.

Lebanon mostly skipped the 20th century, which in other countries of the region was characterized by secular nationalism and strong states. Its politics are a continuation of the Ottoman Empire’s system of millets, which was based on recognized semi-autonomous religious communities. This was how the empire managed its diversity, by allowing each community to manage its own affairs, such as education, personal status laws and other services. Lebanese communities had their own schools, hospitals and tribunals and a model gradually evolved in which NGOs worked in partnership with the ministries but sometimes competed with state institutions.

While it is crucial to restore a functioning state, it is even more urgent to rescue society’s homegrown institutions

Nadim Shehadi

The system has many critics, especially when communal services are also tied to politicians who use them for votes and clientelism. Defenders of the system argue that religious institutions and even sectarian parties have direct and easier access to recipients and are mostly open to everybody, rather than exclusively being for their constituents. The system can become more equitable with proper state regulation.

Over time, large secular NGOs like arcenciel, which helps people with disabilities, created a model to mitigate some of the disadvantages. This formula is based on the principles of rights and access, with the state playing the role of regulator and consumers having a choice of which supplier to go to. This also creates healthy competition that improves quality. The model has even been copied and used by donors in places like Palestine, Algeria and Mozambique.

Pierre Issa, the co-founder of arcenciel, explained to me that the name, which is French for rainbow, is written all in lower case because its members do not use capital letters as a sign of humility. Activists of his generation were influenced by Bishop Gregoire Haddad, who once explained to me that social work should be promoted in order to create a responsible society. He said that this intangible outcome was more important to him than the aid itself and that it created a culture of humanity.

Smaller NGOs like Skoun Lebanese Addictions Center are in danger of closing down because of both the banking crisis and the international funding crisis. If Skoun were to close, it would mean the loss of 22 years of experience in the field, which would be difficult to replace. The founder of an independent media NGO also told me it had lost 90 percent of its funding and was running a skeleton staff in a bid to avoid closure.

The funding crisis has many components, in addition to the sudden and unexpected USAID freeze. USAID was founded in 1961 by the Kennedy administration. This was the beginning of what became known as the development decade, which also saw states in Western Europe join in with the objectives of eradicating poverty, promoting democratic values and, at the time, fighting communism.

The proportion of spending on aid increased as military spending decreased with the end of the Cold War and the declaration of a “new world order” by President George H.W. Bush. Even the World Bank, which normally dealt only with governments, opened a civil society program around that time.

The trend continued with increased support for democratization, as well as humanitarian support, and it peaked in the early 2000s. Both the US and the EU had policies to promote democratization and development as a way to combat both immigration and terrorism. But this started to reverse after 2015, with another increase in military spending and decrease in aid.

There may be some benefits from a reset triggered by the USAID freeze and the European squeeze

Nadim Shehadi

There may be some benefits from a reset triggered by the USAID freeze and the European squeeze. The sector, as it grew, became too bureaucratized and inefficient, if not with a certain degree of corruption. One extreme example is where layer upon layer of subcontracting meant that less than 10 percent of the original funding reached actual beneficiaries.

The USAID slogan of “From the American People” had less to do with the American people and more to do with its bureaucrats and taxes. Government aid, which distributes compulsory taxes, also decreases the social responsibility and empathy element that is achieved through voluntary charitable donations. An example of this came in the aftermath of the First World War, when Near East Relief was created to help Armenian and Greek refugees from Turkiye. It raised $110 million, equivalent to $1.25 billion today, from some half a million small donations, all organized by volunteers in the days of snail mail. That was real aid from the American people and the voluntary element was as valuable in terms of international goodwill as the material aid itself.

Lebanon is unique in the region for having independent institutions that collaborate efficiently with ministries. It is also almost unique globally for having maintained a strong civil society despite the post-Second World War trend of greater dependence on the role of the state. In fact, that system of state provision has proven to be unsustainable, as the new generation pays far more in taxes for far fewer services.

We are hopefully entering a new era in the region with less conflict, but a great deal of work is also needed to repair the damage in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq and Yemen. This should not all be done by governments and state institutions. The Lebanese model of collaboration between state and society helps with the healing of both physical and psychological wounds and it should be preserved. It is proof that wars and hardship can bring out the best in people, as well as the worst.

• Nadim Shehadi is an economist and political adviser. X: @Confusezeus