Paper details
| Paper authors | Merve Erdilmen |
| In panel on | Sexual and gender minorities, humanitarian action and the Triple Nexus |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
In-Person / |
Abstract
In recent years, humanitarian aid for refugees has brought two key issues to the forefront: promoting the meaningful involvement of displaced communities in decision-making ¾localization¾ and tackling gender disparities in accessing rights and services ¾gender equality¾. Despite commendable efforts, scholarship on localization has either predominantly centered on traditionally more established global governance actors, or more recently, refugee-led organizations (RLOs) offering assistance, overlooking LGBTI-RLOs’ influence on gender equality efforts and the community members’ perspectives regarding their efforts in this regard ¾ a facet encapsulated within the notion of competency. This study explores how LGBTI-RLOs establish themselves as competent local actors of gender equality within the United Nations (UN)-led humanitarian circles and their communities. By examining the everyday practices of gender equality by LGBTI-RLOs in Turkey and Lebanon and drawing on ethnographic insights and in-depth interviews with RLOs, I argue that competency is always relational and in the eyes of the beholder: Gender equality practices that present RLOs as competent practitioners in the view of traditional humanitarian actors could simultaneously provoke backlash from within their own community, ultimately undermining the competency perceived by fellow refugee members. I show that RLOs that may be seen as no longer respecting community’s values engage in practices to reaffirm their competence within their own communities.
Back