Executive Summary
Local actors experience conflicts first hand. Therefore, they have an intimate understanding of what conflict dynamics need to be addressed in order to build sustainable peace. This also holds true for the Syrian case where a number of actors inside the country are engaged in significant peacebuilding activities despite the persistence of extreme levels of violence. This study seeks to increase the understanding about these local actors, their perceptions of conflict causes, drivers of conflict, and its consequences, as well as their local peacebuilding activities.
The report is based on 143 interviews conducted by Syrian researchers inside Syria. Two focus group discussions were also held in Lebanon with Syrian NGOs with networks inside the country. Key local peace actors that were identified include community leaders, women initiatives, youth initiatives, civil society organizations, local councils, and the Ministry of Reconciliation and its committees. The activities that these actors are involved in vary between those working on negotiations for the release and exchange of detained and abducted persons, conflict resolution and mediation, promotion of peaceful values and countering of sectarian rhetoric, relief and development work, and human rights activism.
The main challenges mentioned by respondents in the current environment were the militarization and violence, ideological polarization, physical immobility, dire humanitarian conditions, and economic hardship that present obvious obstacles for local peace actors to bear fruit. These challenges translated into two clear overarching priorities mentioned by respondents and addressed at actors at the national and international level: ending the violence and foreign military intervention and starting a national dialogue. When asked about their main needs, the five aspects most often mentioned were financial and logistical resources, capacity-building on organizational and project management, support to be better connected with other initiatives, institutional support where appropriate, and the need for a constructive engagement with the media.
While containing impressive accounts of local peacebuilding initiatives, the report also shows that these actors constitute rather small islands of temporary stability in the current context. Therefore, it is crucial that internationally-driven peace processes account for these local peace actors and support efforts to build stronger networks to link the different initiatives at all levels. This might help to provide the context in which local peacebuilding can be done in a more sustained way and the small islands of stability can develop into larger zones of peace.