Introduction

The discussion now focuses on the actual mechanics and dynamics of service provision, consumption and evaluation. It builds on the claims made in the previous chapter about the extent to which welfare in Lebanon has the scope to act beyond short-term or instrumental goals. This chapter is thus concerned with one key question: to what extent do policies and programmes offered by the MSA and RWOs in Lebanon adequately define the object(s) of their interventions and, thus, respond to the causes of human impoverishment as opposed to its symptoms? Hence, this chapter addresses the third and fourth central questions mentioned in Chapter One:

• • How is the conceptualisation of social welfare packaged, implemented, delivered and evaluated in practice through social actors, welfare institutions and policy tools?

• • What are the key issues raised about the configuration of social policy in Lebanon and the rest of the region?

The chapter will draw on empirical illustrations from the two types of social care and micro-credit programmes that I researched in Lebanon as well as add insights from Egypt, Iran and Turkey, although reference to these will not be as detailed. The social care programmes in Lebanon are listed below, according to the RWOs that provide them. None of the programmes under social care contains a monthly allowance component except programme numbers (1), (3) and (5), which were all based on family care. The elderly component aided the research to the extent that it highlighted issues of social care but I did not focus on older people in the research.

Social care programmes

• (1) ‘Social Care’ (families/orphans): Emdad

• (2) ‘Alternative Care’ Programme: Dar Al Aytam

• (3) ‘Aman’ (widows and orphans) Programme: Dar Al Aytam

• (4) ‘Al Umr Al Madeed’ Elderly Nursing Home: Dar Al Aytam

• (5) ‘SALVE’ Widows and Orphans Programme: Caritas

• (6) ‘Social Care’: Urfan

• (7) ‘Social Care’: Antonine Nuns

• (8) ‘Dar Al Rahma’ Elderly Nursing Home: Antonine Nuns.

Micro-credit programmes

• (1) ‘Self-Sufficiency’ Programme: Emdad

• (2) Small Loans and ‘Ishtirakat’ Programme: Al-Qard Al-Hassan

• (3) ‘Women's Village Banks’: Caritas.

The main aim of this chapter is to consider more closely the effective experience of service provision and use on the ground beyond the rhetoric of policy, which I highlighted in the previous chapter. The result of this present enquiry will be to understand how services target, respond to and are received by service users.