Women empowerment in humanitarian action
A case study of assessing impact of empowerment of Syrian refugee women inGaziantep province of Turkey
By Vohida Alieva August 2020
Supervisor: Simon B. Tunderman, University of Groningen
This thesis is submitted for obtaining the Master’s Degree in International Humanitarian Action. By submitting the thesis, the author certifies that the text is from
his/her hand, does not include the work of someone else unless clearly indicated, and that the thesis has been produced in accordance with proper academic practices.
2 ABSTRACT
For long time women empowerment was not in the agendas of humanitarian organizations. Humanitarian organizations, which aims at saving lives and prevention of human suffering, tend to prioritize immediate needs of women and girls during and after crisis and perceive women and girls as only victims and most vulnerable group. This study presents the importance of acknowledging women’s resources and capacities as agents of change, the necessity of empowering women in humanitarian action and effect of the empowerment on the lives of the refugee women with a focus on the case study of the Syrian women living in communities in Gaziantep province of Turkey. The study takes qualitative research approach and is based on an analysis of the secondary data consisting of internal projects reports of UN Women, needs assessments of Syrian women and interview of Syrian and Turkish women. The findings of the study illustrate the need for the empowerment of Syrian refugee women in Turkey to ensure dignified life in the host country. The findings show the positive effect of the women empowerment in different aspects of the refugee lives. Syrian refugee women’s experience show positive impact on their psychological well-being and of their families, smooth integration to host community by learning the language and accessing the labour market, socialization with local people, taking ownership of their own life and supporting community empowerment. Findings also reveal that with the protracted contemporary humanitarian crises women empowerment should be part of humanitarian response plan.
3 ACKNOLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank my family for their continuous support and courage in everything I do in my life. A special thanks goes to my dearest husband and true friend for his patience and help, without which I would not have completed this task and to my son Iso for being my inspiration in all my achievements.
I would also like to express my appreciation to my supervisor Simon B. Tunderman for the guidance and to Iris Bjorg Kristjansdottir and other colleagues from UN Women for advice and provision of necessary information to complete this dissertation. Finally, I acknowledge the resilient and strong women of Syria, who despite all the difficulties they face, because of conflict and displacement, keep going on and building their life again from the scratch.
4 LIST OF ACRONYMS
3RP Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan
AFAD Prime Minister Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency ASAM Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants CARE Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere
FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations IASC Inter-Agency Standing Committee
ICRC International Committee of Red Cross ICRW International Centre for Research on Women ILO International Labour Migration
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation OAU Organisation for African Unity
OCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian OXFAM Oxford Committee for Famine Relief
SDG Sustainable Development Goals
SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
UN United Nations
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UN Women United Nations Women
5 TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ... 7
1.1. Introduction and problem statement ... 7
1.2. Research question and objectives ... 8
1.3. Previous academic research on the topic ... 9
1.4. Justification for the research topic ... 11
1.5. Research design and methodology ... 12
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW, BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ... 15
2.1. Literature review ... 15
2.2. Background information ... 17
2.2.1. The Syrian conflict ... 17
2.2.2. Notion of refugees ... 18
2.2.3. International legal framework on refugee protection ... 20
2.2.4. The Turkey context ... 22
2.2.5. Syrian refugee women in Turkey ... 24
2.2.6. Syrian culture, traditions, and role of women in Syrian society ... 25
2.3. Conceptual framework ... 27
2.3.1. The concept of humanitarian action ... 27
2.3.2. Women empowerment ... 30
2.3.3. Women economic empowerment ... 32
CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODS AND LIMITATIONS ... 34
3.1. Research methods ... 34
3.2. Limitations ... 39
CHAPTER 4. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS ... 40
4.1. SADA Centre ... 44
4.2. SADA Women’s Cooperative... 49
4.3. The Syrian Women’s Future Committee ... 50
4.4. Discussion ... 51
4.4.1. Psychological well-being ... 52
4.4.2. Economic empowerment ... 53
4.4.3. Enhancing social cohesion with host community... 54
6
4.4.5. Facilitating the community empowerment ... 55
4.4.6. Contribution to wellbeing of family ... 56
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH ... 59
5.1. Conclusions ... 59
5.2. Recommendations ... 60
5.3. Further research ... 60
7 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Introduction and problem statement
Conflict and displacement affect men, women, boys, and girls differently. Their needs, coping mechanisms and protection risks may differ. Yet the impact of displacement on women is great as they are at a heightened risk of gender-based and domestic violence (ICRC, 2001). Further, it has been proven that women mortality rate is greater than that of men and disasters hit women’s livelihoods hardest (UN Women, n.d.). In addition, as a result of loss of men during conflicts, women must take care of their dependents and elderly, with few or no resources and belongings. Humanitarian action and governments usually focus on responding to the immediate needs of women, such as providing food and non-food items and basic medical care. Protection, livelihood, empowerment, priorities, and capacities of women are classified as non-essential and thus neglected during humanitarian action (UN Women, 2016; CARE, 2019; OXFAM, 2019; Clifton and Gell, 2001). Moreover, these women are perceived only as victims and most vulnerable groups by humanitarian organisations (Yumna Asaf, 2017; Clifton and Gell, 2001). UN Women (2016) argues that safety and resources are crucial for women to rebuild their lives, reduce vulnerability and be agents of change and that the will of women to lead humanitarian response is most often ignored by humanitarian action. World Humanitarian Summit of 2016 indicates that global commitment should include “empowerment of women and girls as change agents and leaders” (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2016, no p.n.).
This is the core consideration for further development of a specific focus on empowerment of women and girls in humanitarian action within this research study. More specifically the study will focus on the impacts of women empowerment on the lives of Syrian refugee women living in communities in Gaziantep in southern part of Turkey. Turkey hosts more than 3.7 million Syrian refugees under temporary protection (UNHCR, 2019) and almost half of them are women and girls (UN Women, 2018). Almost 98% of Syrian refugees live in communities and only 2% live in temporary accommodation centres (UNHCR, 2019). Gaziantep alone hosts 443.000 Syrian refugees living in communities.
