Abstract:
As international humanitarian organizations shift from emergency aid to the
development and self-sufficiency of refugee populations, this thesis seeks to examine
the latter approach to understand in what ways its stated goals may be undermined. To
do this, it uses economic development programs for Syrian women who are refugees in
poverty in Jordan to critically examine the extent to which they contribute to the goal of
refugee self-sufficiency, and key factors that impact its work. This thesis shows that
looking at relationships of power – nationally, internationally, and historically – offers
context that can help explain why these programs have been largely unsuccessful at
moving toward the self-sufficiency of these communities.
Specifically, it looks at the international development assistance’s approach to women’s
economic development, the involvement of these same neoliberal institutions in
Jordan’s political economy and the Jordan Compact, the role of the Government of
Jordan, and the impacts these relationships have on Syrian refugees in the country.
Through this, the inability of the economic development approach to refugee self-
sufficiency can be contextualized within Jordan and connected to realities that exist
elsewhere. In doing so, meaningful alternatives to this project of international
development can be conceptualized and implemented.
