Download Social Policy and Religion in the Middle East and North Africa

Social Policy and Religion in the Middle East and North Africa Region: Beyond the
renteir state, towards a new ethic of welfare in the MENA region
Rana Jawad, University of Bath (Principal Investogator), Ali Saeidi, University of Tehran (CoInvestigator), Burcu Yalkut-Cakar, Kocaeli University (Co-Investigator), Daniele Joly, University
of Warwick (Project advisor), Gillian Hundt, University of Warwick (Project advisor). Funded by
the Economic and Social Research Council.
The main aim of this research was to critically examine the welfare systems of the MENA region and to
provide an in-depth anaylsis of three key countries (Lebanon, Iran and Turkey) in order to capture the
variety of political, instituional and historical frameworks within which welfare systems operate.
Since the 2011 uprisings in the region, the pendulum has swung in favour of increased attention to
social protection issues, highlighting the complex relationships that international securityconcerns
have with the social security concerns of MENA populations.
Peace is not possible without social justice. A key facet of the research was to take account of the
different roles that religious actors, values and institutions undertake in the social welfare systems of
this region – the three countries studied helped to show the richness of these roles and the potential
of religious welfare for civic renewal, if it is supported within strong democratic state structures.
In Lebanon, a series of social policy evaluation workshops were conducted. The workshops combined
principles of summative and formative policy evaluation and were loosely based on the “sociological
intervention” (similar to focus group action-research) method. The aim was for a set number of key
decision-makers from the state and non-state sectors to meet in a series of workshop and collectively
reflect upon the objectives, delivery systems and outcomes of key policy areas in Lebanon with the
hope that this may stimulate more collective action towards policy change. The Syrian Refugee crisis in
Lebanon has also served to heighten the urgent need for social protection policy. Lebanon has also
seen some activity in relation to a new database targeting poverty and the piloting of some cash
transfer programmes.
In Iran, the main aim was to explore the post-revolutionary welfare system based on the classification
of the welfare system in two major categories: formal social insurance (which can be divided in two
system types: the contributory system and the corporatist system) and support services (run by paragovernmental organizations or bunyads). The research focused on explaining two major challenges
and problems of Iranian welfare policies. First, Iran’s subsidy reform plan which can be viewed as one
of the most significant interventions in social and economic policies in the last decade. Second, the
role of support services run by the para-governmental organizations which represent the dual-power
structure in Iran. In addition, the research sought to explain the different perceptions of service users,
staff and managers in Iran’s formal social insurance sector and support services organizations –
particularly the Imam Khomeini Relief Aid Committee on a variety of social policy issues such as
meeting human needs and addressing poverty-reduction.
1
In Turkey, the research occurred at a key moment in the welfare process under the AKP government
and is among the first pieces of academic research to address, in-depth, the growing prominence of
charity-based and Islamic welfare organisations within a liberalising state welfare structure. The
research focused on the Turkish welfare system as an inegalitarian corporatist structure “perforated”
by social safety nets mostly prioritizing the social security components while ad-hoc and discretionary
social assistance schemes are in practice for those experiencing poverty.
The notable findings and key policy foci of the research include the following points:
– Historially, the welfare systems of the region have either been employment-based social security
favouring men and public sector workers; or a combination of in-kind and in-cash social assistance for
vulnerable social groups that are dominated by female-headed households and orphans. Two-thirds
of MENA populations do not have any form of formal social security as a result.
– Public social assistance systems in the region have been late to develop. They have been evolving in
a fragmented and unsystematized manner and favouring a categorical notion of poverty limited to the
elderly, disabled and other vulnerable groups. There is a limited vision for universal social provision.
International donor agencies have continued to play a key role in pushing the social protection agenda
forward - often in response to general global trends and in the current climate to the aftermath of the
Arab uprisings and the Syrian refugee crisis.
– There is a co-existence of state provided schemes and traditional informal support mechanisms of
solidarity comprising family, kinship as well as community. To this end, the state acts as a facilitating
actor for the activities of these other sub-national organizations – such as the provision of privilaged
status “activities for the ‘Public Benefit” in Turkey which is granted by the Council of Ministers to bring
tax exemptions, ease the collection of donations and also promote the culture of contracting out of
essential health and social care services to the private sector in Lebanon.
– The Emergence of NGOs in the realm of social assistance is due to the influence of increasingly
neoliberal structures of governance and municipalities also emerging as providers of social welfare
services at the local level, other than state provision in the last decade. Lınked to this is the sustained
growth of religiously motivated organizations to cover different groups all prioritizing communal
belonging and solidaristic motivations for benevolence – bringing together networks of benevolent
business philanthropists and other prominent members of Turkish society driven by Islamic
motivations of solidarity and the desire help to those in need.
– NGOs and community based groups mobilise spontaneously around issues of social deprivation and
have amassed a great deal of experience in the provision of social assistance. Often they rely on
religiously-based fund-raising activities such as during the month of Ramadan or they invoke religious
teachings on helping the orphans and supporting the family as the basic unit of society. Though such
grassroots activism may sometimes be regarded as primitive or potentially political in nature,
particularly where the group in question is an organisation with a strong religious background, this
research highlights examples of good practice and how such forms of local activism may help to build
civic values for future social policy making.
– The geo-politics of the region remains the main urgent challenge facing MENA populations but
government policies need to urgently engage with the social and institutional dimensions of the
conflict by addressing issues of social ineuqality and social exclusion.
2