The Syrian refugees face number of difficulties in Turkey such as lack of access to employment and limited rights compared to the refugee rights mentioned in international
8 laws and conventions, which Turkey has not applied to Syrian refugees on its territory. These refugees also face difficulties in gaining work permits, exploitations, isolation, poor working conditions and high poverty levels (Ozden, 2013; UN Women, 2018a). Syrian women refugees in Turkey are considered as the most vulnerable groups (UN Women, 2018c). Starting from food insecurity to loss of access to education, lack of health services and high rates of gender-based violence, women and girls are paying the gravest price and need social, economic, and psychological support. It was reported by UN Women (2018) that Syrian refugee women in Turkey face significant obstacles to access courses, trainings, sources of income and housing. Many of them live below poverty threshold and are not able to enter labour market due to family burden, lack of Turkish language and employability skills (UN Women, 2018). 64% of Syrian women have reported their education level to be primary school, literate or illiterate (Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, 2014; Mirici, 2018). Additionally, due to language barrier most of them cannot access their rights and services and are isolated from host community preventing their social inclusion. From 60,000 work permits issued to Syrians in 2016, only 10 percent were allocated to Syrian women. While many Syrian women are willing to attend vocational training and acquire skills which is in line with their traditional gender roles, only 7.2% of women had access to vocational trainings (UN Women, 2018).
1.2. Research question and objectives
The research question is: what are the impacts of women empowerment on the lives of the Syrian refugee women in Gaziantep in southern part of Turkey?
The overall objective of this study is to provide evidence about the importance of empowering refugee women living outside the camps in communities in humanitarian action. The research illustrates it in the example of Syrian women refugees in Gaziantep in southern Turkey as a main and supportive example to achieve this objective.
The guiding questions of this research are:
• What are general needs of refugee women? Syrian refugees in Turkey are used as example.
• Why is it important to perceive refugee women not only as the “most vulnerable”, but also as an active social actors and agents of change?
9 • How empowerment changes the life of women and their families?
• How empowered women contribute to the wellbeing of their community and change social norms?
The specific objectives are:
• Understand the cultural context and cultural norms towards women empowerment in Syria before the start of armed conflicts.
• Understand the underlying factors that hold Syrian refugee women from participation in labour market in Turkey.
• Analyse international legal framework in regard to refugees in order to understand the rights Syrian refugees are entitled to.
• Understand the needs of the Syrian refugee women in Turkey.
• Analyse the relationship between impact of the conflict and women empowerment focusing on women refugees living outside camps in Gaziantep.
• Analyse the effects of women empowerment on individual and community level.
1.3. Previous academic research on the topic
Increasing number of studies agree that gender inequalities are extracting high economic costs and are leading to social inequities and environmental degradation around the world (C. Stevens, 2010). Many studies agree on the importance of the economic empowerment of women to strengthen their status in the family and community, to facilitate gender equality, to increase family income and contribute to education and literacy of the children and affect overall household authority (Kabeer, 2009; Driskell, 2004; Olivius, 2011; UN Women, 2018d). However, women empowerment has long been considered as development area of work rather than the humanitarian.
As humanitarian assistance originally was designed to be of short term and to tackle immediate needs of women and adolescence girls, and are mainly limited to provision of food, shelter and response to reproductive health and gender-based violence. Thus, empowerment of women is often considered as development issue that focus on implementing longer term projects (Wells and Kuttiparambil, 2016; Clifton and Gell, 2001). However, due to duration and nature of the contemporary conflicts, humanitarian action is developing long term solutions to effectively response to the needs of affected people. Yet, due to the fact that the issue of the women empowerment has been seen through the lenses of development for some time, the literature on women empowerment
10 in humanitarian action was very limited. The existing research from humanitarian action documents that humanitarian organizations solely focus on immediate practical needs of women and mainly perceive disaster affected women as ‘victims’ and ‘most vulnerable group’ only. Yumna Asaf (2017), Clifton and Gell (2001) argue that when women viewed as victims of war only, their resources and capabilities as peace builders and social actors are neglected.
From the available literature (Mirici, 2018; Erden, 2016; Kivilcim, 2016) it can be noted that women empowerment in humanitarian context, particularly Syrian refugee women in Turkey has been extremely rarely studied, despite the fact that the vast majority of Syrian refugees are in Turkey. The available research (Culcasi, 2019; Wells and Kuttiparambil, 2016; Jabbar and Zaza, 2015; Pasha, 2019) mainly studied empowerment of Syrian refugee women residing in camps and communities in Jordan. For those residing in communities, the effect of coping labour has been studied which includes undesirable work such as cleaning, exploitative work with very low wage and precarious work such as prostitution into daily household life rather than the effect of the general empowerment including economic empowerment, which can include many forms not only coping labour (Karen Culcasi, 2019, p .467). Also, the current studies examine how the humanitarian aid organizations can help the women to maintain the in-the-crisis empowered condition in the post-conflict stage, which is different than what the current aims for (Cruz, 2016). Erden (2016) talks about the general integration and social cohesion of women in the host country.
Literature on economic empowerment of Syrian women refugees in Jordan indicates that by earning an income, they are gaining influence and often elevating their position within the household (Culcasi, 2019, p. 467). A study on empowerment of Syrian women in Turkey confirms that when refugee women are given opportunity, they get empowered and they empower their fellows and host community women (Erden, 2016, p.263). Despite the limited research on the subject, there is growing attention to study women empowerment in humanitarian context. UN Women (2015) states that when women are involved in prevention and crisis response, it leads to better humanitarian outcomes and lowers risks. In addition, it is crucial to focus on empowering women in humanitarian action because gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are human rights imperatives and are requirements for effective humanitarian action (IASC, 2017).
11 From the current limited research, issue of empowerment of Syrian refugee women in humanitarian area in host countries has not been given almost any light, not regarding the fact that the Syrian refugees represent the highest number of refugee groups in the world. Turkey alone hosts more than half of all Syrian refugees under temporary protection status and according to the research (Erdoğan, 2017, p.5) as of 2017, an average Syrian refugee have already lived for more than three and half years in Turkey.
1.4. Justification for the research topic
Empowering Syrian women refugees in Turkey needs to be studied because of change in crisis duration, type of challenges faced by women refugees in Turkey, potential effect of large community of refugees, limited research of the topic and recent changes in humanitarian priorities.
According to OCHA (2018b) the contemporary humanitarian crises continues in an average for nine years, and displacement for many people will remain the only solution to escape an armed conflict and other type of crises. UNHCR (2016, 20) reports that prolonged crisis leads to a longer displacement which average 26 years of duration. More than 6.7 million Syrians have been forcibly displaced from their homes due to the conflict in Syria that has been ongoing since 2011. Turkey has been hosting the largest number of Syrians that is 3.5 million people (UNHCR, 2020), half of which are women. These number of women face various challenges in their host-country, which can have different effect to their empowerment than what the current studies revealed.
