This thesis provides a critical analysis of how Islamic-based Civil Society Organisations (IBCSOs) contribute to poverty reduction in Egypt, through a qualitative study of four Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). The thesis closely examines case study IBCSOs’ organisational structures, their activities and the values that shape their conceptualisation of poverty. It reveals the similarities between IBCSOs’ poverty reduction work and official social protection, and discusses how their approaches to poverty reduction can be understood in terms of the various discourses justifying social protection (risks, rights and needs). The thesis also uses these case studies to examine the validity of Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs) as vehicles for poverty reduction and social protection. Finally, it discusses the relationship between these organisations’ poverty reduction activities and political mobilisation through an examination of the role they played in the recent political rise of the Islamist movement in Egypt, as well as the impact of recent political developments on their operations. A key purpose of this critical investigation of IBCSOs' approaches to poverty reduction is to explore more broadly their wider implications for development theory and practice by assessing whether they can contribute to existing knowledge on the means of civil society’s contribution to poverty reduction and development.

Similarly to many governments around the world, the Mubarak regime of Egypt was hostile to the activities of civil society. Following the Revolution of 2011 in Egypt, the members of civil society organizations and activists in general were expecting an improvement of their working conditions. However, despite the promises made by the new president, conditions have worsened and the repression has increased. Pressurized by harsher restriction, the civil society needs to create strategies to ensure its survival. This study aims to understand what sorts of strategies are required under a repressive environment. The conceptual frame of this study was grounded on several articles that researched several relevant areas. These concepts were the repression, the civil society in Egypt, and the state – civil society relationship. In researching these behaviours, the goal was to understand the patterns of such environments, which are not usually present in western society. The core of the research process concerned the gathering of qualitative data through interviews with members of the Egyptian civil society. The results of the research provide a model that should be replicated with data from other repressive countries in order to ensure its accuracy. This model is based on four major strategic goals that are vital to the survival of a civil society under oppressive regimes. These four goals are fulfilled by behavioural choices that are influenced by the repression’s context. These behavioural choices illustrate the way civil society strategizes and eight of them could be isolated. Mapping the four goals against the eight BCs demonstrate two aspects. The BCs have a tendency to overlap when it comes to their strategic objectives, meaning that one behavioural choice can contribute to several strategic goals. However, this mapping also showed that some goals were sufficiently fulfilled by the BCs. The main issue is the cut of funding and this restriction has not been dealt with in an efficient way by the civil society. This problem needs follow ups and international funds and grant providers should be aware of these sanctions. Moreover, the lack of understanding the government has of the advantages of civil society should also be investigated. Indeed, the research shows that this hostility mainly comes from the government perceiving civil society as a threat.

No description available.

"Inclusion" in the broad sense of access to, and participation in, public policy and services has been lacking in the majority of developing countries---whether authoritarian or democratic---due to highly skewed political, social and economic power structures. To understand why this tends to be the case, the dissertation provides a political economy model for understanding civil society, arguing that the evolution of civil society and its potential as a vehicle for inclusion are conditioned by the economic imperatives in place and the state prerogatives. More specifically, I question the extent to which the neoliberal model allows civil society to fulfill this role, by examining the impact of Social Funds (SFs), a key social policy institution created and promoted solely under the neoliberal model, on civil society in Egypt and Bolivia. / I argue that neoliberalism severely limits the possibility of: citizenship construction, achieving development synergy between the state and civil society, or strengthening the latter. These limitations are structural, inherent to the neoliberal development model and the changes it has brought about economically and politically. The research shows how these changes have manifestations within the state, the economy and civil society and more specifically social policy. Just as important, there are limitations intrinsically grounded in the structures found in many developing countries, pre-neoliberal changes. Such structures, I argue, do not allow new institutions like SFs to push forward such an ideal three-way relationship among the economy, state and civil society. Rather than strengthening civil society and creating development synergy, SFs are shown to be just an attempt to give neoliberal policies a human face and subdue any potential for structural changes. / More generally, by contrasting the dynamics of civil society under neoliberalism in a developing country with a democratic regime (Bolivia) with those of a soft authoritarian regime (Egypt). I argue that a dichotomous framework, which sees democracy as antithetically opposed to authoritarianism is not necessarily appropriate to the analysis of developing countries. The cases illustrate that the state and civil society, under two-different regime types, continue to share a number of similarities.