The role of local council elections in development and peacebuilding

“I am committed to Homs and to building peace in Homs,” said Wadad, media personality and activist, explaining the reason for her volunteering in the “Your Role” campaign. Meanwhile, activist and media personality Abdul Azim, who come from Hasakah province, said: “I am participating as a Syrian citizen, and I am the son of the city of Qamishli… after the war I am forced to identify myself as a Kurd wherever I go.”

Based on the belief of the Nation Building Movement that the upcoming local administration elections carry major titles related to the Syrian future, such as reconstruction, early recovery, development challenges, and the path of reconciliation, the movement held a workshop entitled “The Role of Local Council Elections in Development and Peacebuilding,” which included thirty volunteers in the “Your Role” campaign, including journalists and activists coming from all governorates. It extended over three days, from the first to the third of September 2022.

The workshop, in the first session of the first day, discussed with Mr. Anas Joudeh, the co founder and head of the movement, a review of participatory decentralization, its levels, forms, and advantages, and the institutional development spaces it requires at the national, local, and community levels. As for Dr. Ayham Asad, he discussed with the campaign team the various and comprehensive aspects of development and the difference between it and local development.

On the second day, Dr. Asad resumed his session by reviewing local development, its stages and evaluation, and how to help local councils formulate development programs based on the resources of the administrative unit and its actors. In the second session, the campaign team was divided into four working groups that tried to set basic points for development programs in four local units (Banias in the Tartous countryside, Al-Tall in the Damascus rural, Hama Governorate, Aleppo - Al-Haidariya neighborhood). Then the groups reviewed their plans and discussed them with the rest of the team.

On the third and final day of the workshop, the participants were divided into two groups. Journalist Ziad Ghosn spoke to the first group about press coverage of local elections, presenting a set of recommendations to improve this coverage so that it contributes to local development and peace-building. Meanwhile, trainer Hannen Ahmed worked with the second group to shape the vision of a group of activists about initiatives they proposed to activate community participation in the elections with the aim of enhancing local development in their localities, in accordance with the role provided to them by the Local Administration Law.

In the closing session of the workshop, the campaign manager, Samer Dahi, reviewed with the team the stages of work in the next phase, which is based on preparing civil reports and journalistic materials that shed light on the state of local community interaction during the election period, which extends until the elected councils assume their responsibilities, and publishing qualitative stories on the campaign’s platform on Facebook.