Since 2016, Syrians under temporary protection in Turkey have been given permission to enter labour market. However, when 35,000 permits were issued in the end of 2017, only few were allocated for women (UN Women 2018a, 8). Needs assessment of Syrian women and girls under temporary protection status in Turkey conducted by UN Women (2018) illustrates that 85% of women have no access to employment in Turkey. The same research reveals that only 7% of women attended the vocational training in Turkey, while there is great will among refugee women to attend vocational trainings. Interviews conducted by UN Women (2018) revealed the need to increase access to vocational education. Also, the effect of the small number of the empowered Syrian refugee women can be much bigger to the current community groups of Syrian women due to their number in Turkey (UN Women, 2018). This research aims to study empowerment of women considering the above country context.
12 In addition to the above-mentioned reasons, empowerment of women and girls has only recently been given one of the top humanitarian priorities. It is a way to achieve one of the core responsibilities of Leave no one behind of Agenda for Humanity that came out of the World Humanitarian Summit in May 2016. Empowering women in humanitarian and development contexts is the second most committed goal for the agenda with above 550 commitments by member states, NGOs, civil society, private sector and international organizations (Agenda for Humanity, 2016). Sustainable development goals also make gender equality and empowerment of women and girls one of the 17 development goals to be achieved by 2030. As a result of all international commitments, empowerment of women affected by crises has gained more attention by humanitarian and development organizations in recent years. Therefore, the findings of the research can contribute to further research and help governments, international organizations and national NGOs to develop systematic mechanism and adopt institutional changes to ensure gender mainstreamed programming and women empowerment.
1.5. Research design and methodology
In order to see the impact of the women empowerment on the lives of Syrian refugee women, the research study takes a qualitative approach due to its exploratory nature. Qualitative research gives opportunity to conduct an in-depth understanding of certain phenomenon (Bryman, 2012). The study is based on secondary data only, including exiting studies and analysis of academic scholars/journals, and various public reports from the reputable organizations in the field. The selected research design is a case study as it aims to study women empowerment in Gaziantep in southern part of Turkey (Bryman, 2012) and analyses the impact of empowerment within its real-life context (Yin, 2003). The case study research design will be used to provide evidence of the importance of empowerment in humanitarian action and to understand impact of empowerment on the lives of Syrian refugee women in Gaziantep. Literature and documentation analysis will be used as a research method (Bowen, 2009) to provide a sound basis to research study (Gagnon, 2010). The empirical data for the case study is based on the secondary data, which is sourced from the UN Women Regional office in Turkey, where I passed my internship. This secondary data consisting of internally issued reports of projects and needs assessment exercises conducted by UN Women during 2017 – 2020 and publicly issued needs assessment report conducted by Turkey’s Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority. In order to ensure that Syrian refugee women
13 perspectives on the impact of women empowerment in their lives is included in the study, interviews of the Syrian women collected by the UN Women and reports with primary data from the Syrian refugee communities will be used in this study.
To better understand the needs and challenges of the Syrian women refugees in Turkey beyond the short term needs, two studies on the needs assessment of Syrian refugee women that was conducted by UN Women (UN Women, 2018a) and Disaster and Management Authority of Turkey are used (Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, 2014). Use of two studies for this purpose would help in integrating different perspectives of the conducting organizations, cover wider period and reduce potential investigator bias.
The study conducted by Disaster and Emergency Management Authority of Turkey on “Syrian Women in Turkey” provides a comprehensive understanding of needs, problems, satisfactions and future expectations of Syrian women refugees in Turkey. The study focuses on refugees living inside and outside the camps. The findings are based on data collected through questionnaires and face to face interviews to get in-depth understanding of the needs and expectations of Syrians. The survey was conducted in 10 provinces of Turkey where the majority of Syrian refugees reside (Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, 2014).
The UN Women Assessment “Needs Assessment of Syrian Women and Girls under Temporary Protection Status in Turkey” conducted in 2018 focused on the needs and challenges, access to the services and livelihood opportunities of Syrian women and adolescent girls and to discover opportunities to strengthen social cohesion. Project covered women living outside of camps in social communities in different refugee populated cities. The data was collected through different tools including questionnaires, in depth semi structured interviews and focus group discussions (UN Women, 2018). Chapter two of this thesis provides the background information that is vital when analysing status of refugees and the legal rights they are entitled to. This chapter also covers the roles of women in Syrian society prior to the war in order to understand the profile of the Syrian refugee women in Turkey and reveal underlying reasons that create obstacles to smooth economic and social integration of refugees in host community, in addition to the literature review and conceptual framework. In the third chapter, review
14 of research designs and methods are illustrated with potential limitations affecting the thesis. The chapter four provides review and analyses of the empirical secondary data related to case study. The final chapter consists of conclusions, recommendations and scope for further research.
15 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW, BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
2.1. Literature review
Women empowerment in humanitarian action
Initially and for very long-time women empowerment was considered to be a business of development organizations. This was viewed to be as a long-term approach that may not be designed to address the short-term and immediate needs of the vulnerable people, which are usually business of humanitarian organizations. For this reason, the literature on women empowerment in humanitarian action was very limited.
In development domain women empowerment including economic empowerment is widely implemented. While scholars assert that gender equality is both a human rights issue, and a precondition for and indicator of sustainable development (Alvarez and Lopez, 2013 as cited by Bayeh, 2016) gender inequality is still a global concern. Increasing number of studies agree that gender inequalities are extracting high economic costs and leading to social inequities and environmental degradation around the world (Stevens, 2010).
Studies highlight benefits of focusing on empowering women in economic aspects. Economic empowerment of women is a matter of human rights and social justice, and it is crucial for human development, family health and well-being of family including children well-being (SIDA, 2009). UN Women reports that economic empowerment of women boosts economic growth, increases economic diversifications and improves income equality levels. Additionally, women’s active participation in economic life makes peacebuilding and recovery efforts more sustainable (UN Women, 2018d). Literature review also documents that when women empowered, they gain more power over their own life and they are involved in decision making process in the family. Greater women’s relative economic power, the greater their control over their own lives (Bennett, 1988). The research conducted by Naila Kabeer (2009) reveals that women’s economic empowerment, their access to and control over valued resources, have strong positive implications for the well-being of the family, including their own and their children’s well-being. Many studies agree on the importance of the economic empowerment of women to strengthen their status in the family and community, to facilitate gender equality, to increase family income, to contribute to education and literacy of the children, and to affect the overall household authority (Kabeer, 2009; Driskell, 2004; Olivius,
16 2011; UN Women, 2018d). Nevertheless, women participation in labour market may be exhausting and cause double burden, because in addition to that women are also responsible for significant amount of household duties (Osmani, 1998; Kabeer, 1999; Ackerly, 1995).
