The Nation Building Movement concluded the advocacy track in the legislative environment development project, the third track after the legal track and the mobilization track.

On Saturday, December 18, 2021, the Nation Building Movement held a closing session for the advocacy track within the “Legislative Environment Project for Civil Work in Syria” after three sessions it had previously implemented, to discuss the path of the project’s development for the coming year.

The session was attended by a group of expert activists at the movement’s headquarters, and included an introduction to the project and a discussion of a paper that envisions the project “Towards an Independent and Effective Civil Society,” which includes a set of determinants (requirements) that can be built upon to standardize any civil activity or work or law related to civil activity, work, and licensing.

During the session, an explanatory video was shown of the project’s workflow, in which the targeted activists and experts spoke about the development of the project’s paths and the expertise that was employed in it, the workshops that were held, and their impact on the activists, through raising awareness of the functional and higher roles of civil society, establishing spaces, and analyzing and calibrating laws according to the determinants.

The discussion during the session focused on the interim role of Syrian civil society and how to activate it within the vision, context and determinants that were worked on during the course of the project. They concluded with a set of recommendations to find a new formula for a relationship between the components and main players, government - private sector - civil society, in order to build community trust, and reach common values, to reach sufficient dynamism to activate the civil role, and formulate a mechanism for the discourse that is directed to society and government alike.

One of the most important recommendations that emerged from the session was the need to focus on managing the impact resulting from the civil role and to review the standards and laws according to the impact study on an ongoing basis, taking into account the environments that are cautious about its existence and how to manage the discourse with them in a correct manner based on shared values, and to work on activating the role of civil society at the level of the higher roles, in agreement on values ​and societal cohesion, considering that the functional roles of civil society exist and are accepted by society and by the government.​

The participants also recommended focusing on social responsibility, cultural concepts, and building trust between civil entities and other parties, working on mechanisms to build this trust, and focusing on partnerships to cooperate in order to achieve the goals, which leads to a new positioning that activates the civil role.

Participants pointed out the importance of the media and solutions journalism in particular to involve civil society in proposing solutions to various problems, with a focus on social media as a form of assembling, conveying the correct mental image, and influencing decision-makers.

Among the proposals was also the tendency to work with all age groups and activate the role of youth.