Factors affecting the development map of Homs Governorate 

The beginning was with the head of the Nation Building Movement, lawyer Anas Joudeh, who opened the workshop, explaining NBM’s work in previous years and the programs it is working on, especially the local administration program and its main stations based on the vision of participatory local development and the reasons for focusing on Homs Governorate and the prospects and factors influencing the development process, as Homs is considered the most influential area in Syria on its future and the elements of its geostrategic and economic strength and its commercial connections. He stressed that the development proposal today is a proposal to talk about the future and search for solutions that address the root of the problem in Syria to address all the repercussions of recent years, and above all, it is to redirect the compass to the human being and society, from which development starts and to which it returns.

The discussion was opened on the most important transformations that Homs Governorate witnessed economically, socially and demographically, and the general assessments of development attempts. In the following session, the priorities of development issues were discussed from a social and economic perspective, and the partners of the development process from political and social forces and their opportunities were discussed through a reading of the factors that could affect the development process based on the dimensions of development, which were on the following pillars: (political - administrative - economic - environmental - social - cultural), as well as the roles assigned to political and societal forces at this stage, and the spaces that they must work to create to meet the government effort of plans and programs for the post-war stage, in a way that achieves the response to the people’s requirements and their real needs, leading to them being partners later in the process of formulating these plans and putting them into effect.

The participants were divided into three groups to discuss the three questions:

1-  What are the development priorities within each pillar?

2-  What are the possibilities for implementing these priorities?

3-  Who are the parties and forces involved in implementing these plans?

At the end of the session, a general discussion took place on the proposed outcomes and priorities, where it was emphasized that sustainable development seeks to achieve the needs of the Syrian people in the present and ensure their continuity in the future, and to achieve a cultural pattern with social, economic, environmental and institutional dimensions, and that it faces challenges and obstacles at the level of the prevailing development culture and at the level of institutions and public affairs management, and the first of these challenges is the culture of participation because it is one of the most important conditions for achieving development and its sustainability and the participation of all members of society in it within the available options, and their feeling that they have a role, opinion and presence in this issue, and this process represents their aspirations and interests in the present and the future, and the absence of civil society poses a major challenge despite the presence of many professional, union, labor, environmental, social and cultural institutions, which carry out valuable activities in the field of environmental conservation, human rights and various social and economic issues. The attendees also noted the reduction of the dominance of centralization and the weakness of the powers of local councils, as administrative systems are generally characterized by the dominance of central state agencies over the lives of local bodies from municipalities and councils or independent administrations, and by the weakness of administrative decentralization. The development work of local councils was limited to very local service matters, and the most prominent challenge was the lack of trust between citizens and state agencies, because it generates social anxiety that hinders the achievement of an actual development process.

There was general agreement on the need for a complete change in the production pattern and bridging the gap between reality and what should be. Sustainable development must be comprehensive development, with emphasis on the need to (manage the public sector with the mentality of the private sector) while preserving the interests of society.

This session is considered the beginning of a participatory process between the local community and local administration bodies in an attempt to reach a participatory development vision for the governorate.