Research in subject of empowerment in humanitarian domain including empowerment of refugee women is very limited. However, women’s empowerment in humanitarian context is becoming more important and crucial for the social and economic wellbeing of crisis-affected people. Studies highlight needs and importance of empowering women during humanitarian crises as according to OCHA (2018b) the average humanitarian crisis now lasts more than nine years, compared to 5.2 years in 2014.
Literature review documents that humanitarian organizations solely focus on immediate practical needs of women and mainly perceive disaster affected women as ‘victims’ and ‘most vulnerable group’ only. Good practice on gender in emergencies has come to mean paying attention to the role of women in food distribution, providing sanitary towels, and ensuring adequate lighting and health services for women (Deborah Clifton & Fiona Gell, 2001, p.8). Yumna Asaf (2017) argues that when women viewed as victims of war only, their capabilities as peace builders and social actors are neglected. Studies state that an accountable, efficient and transparent humanitarian system that saves more lives should recognize and value women’s agency and gender-specific needs. It should support women’s empowerment and community leadership, prevent and respond to violence against women, advance gender equality, and support long-term development as a fundamental goal (Lafrenière et al., 2019, p. 188).
UN Women (2015) states that when women are involved in prevention and crisis response, it leads to better humanitarian outcomes and lowers risks, and when all social groups are empowered and have the opportunity to contribute their opinion and resources, communities become more safer and resilient to crisis. The chances of a life with dignity being enjoyed by women and men equally will be significantly increased with women having greater control over their situation during crisis and hopefully in the longer-term (Deborah Clifton & Fiona Gell 2001, p.11). In addition, it is crucial to focus on empowering women in humanitarian action because gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are human rights imperatives and requirements for effective humanitarian action (IASC, 2017).
17 Considering that limited research was done on empowering of women refugees in humanitarian situation, the subject of Syrian refugee women in such context was further limited. Research on economic empowerment of Syrian women refugees in Jordan shares positive outcomes such as greater independence in decision-making, greater self-confidence and greater authority and respect in family. A researcher indicates that by earning an income, they are gaining influence and often elevating their position within household (Karen Culcasi 2019, p.7). In addition to creating a small income for basic necessities, many women talked about a growing sense of power and strength, of an increased sense of purpose and garnering more respect within the household. However, women shared their concerns of not spending enough time with their children and fulfilling two roles now, one is still being a caregiver another is being the man of the house meaning providing for the family, which at times was exhausting for them (Karen Culcasi 2019, p.10). Another research on empowerment of Syrian women in Turkey confirms that when refugee women are given opportunity, they get empowered and also, they empower their fellows and host community women (Ozlem Erden 2016). Literature also illustrates that engagement of women in employment programmes has led to a marked decrease in domestic violence, in recovering of self-esteem and gaining sense of identity (Kaufman, Joyce P., and Kristen P. Williams, 2010 as cited by Asaf, 2017). Same research indicates that women’s engagement in the economy not only results in economic empowerment, but also in social, cultural, and political empowerment (Kaufman, Joyce P., and Kristen P. Williams, 2010 as cited by Asaf 2017).
While many scholars and practitioners agree that empowerment of women is beneficial for the family, children and society, others argue that this empowerment has also contributed to disrupting gendered performances and dissatisfaction of males about the increased attention and support given to their female partners, which leads to emasculation and disempowerment of men (Culcasi, 2019; Grabska, 2011, Turner, 2019). 2.2. Background information
2.2.1. The Syrian conflict
The Syrian conflict has entered its tenth year leaving people scattered within the region and country. Ongoing conflict in Syria has caused the world’s biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis. More than 5.5 million people have been forced to seek refuge in the region making them the largest refugee population in the world while 6.1 million Syrians are internally displaced, usually more than once (UNHCR, 2020). Turkey hosts the largest
18 number of Syrian refugees which constitutes 3.6 million people, followed by Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq each providing protection to less than million refugees many of whom are willing to move to Europe in search of better life (World Vision, 2020). Only 8 percent of Syrian refugees who fled to neighbouring countries are currently living in refugee camps and vast majority of them live in urban areas with limited resources and services (UNHCR, 2018).
Aa a result of a decade of fighting, civilians lost their properties, loved ones and education. People of Syria have gone through horrific atrocities, including war crimes. Their human rights have been abused on a massive and systematic scale violating all international norms (UN News, 2020). War has stolen peoples’ hope for the prospective future. As a result of loss and grief and experiencing traumatic events caused by conflict, Syrian people developed post-traumatic stress disorder, emotional distress and various forms of anxiety disorders (Hassan et al., 2016). Moreover, prolonged humanitarian crisis has significant negative consequences on women and girls. Starting from food insecurity to loss of access to education, lack of health services and high rates of gender-based violence, women and girls are paying the gravest price. In many communities child marriage is reported as a concern (UN Women, 2018).
Over the nine years of armed conflict in Syria, humanitarian aid has expanded in scale trying to assist and protect Syrian people in the country and across the border. Development agencies have been involved in the course of work to support hosting countries to facilitate the resilience of both refugees and host communities. Syrian people in turn demonstrated incredible resilience despite all the sufferings they have experienced. Majority of them live under poverty (UNHCR, 2020) line in neighbouring countries, yet they put all efforts and take every possible opportunity to make living and move on with their lives.
2.2.2. Notion of refugees
The notion of refugee and how the term refugee is defined in different legal and institutional documents will be studied in this chapter in order to see if Syrian people fall under these definitions and should be given refugee status in receiving country. For this study it is important to understand how the status of the Syrians in Turkey impacts their everyday life and overall stay. This understanding is one of the key aspects to learn about factors influencing empowerment of Syrian families in Turkey.
19 Article 1 A (2) of the 1951 Geneva Convention states that refugee is a person who “…owing to well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.” Under current Convention refugee is a person who is at risk of prosecution because of her or his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion in their own country, and for that reason is unable or unwilling to go back to their home country.
