Workshop on the legislative environment for civil work in Syria
After the opening of the session, a presentation was given on the idea of the legislative environment project for civil work in Syria, and it was pointed out that holding this workshop after the southern region workshop gives the project the opportunity to view and learn more about contexts that differ from the southern region, in terms of approvals and procedures followed in the central and coastal region.
The participants explained that the idea of the project was initially about the laws regulating civil work in Syria, as there are many obstacles to civil work in Syria, such as conflicting laws and the interference of personal factors in the application of laws, which raises the importance of working in the legislative environment for civil work, especially since there is a belief that there are priorities in this field that were being raised, such as relief work, women’s rights, and international platforms.
The participants indicated that working on the legal space was not among the priorities, despite the importance of the law and the legal text. The idea began with creating a licensing guide for civil entities and collecting licenses regulating civil work. Many experts were contacted to develop the guide, but it became clear that the licensing guide was not enough, and that the civil space for licensing was the most important. How can we distinguish between the societal role of profit-based companies and their work, meaning working to develop the legal environment based on studying the need and roles and drawing a spectrum for civil work?
Work began on developing the project with experts, in addition to holding workshops across Syria, explaining the guide to those workshops and discussing the guide with them, presenting ideas, and conducting personal interviews about the nature of the role of civil entities, since the project aims to prepare a guide and raise awareness of the legislative environment for civil work and then mobilization and advocacy, and holding this workshop is a type of mobilization and advocacy.
Two workshops were held with activists and a vision paper was produced to reach an independent and effective civil society, containing a vision and values such as “transparency and self-accountability” and goals. This vision explains how to reach a civil society and how to intersect this vision with laws, and work on building the project with activists by relying on the theory of change as a means of developing the project, so that the goal of change is to reach an independent and effective civil society. This resulted in identifying the following paths of change:
- Legislative Environment Track: In cooperation with a number of experts, this guide was discussed with activists who have extensive knowledge and experience in the legal field and have the ability to analyze the legal text. Some texts were chosen for analysis and legal study within the legal in-depth track.
- Civil Track
- Political Track
Accordingly, work was done on the mobilization and advocacy track, and individual meetings were held with interested parties and experts to provide information and suggestions.
The attendees pointed out that mobilization may sometimes be of no use due to the difficulties the country is going through and the difficulty of reaching the People's Assembly to legislate and enact a law regarding civil work, in addition to a question about the possibility of having standards to measure the success of the project.
It was cooled to the point that enacting a law is a very difficult matter and the goal at this stage is to raise the level of cooperation for social work based on the concept paper and advocacy for amending the law, with regard to involve members in the absence of space for social work or even space for advocacy, and that there are some members who work together in a manner that is abusive to civil treatment.
Some participants stressed the importance of raising legal awareness among the target group, and that the majority of our laws are inspired by French or Egyptian law and have not been developed, with the need to search for entities that support and adopt the project.
At the beginning of the workshop, a presentation was given on the definition of advocacy, the stages of advocacy, context analysis, stages of change, and types of strategies for support and influence. Advocacy means seeking to influence the policies and laws of a community, organization, or group, and can affect the lives of individuals, whether they are employees or managers, in addition to decisions related to the distribution of resources within functional systems and institutions of various economic and social types. Change can occur on three levels, which are:
- Change in functional laws, whether policies or decisions.
- Change in application.
- Change in individuals' attitudes and behaviors.
Change can be the result of a combination of the previous paths. Professor Firas pointed out that advocacy aims to raise public awareness of a specific issue with the aim of changing practice, or perhaps to establish a new law or policy in society or the organization. Advocacy can aim to make an amendment to a law or policy in society, and advocacy can aim, in one of its aspects, to implement a law or policy adopted by the administration or leadership.
The participants explained that the stages of support and advocacy go through seven stages:
- Analyze the current situation and identify what change is required, the influencing factors and the available opportunities.
- Identifying the influential and affected groups and who can help in the advocacy process, and not neglecting any party that can influence or be influenced.
- Choosing the work approach required for each segment of society, the message to be conveyed, and the networking mechanisms and alliances that can be invested in the advocacy topic.
- Activity planning is about who will do the work, when, how, and what resources are needed.
- Implementation.
- Follow up and evaluate the developments that have occurred and what needs to be changed or modified, such as the work approach or other.
- Modify and adapt the plan according to the evaluation that was obtained. The modification may include changing the objectives or messages and reviewing the timelines and timing, with the need to emphasize taking into account the positive and negative aspects in any advocacy process.
The importance of the advocacy and mobilization track that is currently being worked on was also emphasized, and that the vision paper that was presented is a basic output that was worked on in partnership with activists. The vision begins with an introduction that is a historical introduction to civil society, its development path and its importance, followed by a simplified explanation of the Nation Building Movement in response to activists’ questions about the movement’s role, the activities it carries out, its history and its vision, followed by a summary of the reality of civil work in Syria, which is the effort of activists, in which they analyzed the Syrian reality and its strengths and weaknesses. These activists were from all over Syria. This resulted in a vision, followed by brainstorming with activists, who added to it according to in-depth discussions, considering the existence of higher roles for civil society “building identity, building consensus mechanisms, and societal change” in addition to functional roles. The paper also includes the requirements “existence and establishment, establishing the high role of the civil role, independence, governance, participation, partnership and collaboration.”
The discussion focused on the context analysis on identifying the stakeholders directly or indirectly involved in the issue being supported, where stakeholders are divided into 3 types: allies who want change, affected people who oppose change, and neutrals who have not yet taken a position on the issue being advocated for. Work should begin with the neutral group and ensure that they support the issue being advocated for, or at least that they do not oppose it. Then we move on to the ally, and finally work on those affected by the issue being advocated for. It is necessary not to neglect any category of stakeholders because this may lead to lose a source of support or hiding a source of obstruction, taking into account that stakeholders are defined according to time and place, and the demand may change with changes in time and place.
After studying the stakeholders, we must move on to studying the target audience. In order to analyze the stakeholders, we must know the target audience and stakeholders well, determine the strengths of those parties, the degree of compatibility and influence, and how they can help or hinder us. We must also ensure that we take into account different points of view, what we want from them, and what that party wants from us. It is necessary to determine the target audience, whether it is primary or secondary, and to make a list of the names of those targeted, taking into account choosing the appropriate message, selecting appropriate vocabulary, and taking into account the facts of social and cultural differences.
The discussion continued on analyzing the situation or the issue to be advocated. The first point in analyzing the context was analyzing the problem, looking at the problem from all sides and knowing the reason and whether the problem is with the laws or with the policies and behaviors, why it happened and its effects and negative impacts, and delving into studying the problem and what should be changed, whether it is the behaviors or the policies and what are the obstacles and what should be done. Professor Firas also emphasized the importance of using SMART tactics to determine the demands, are they specific and measurable if they are achieved or not, are they realistic in light of the current circumstances, and is there a specific time frame that must be adhered to.
Workshop participants were divided into groups: each group selected and studied stakeholders for each of the determinants of the vision paper.
The workshops were also distributed in the Syrian governorates into three regions as follows: