Conference on the Emerging Role of Civil Society in Development
I attended a very practical and informative
conference at which wide variety of experts came to
Damascus on the 23/4th of January to discuss the
development of a Civil Society in Syria.
Lord Malloch Brown in his opening speech stressed the
need for a effective tri-partite partnership between
Government, Civil Society and Business in a
market-oriented economy. As Syria moves towards a
social market model the need for a strong Civil
Society has become increasingly apparent. As we were
informed, Syria has around 1000 NGOs compared with
20,000+ in Egypt and 9,000 in Jordan.
The conference discussed the development of a Civil
Society from a number of perspectives. We looked at
issues such as Youth Employment and Empoyability,
Rural Development and Culture. We debated how to
build capacity and competance, how to balance
regulation and freedom to innovate and how to
encourage both central and local initiatives.
In a powerful speech Her Excellency Mr Asma Al Assad
stressed the need for an effective civil society
working in close partnership with government and
business. The Syria Trust set up under her patronage
has created as a catalyst to hasten the growth of a
strong Civil Society. Although focussing on certain
issues such as youth, rural matters and heritage it
also has a role to provide a model of good practices
developed to meet the specific needs of Syrian
Society.
I presented a discussion paper on Youth Employability
and Entrepreneurship which addressed one of the key
issues facing Syrian society, namely Youth
Unemployment which can be found under
Publications.