UNHCR explains that prosecution in a broader sense means “threats to life or freedom, serious human rights violations, including torture or inhuman or degrading treatment, and other forms of harm constitute persecution for the purposes of the refugee definition – whether they occur in times of peace, armed conflict, or other situations of violence. Persecution can be related to action by the authorities of the State, but may also emanate from non-state agents, such as armed groups, criminal or organized gangs, family members or the general population, where the State is unable or unwilling to provide protection (UNHCR, 2017, pp.133-135)”. Most refugees today are escaping armed conflict and seeking safety elsewhere across the borders. Those running from war are recognized as refugees and are entitled to international refugee protection. However only civilians can be accepted as refugees, but people who are taking part in hostilities cannot be granted refugee status (UNHCR, 2017). In addition, people who are fleeing the harmful effects of climate change, including famine and food insecurity across the border, they would not be granted refugee protection under the 1951 Convention. If only, the climate change triggers armed conflict, they could claim for refugee status.
The definition of refugee has been extended and complemented in 1969 OAU Convention and Cartagena Declaration which covers Africa and Latin America, respectively. These legal documents additionally include into the term “refugees” people that suffers from disturbing public order or displaced from their habitual residence within or outside the country1 and who have fled their country because their lives, security or freedom have
20 been threatened by generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances2.
As we can see in the next section on the legal aspects, Turkey, being the signatory of the Refugee Convention of 1951, has recognized these definitions of refugees, however Syrian refugees in Turkey have not been legally classified by government of Turkey as refugees as per above definition.
2.2.3. International legal framework on refugee protection
Following the explanation of the refugee notion, here I discuss different international frameworks, which are adopted to protect the rights of the refugees. All the basic rights refugees are entitled to under the international legal refugee framework will be further listed in order to understand that in case people fleeing the war and other kinds of violence are not recognized as refugees in receiving country, these rights are denied that leads to further exacerbation of their vulnerability.
When people are fleeing war, where their own country is unable or unwilling to protect them, another country receiving refugees must ensure the basic rights of refugees are respected. To pursue it, international legal framework has been developed to ensure the adequate treatment of refugees and protection of their human rights. The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol are the main legal global documents to build the international protection system. In addition to these central documents, regional declarations and treaties have been established to protect the rights of those who seek safety. Moreover, international refugee law is always complemented by international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law upon application. All together these treaties and bodies of law ensure the safety and protection of refugees in the receiving country.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was created in 1950 after World War II to assist European refugees. Since then, the mandate of UNHCR has been broadened and organization aims to seek international protection and permanent solution for refugees all over the world. UNHCR serves as the ‘guardian’ of the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol and is responsible to supervise and facilitate the implementation of the
21 1951 Convention by States Parties. The main responsibility of organization to complement the efforts of the States is providing protection to refugees (UNHCR, 2011). 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees is the core of the international refugee law. The convention was established after Second World War and was mainly designed to address the problems of refugees of that time. The definition of refugee in the Convention covers people who sought refuge as a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 in Europe (UNHCR, 2017). After global refugee crises in 1950s and 1960s it was decided to extend the scope of the 1951 Convention. As a result, Convention was later amended by the 1967 Protocol.
The 1951 convention sets minimum basic standards for the treatment of refugees. People who fulfil the definition of refugee mentioned in Article 1 A (2) are entitled to the rights and protection and have obligations towards hosting country, mentioned in Convention. A key principle of the Convention is the principle of non-refoulement mentioned in Article 33 (1): “no Contracting State shall expel or return (“refouler”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”. The article states that refugee cannot be returned to his country of origin where there is a threat to his or her life. This principle is considered the rule of customary law and thus it is binding all States whether they are parties to the 1951 Convention or 1967 Protocol or not. The right of non-refoulement applies to all refugees. However, this protection may not be claimed by refugee who poses a serious threat on reasonable basis to the security of the host country3.
Other basic rights mentioned in 1951 Convention include:
• The right not to be expelled, except under certain, strictly defined conditions • The right not to be punished for illegal entry into the territory of a contracting State • The right to work
• The right to housing • The right to education
• The right to public relief and assistance • The right to freedom of religion • The right to access the courts
22 • The right to freedom of movement within the territory
• The right to be issued identity and travel documents.
The duration of the refugee stay in the host country will determine the rights they may claim for, the longer they stay the more rights they are entitled to.
1967 Protocol was adopted to widen the applicability of the 1951 Convention by removing geographical and time limits mentioned in the Convention. Article 1 (2&3) states:
For the purpose of the present Protocol, the term “refugee” shall, except as regards the application of paragraph 3 of this Article, mean any person within the definition of Article 1 of the Convention as if the words “As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and …” and the words “… a result of such events”, in Article 1 A (2) were omitted. and
Article 1 (3) states:
The present Protocol shall be applied by the States Parties hereto without any geographic limitation, save that existing declarations made by States already Parties to the Convention in accordance with Article 1 B (1)(a) of the Convention, shall, unless extended under Article 1 B (2) thereof, apply also under the present Protocol.
States acceding to the Protocol agree to comply with the main text of the Convention which includes Articles 2-344 and to apply to all individuals covered by refugee definition mentioned in Protocol with no restrictions concerning place or time. As of 15 April 2015, 142 States are parties to both the Convention and Protocol (UNHCR, 2015), which illustrates that these documents are fundamental to the international refugee protection system. It should be highlighted that Turkey is signatory to both the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol, nevertheless Syrians in Turkey were denied access to basic refugee rights as can be seen in the next section on Turkey context.
2.2.4. The Turkey context
The consequences of Syrian war went beyond its borders forcing millions of people to flee neighbouring countries and thus causing economic, social and political challenges for both the displaced people and receiving countries. Since the beginning of the war, 3.7
23 million people fled to Turkey, almost half of them are women and girls (UNHCR, 2019). Beside Syrians, Turkey also hosts 370,000 refugees of other nationalities (UNHCR, 2019). In total, country is providing protection to four million people (UNHCR, 2019). Initially Turkey assumed Syrian refugee crises to be for a short term, then eventually it became obvious that refugees will not be able to return home in the near future. What is more, Turkey officially does not recognize these people as refugees as described in the 1951 Convention (Kivilcim, 2016, pp. 196-198). For Syrians it means their basic rights protected under the refugee convention would be limited. Although Turkey is a party to the Refugee Convention, country opted to apply the convention only to European refugees, thus keeping the geographic limitation mentioned in the document.
