Digest on the “Gender Actors Map”- December 2020
Our Gender Actors Map and typology have been updated, based on a survey of 75 gender actors, conducted in August and September 2020.
This digest provides an overview of the main data trends from the Gender Actors Map, highlighting gaps and duplications in gender interventions.
1- A multitude of local actors in a funding-dependent sector
Gender actors in Lebanon are diverse with the majority of them (70%-53) being local civil society actors, including, non-governmental organisations (56%-42), campaigns/collectives/cooperatives (8%-6), academic/research institutions (5%-4), as well the private sector (1%-1). Despite the apparently localised and diverse gender landscape, many organisations seem highly dependent on international donors. Indeed, at the time of undertaking the survey in September, 25% (19) of the mapped actors have reported that they were currently inactive, or limited their activity due to internal and external impediments such as the Covid19 pandemic, financial and economic crisis, etc. Moreover, the majority of those actors affected (16) are local organisations, with most of them (13) mainly relying on donations and fundraising. This reiterates the high dependency of local actors on donors, which leads to power asymmetries, with local NGOs being the mere “implementers” of donors agendas, and unable to resume their activities, once their fundings decrease or stop. This considerably affects the organisation’s interventions, impact, and sustainability.
2- A fragmented landscape of gender actors
Despite the diversity of gender actors the data suggests a fragmented landscape with many duplicated efforts, and gaps in terms of areas of focus, beneficiaries, modes of intervention, as well as geographic disparity.
Gender interventions have been largely focusing on women’s rights (77%-58) and gender-based violence (GBV) (57%-43). Indeed, Lebanese women lack access to their basic rights, and still face discrimination. The personal status laws adopted by the 18 officially recognised religious sects, discriminate against women in matters related to inheritance, divorce, and maternal custody, among others. Moreover, the Lebanese law prohibits women married to foreigners to pass on their nationality to their spouse and children. In addition, legal protection against GBV and sexual harassment/abuse remains inadequate. For instance, CSOs and experts have been denouncing the gaps within the anti-domestic violence law, preventing women from being fully protected. As such, GBV in Lebanon remains systemic. All of these explain the high percentage of interventions focusing on women’s rights, and GBV.
Still, at the same time, some other areas of focus have been significantly overlooked by gender actors. Notably, only 5% (4) of interventions are focusing on education; this number is surprising since traditional stereotypes, and patriarchal culture, still prevent access to education for many girls. Moreover, over 40%(31) of the gender interventions have been focusing on child marriage with only 3 of these also focusing on education, although the latter can play a critical role in empowering women and preventing early marriage.
While our mapping has shown that beneficiary groups are diverse, some categories, mainly gender minorities including LGBQI+ (36%-27), and trans* (29%-22), have been considerably under targeted compared to other categories such as civil society actors (72%-54), and migrants, displaced individuals and refugees (55%-41), in a context where gender minorities still face discrimination. Indeed, article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code, that sanctions “unnatural sexual relations” (which is punishable by up to one year of imprisonment), is still being used to criminalise members of the LGBTQI. As a result, 73% (49) of gender actors targeting these gender minorities have been actively lobbying to abolish this article, however reforms have yet to be enacted.
The three main modes of intervention used by gender actors are awareness raising and sensitisation, advocacy and lobbying, as well as capacity building with respectively, 76%(57), 73%(55), and 68% (51). While these modes of intervention are important in order to inform public actions, and influence policy change, they are not necessarily relevant to the chosen target audiences of these interventions. For instance, while a large number of actors rely on advocacy and lobbying, only 2%(1) of them are actually targeting policy makers and legislators. In addition, the data shows that awareness raising interventions have prioritised CSOs which were targeted by 80%(46) of these types of interventions. These trends suggest an apparent disconnect between the modes of intervention used and the targeted audience, which can ultimately limit the impact of these interventions.
3- A shy decentralisation of gender interventions towards the peripheries
While interventions are spread across the territory, gender interventions remain scarce in the periphery. Indeed, 37% (28) of gender interventions are concentrated in the capital Beirut and Mount Lebanon, while other areas such as Akkar and Nabatieh only focus 8%(6) and 10%(8) of gender interventions respectively. Although the governorates of Beirut and Mount Lebanon are the most populated in Lebanon, which would explain the high number of interventions in the area, socio-economic disparities are often more stark in the peripheries due to lack of access to basic services, public institutions and state facilities. Vulnerable groups, including women, are often the most marginalised population in these areas, thus the most in need to be recipients of interventions.
