ABSTRACT
By the early 1990s, the Lebanese non government organisation (NGO) Forum, the largest coalition of NGOs, was at the forefront of the debate over what constitutes an appropriate NGO profile in civil society. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Lebanon has often stated that the return of emigrants representing mostly those with skills and capital is one of the most important factors which would lead to recovery of the countrys economy in the medium term. Many foreign NGOs, particularly during the war, established offices in Lebanon and either became operational themselves or served as funding channels to indigenous NGOs. In some cases the agency became ostensibly localised, that is, run entirely by national staff and occasionally registered as a national entity. In 1991, the Danish Refugee Council, Diakonia, Norwegian Human Rights Fund and UNHCR began funding the MUR. These were later joined by the European Community and the Church of Sweden in 1992.