Nevertheless, in 2013 Turkey has adopted Law on Foreigners and International Protection and Temporary Protection Regulation (UNHCR, 2017) which gives those arriving to Turkey Temporary Protection Status. Under Temporary Protection status refugees are entitled to a number of rights, including access to education, health care and social services (UNHCR, 2019). The principle of non-refoulment that is the core principle of the Refugee Convention has been integrated into the current national law5, which means that Turkey cannot forcibly return refugees to Syrian under current circumstances. Additionally, since 2016, foreigners under temporary protection have been granted the right to enter the labour market including seasonal work and 60 000 permits have been issued to Syrians, out of which less than 10% permits were given to Syrian women (3RP Turkey, 2018 p. 7). Yet for Syrian refugees it is very difficult to get access to formal employment due to pre-existing high unemployment in host communities. Over two thirds of Syrian households are unable to rely on skilled or predictable work opportunities and 20% of households have no working members (3RP Turkey, 2018 p. 7). Consequently, Syrian under temporary protection are vulnerable to exploitation and poor working conditions (3RP Turkey, 2018 p. 7).
Close to 98% of Syrian refugees live in social communities and only 2% live in Temporary Accommodation Centres (UNHCR, 2019). Syrians live in different provinces of Turkey, most of them live in south-eastern part of Turkey, in Şanlıurfa, Hatay, Gaziantep, Mardin and Adana. Significant number of refugees are also residing in big cities like Istanbul, Izmir, Bursa and Konya (FAO, 2019). 64% of those Syrians in urban
24 areas are living below poverty line (3RP, 2018). Considering the prolonged refugee crises, the efforts have been directed to tackle long term social and economic integration of refugees instead of short-term emergency assistance.
The capacity of Turkey in many directions has been stretched over the last years of refugee response. Yet the resources of Government, UN agencies, national and international NGO’s as well as external actors have been mobilized to support long term sustainable solution in addressing the needs of the refugees and host communities, to promote self-reliance and facilitate the social cohesion among them. Nevertheless, as the refugee crisis remains protracted, Government of Turkey calls for increased and sustained international support to share the responsibility in addressing the continued needs of the Syrians under temporary protection and the needs of host communities, which is in line with the objectives of the New York declaration6.
2.2.5. Syrian refugee women in Turkey
Syrian women in Turkey are the most vulnerable group of refugees. They are often exposed to verbal, sexual, and physical street harassment outside of their homes (Wringe et al, 2019). High levels of rape and sexual harassment has been reported to Global Fund for Women by Syrian women in 2016. They have been also targeted by police for verbal abuse, threats, rape and sexual abuse (UNHCR, 2016). Thus, they do not feel safe to go out alone and prefer being accompanied by a male family member. As a result, most of them isolate themselves in their houses, which may further cause psychological challenges and limit their opportunities to study, to participate in labour market and to get empowered. In fact, many women did not feel secure to go to work and preferred to stay at home as it was the safest place for them (Wringe et al, 2019). Additionally, for family and cultural reasons Syrian women are attached to their homes, thus creating opportunities for them to promote entrepreneurships and working from home would facilitate economic empowerment and smooth integration into formal labour market (Ozturk et al, 2019). Therefore, establishing women only safe spaces would provide Syrian women and girls a secured space where they could learn, socialize, and get empowered in line with their cultural norms and without any fear of being harassed. According to UN Women (2017) almost half of the Syrian refugees in Turkey are women many of whom live below Turkey’s poverty and hunger line. Displacement led to change
25 of social norms exposing them to new risks of violence (Wringe et al, 2019). Many young women and girls lost opportunities to study and instead were forced into early marriage or employment. In 2014, the average age of Syrian refugee girls who married was between 13 and 20, and 14% of Syrian refugee girls aged 15-18 in Turkey were already married. The high rates in child marriage is caused by refugees’ extreme poverty, physical insecurity, and vulnerability to sexual violence. Syrian refugees explain that the financial insecurity is the main driver of child marriage, and if they would earn enough, they would not expose their daughters to early marriage (UNHCR, 2016). However, these marriages in Turkey does not guarantee protection for girls because marriages of those lacking passport and those under 16 would not be registered according to Turkish legislation. If such marriages are not registered, the Syrian women and gills would not be eligible for legal protection (UNHCR, 2016). Moreover, early marriages expose girls to a risk of domestic and partner violence, health risk associated to childbirth, termination of education, economic disempowerment, and social isolation among other harms (Girls not brides, 2018).
Economic integration of the Syrian women is challenged by many obstacles. The study shows that the level of education of the refugee women is quite low, thus decreasing their chances of getting a decent job (Ozturk et al, 2019). The other most substantial barrier is the language barrier decreasing the employability of the Syrian women in host community and also being the main cause of challenging the social integration of the refugees. Childcare and patriarchy norms are also among the reasons creating obstacles to active participation in labour market. Lack of literacy combined with lack of knowledge of the Turkish language forced women to engage in domestic labour and to seek opportunities in agriculture sector (Ozturk et al, 2019), where the wages are relatively low, and the work itself is mainly seasonal. Additionally, due to language barriers, many Syrian young women have stopped their studies after arrival to Turkey.
2.2.6. Syrian culture, traditions, and role of women in Syrian society
In order to better understand the profile of the Syrian refugee women in Turkey, it is important to understand the origins of the Syrian culture and traditions concerning women outside the context of conflict and the role of women in the society. This will give insight into what approach to take to tackle issues of women empowerment, to conduct trainings and to address their empowerment needs.
26 The leading religion in Syria is Islam with eighty seven percent of population being Muslims. Accordingly, traditions and customs followed by people are based on Islamic values. Additionally, Syrian constitution highlights that “Islamic jurisprudence is a main source of Legislation” (Nisren 2018, p.2). Syrian culture is considered to be conservative and people show a great respect to traditions, social norms, customs and religion. Habib, Nisren (2018) argues that social norms and customs regulate the lives of women even more than the law or religion does. According to his study, many Syrian women are not even aware about the details of their rights in domestic law (p.3.).
