"We have other objectives to prioritise" A study of the depoliticisation of foreign-funded NGOs and its impact on the Lebanese anti-establishment movement

Sammanfattning

This thesis takes the Lebanese anti-establishment movement as a critical case study of the impact of NGOisation. The debilitating political, economic, and social crises experienced in Lebanon is argued to create an imperative for NGOs to take new forms of action to address and solve the crises. Therefore, this thesis studies the role that foreign-funded rights-based NGOs play in the anti-establishment movement which seeks to address the structural political and economic problems that led to the crises. A nuanced perspective to the study of NGOisation or the professionalisation of dissent is used as the theoretical framework to explain this role of foreign-funded rights-based NGOs in the movement. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews of 3 foreign-funded rights-based NGOs and 3 alternative political parties that are part of the anti-establishment movement, as well as data collected from organisational websites of such NGOs and parties. It was found that despite the professionalisation of foreign-funded NGOs, many remained politicised. However, these NGOs had only marginal roles in the movement as the stigma against foreign funding and NGOs in Lebanon being co-opted by neoliberalism and the sectarian political elite causes the alternative political parties to distance themselves from them.