The promises and pitfalls of disaster aid platforms: a case study of Lebanon’s 3RF
Abstract
Purpose
Using critical disaster studies and state theory, we assess the disaster aid platform named Lebanon Reconstruction, Reform and Recovery Framework (3RF) that was put in place by international donors in the aftermath of the Beirut Port Blast in August 2020, in order to examine the effectiveness of its inclusive decision-making architecture, as well as its institutional building and legislative reform efforts.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses the case study approaach and relies on two original data sets compiled by authors, using desk reviews of academic literature and secondary data, in addition to 24 semi-structured expert interviews and participant observation for two years.
Findings
The aid platform appears innovative, participatory and effectively functioning toward recovery and reform. However, in practice, the government dismisses CSOs, undermines reforms and dodges state building, whereas the 3RF is structured in incoherent ways and operates according to conflicting logics, generating inertia and pitfalls that hinder effective participatory governance, prevent institutional building, and delay the making of projects.
Research limitations/implications
The research contributes to critical scholarship as it addresses an important research gap concerning disaster aid platforms’ institutional design and governance that are under-studied in critical disaster studies and political studies. It also highlights the need for critical disaster studies to engage with state theory and vice-versa.
Practical implications
The research contributes to evaluations of disaster recovery processes and outcomes. It highlights the limits of disaster aid platforms’ claims for participatory decision-making, institutional-building and reforms.
Originality/value
The paper amplifies critical disaster studies, through the reflexive analysis of a case-study of an aid platform.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the valuable research support of Hannah Sender, Research Fellow at University College London and research affiliate at the Beirut Urban Lab, who helped finalize the literature review and provided critical comments that helped position and refine the paper’s main argument. We also acknowledge the research work of Wassim Maktabi, former researcher at The Policy Initiative, who collected, traced and helped analyze the reform measures of the 3RF and produced the statistics used in the paper. Additionally, we thank the reviewers and editors for their insightful comments that helped enrich the paper's argument. Research for this paper was made possible, thanks to external funding from the International Development Research Center of Canada (IDRC Award nb.103991).
Citation
Harb, M., Bloemeke, S., Atallah, S. and Zoughaib, S. (2024), "The promises and pitfalls of disaster aid platforms: a case study of Lebanon’s 3RF", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-06-2023-0133
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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