Women in Syria are seen as an inferior to men and mainly have supporting role in the family as mothers and wives (Nisren, 2018; Weppi 2018; Siparre 2008). Sara Lei Sparre (2008, p.9) argues that one of the reasons that women are offered to stay home is due to increasing impact of Islam in public and private sector of the country as ‘in Islamic discourse women most often are presented as mothers and housewives’. Said Ramadan al-Buti7 in his book Women between the Tyranny of the Western System and the Mercy of the Islamic Law explains that the most important function of women is taking care of children “[...] despite ongoing changes in customs and civilizations is that if the woman was forced to take on the role of monetary provider such that she replaced the man in this sphere, or even simply engaged in this task equally with the man, the most sacred of all social functions, namely, that of ensuring that young children receive nurture and a sound upbringing, would be left unfulfilled” (2003 as cited by Sparre, 2008, p.10). It should be also highlighted that the study of Sparre revealed that for young women being wives and mothers was a way to serve the nation and the country.
The traditional norms that are rooted in Syrian families affect boarder economic and political participation of women. Obviously, social norms may differ according to religion, ethnicity, and between rural and urban areas, yet all these norms often put women in second place and consider them a source of honour or shame for the family. Many girls do not continue their education and marry early or priority is only given to boys to continue their education (Nisren 2018; Weppi 2018). With daughters marrying at young age and families expecting women to take care of daily household work, Syrian women have less chances to study and accordingly to participate in labour market (Weppi
7Dean of the Shari’a Faculty at Damascus University and important religious personality in the public sphere in Syria
27 2018; Nisren 2018; Nasser and Mehchy 2011). According to a survey, family pressure has been mentioned by 83% of uneducated and those with low level education women as the main reason of terminating their studies, as married women are expected to do all domestic work (Weppi, 2018). Consequently, female’s obligations on the household and family care and low level of education restrict women from pursuing employment opportunities. Number of women participating in labour market decreased from 21% in 2001 to 12.9% in 2010. In 2010, 85% of women older than 15 years (potential labour market participants) were housewives and excluded from labour market (Nasser and Mehchy 2011 as cited by Alsaba and Kapilashrami, 2016). As a result, women were socially and economically dependent on men which made them vulnerable during and after conflict.
2.3. Conceptual framework
The theoretical framework is a baseline of the research question of this study. Three important concepts central to this research are discussed and used repeatedly throughout. These are humanitarian action, women empowerment and women economic empowerment which will be further introduced in the current chapter.
2.3.1. The concept of humanitarian action
Humanitarian action is the active delivery of assistance directed to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity in response to the needs of people affected by natural disaster, armed conflict as well as prevention and emergency response preparedness for the occurrence of such emergencies. Initially adopted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), this concept of humanitarian action is widely accepted by many different institutions. The core principle of humanitarian action is principle of humanity meaning that human suffering should be prevented, and all human beings should be treated humanely and receive lifesaving assistance because they are human beings. Coyne (2013) argues that if the aim is preventing suffering, then humanitarian action should find the way to permanently develop the living conditions of those who are worst off in the world, because those people most likely will be the victims of variety of humanitarian crises. Terry (2002) argues that humanitarian assistance is necessary if the government is unwilling or unable to ensure safety of citizens and combatants are not respecting the civilian immunity in times of conflict. Fiona Terry (2002) talks about constraints when it comes to define the term humanitarian. She
28 explains that the word humanitarian comprises things that individuals and governments should not do, and obligations they must do. She further states that humanitarian action seeks to restore the rights of people protected by international humanitarian law and human rights law when individuals are deprived from them by circumstances (p.17). For Barnett (2011, pp.9-10) “humanitarianism is a creature of the world it aspires to civilize” and he classifies humanitarianism as “assistance beyond borders, a belief that such transnational action was related in some way to the transcendent, and the growing organization and governance of activities designed to protect and improve humanity”. According to Barnett in many cases humanitarian action succeeded to achieve its aim of making this world a better place and in situation of failure they showed that suffering can be addressed with something more than mourning (p.9). For Coyne (2013, p.18) humanitarianism is “a concern for human welfare” and humanitarian action is “manifestation of humanitarianism”. He distinguishes two types of action, one is coercive, and another is noncoercive, both directed to alleviate potential or exiting human suffering. Coercive action also known as “humanitarian interventions” uses military force and noncoercive humanitarian action includes relief operations to respond to immediate human suffering.
While initially, humanitarianism has been founded in a battlefield to assist wounded soldiers yet since then it has expanded its objectives. Whereas it still addresses the devastating effects of the armed conflict, it also responds to other assaults on human life such as natural disasters, famines, disease outbreaks, population displacement, and systemic social injustices relating to poverty, inequality, and neglect (Pringle and Hunt, 2015).
Humanitarian action is guided by four fundamental humanitarian principles derived from the core principles of the ICRC, broadly accepted by many humanitarian organizations and universally applicable. These principles are principle of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence. ICRC defines them as follow: humanity – human suffering must be addressed wherever it is found. The purpose of humanitarian action is to protect life and health, and to ensure respect for human being. Neutrality – humanitarian actors must not take sides in hostilities or engage in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature. Impartiality – humanitarian action makes no discrimination on the basis of nationality, race, religious beliefs, class, or political opinions. It endeavours only to relieve suffering, with priority to the most urgent cases of
29 distress. Independence – humanitarian action must be autonomous from the political, economic, military, or other objectives that any actor may hold with regard to areas where humanitarian action is being implemented. The rules of humanitarian action guided by the humanitarian principles are enshrined in Geneva Convention and protected under international humanitarian law. Additionally, these principles have been adopted formally by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1991 (UNGA, 1991) and 2004 (UNGA, 2004) in their efforts to connect all UN agencies on the same principles. Humanitarian principles provide the foundations for humanitarian action and are important to establish and maintain access to the vulnerable people (OCHA, 2012).
Originally humanitarian action was intended to be short term in nature and designed mainly to address the immediate needs. However, the protracted and complexity of today’s crises have forced the humanitarian action to adapt its working strategy to new realities. Moreover, humanitarianism has witnessed the rapid evolving of the broader humanitarian crisis, where the majority of battles are within the states with the civilians being a main target. As a result, humanitarian organizations have to deal with complex situations of extreme deprivation, serial natural disasters, chronic low-intensity conflict with recurrent spikes of violence, prolonged mass displacement and deliberate abuse or neglect of vulnerable populations (Pringle and Hunt, 2015). Thus, humanitarian action had to design long term humanitarian response according to new forms of suffering caused by new emergencies. Only short-term lifesaving activities were no more efficient. Barnett explains that the humanitarian sector has expanded after 1990’s in scope and scale and provided new forms of assistance: organizations began tackling the root causes of violence, aid agencies embraced post conflict reconstruction, human rights development, democracy promotion, and peacebuilding. He defines it as “alchemical humanitarianism” (2011) while Fox (2002) calls it “new humanitarianism”. In addition, considering today's length of crisis, humanitarian work may be continued for decades in a particular location. Hence, empowerment of affected people in today’s humanitarian crises is very relevant to ensure dignified life of the most vulnerable group.
By understanding the concept behind humanitarian action and new humanitarianism, I will discuss the concept of women empowerment and how to measure it in the next section, which will be used further to apply in to collected empirical data.
30 2.3.2. Women empowerment
For long time, the notion of empowerment has been linked to development work, thus different definitions of women empowerment come mainly from development context. However, considering the change in the nature and duration of conflict in recent years, humanitarian agencies have been forced to integrate women empowerment along with gender equality in their humanitarian response programming to allow women to gain power over their own life.
Inter-agency standing committee (IASC)8, the leading institution aimed to strengthen humanitarian assistance, relates women empowerment in humanitarian action to gender equality and yet acknowledges its difference. Committee explains that the core of empowerment lies in the ability of women to control her own destiny. This implies that to be empowered women must not only have equal capabilities (such as education and health) and equal access to resources and opportunities (such as land and employment), but they must also have the agency to use these rights, capabilities, resources and opportunities to make strategic choices and decisions (such as is provided through leadership opportunities and participation in political institutions (IASC, 2008, p.7)). This definition clearly states that the socio-economic status of women should be increased to allow them to take strategic decisions over their own lives. This definition has been adopted by international organizations including UN agencies with a slight change and additions according to the mission of the organizations. For example, for UN Women (2011, p.11) “empowerment means that people – both women and men – can take control over their lives: set their own agendas, gain skills (or have their own skills and knowledge recognized), increase self-confidence, solve problems, and develop self-reliance. It is both a process and an outcome”. Oxfam (2020, no p.n) on the other hand distinguishes social, political, and economic empowerment of women. Social empowerment when “women gain control over their own lives-confidence, self-esteem; action-to act on issues that they defined as important; redefining of rules and norms; and the recreating of cultural and symbolic practices” and political empowerment when “women have capacity to analyse, organise and mobilise to change policies, practices and state institutions”.
8 Inter- Agency Standing Committee is an inter-agency forum of UN and non-UN humanitarian partners
founded in 1992, to strengthen humanitarian assistance and to improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected population.
31 To support women empowerment in humanitarian action, Agenda for Humanity9 under the responsibility of leave no one behind – empower and protect women and girls, obliges humanitarian and development actors to ensure full participation by women and girls in civil, political, economic and social spheres and in decision-making in their development and humanitarian programming and funding.
In the development context, Kabeer (1999) defines empowerment as “the processes by which those who have been denied the ability to make choices acquire such an ability (p.437). She explains that the notion of empowerment is a process of change “it refers to expansion in people’s ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them” (p.437). According to her strategic life choices include choice of livelihood, whether and who to marry, whether to have children, among others. Kabeer highlights three main aspects of empowerment: recourses, agency, and achievements to strengthen the ability of women to exercise choice. She also confirms that “empowerment is a multidimensional process, encompassing changes in the political, social and economic spheres of life and that these different dimensions of empowerment are closely inter-related, so that significant changes in one dimension is likely to generate changes in others” (2009, p.7). Tandon (2016) states that “…empowerment is a process to change the distribution of power between men and women, both in interpersonal relations and in institutions throughout the society” (p.6). Batliwala (as cited by Jo Rowlands, 1997, p.23) explains that this change will affect all people involved in it and that “'empowerment is thus not merely a change of mindset, but a visible demonstration of... change which the world around is forced to acknowledge, respond to, and accommodate as best it may”. Keller and Mbwewe (1991, as cited by Tandon 2016) describe empowerment as “a process whereby women become able to organize themselves to increase their own self-reliance, to assert their independent right to make choices and to control resources which will assist in challenging and eliminating their own subordination”. Caroline Moser (as cited by Jo Rowlands, 1997, p. 17) talks about empowerment as “the capacity of women to increase their own self-reliance and internal strength. This is identified as the right to determine choices in life and to influence the direction of change, through the ability to gain control over material and nonmaterial resources”. According to Kate Young (1993 as cited by Rahman, 2013), empowerment is when women are able “to take control of their own lives, set their own agenda, organize
32 to help each other and make demands on the state for support and on the society itself for change”. There are a great number of explanations of notion of women empowerment in development context (Rowlands, 1997; Stromquist, 1993; Lucita, 1993; Oxaal and Baden 1997) and provided here are some examples of them. While there are differences in the definition of women empowerment in the literature, many of them agree that the process of empowerment involves control, power, choice and change to allow women to be agents of their own life. In addition, the literature makes it clear that empowerment is not only about changing individuals, but also changing the structure of the whole communities and power dynamics. The process of empowerment should promote self-esteem, self-agency, self-image, and self-recognition and enable women to learn new information and skills to be able make positive changes in their lives.
Measuring empowerment is a difficult process as any attempt to measure it will lack the clear and rigour process, and that any offered solution to measure it will be imperfect and subject to challenges (Jupp et al., 2010, p. 39). As noted by Lombardini et al. (2017, p. 7) several studies conducted their exercise on measuring empowerment, which were subject to motivation and perspective of the studies and use of varying methods. Due to complexity of the methods, various principles, perspectives, the use of secondary data and lack of access and availability of the data from the sourcing organisations, the current thesis did not use the sophisticated methods on measuring the empowerment of Syrian refugee women apart from the survey that was conducted by the case study projects themselves. Jupp et al. (2010) argues that when measuring the empowerment, self-assessment of the target groups would be sufficient to meet demands on the rigorousness of the process.
2.3.3. Women economic empowerment
Oxfam (2020) explains that women economic empowerment is women’s access to secure and sustainable incomes and livelihoods. The organization acknowledges the importance of the social and political empowerment of women to challenge the social and cultural practices and create a solid base and entry point for women’s full participation in economic activities. For CARE (n.d.) women’s economic empowerment is a process to increase women’s right to economic resources and power to make decisions that benefit women, their families, and their communities. International Centre for Research on Women – a global research institute specializing on empowerment of women and gender equality (ICRW 2011, p.4) states that “a women is economically empowered when she
