ASO Organizes a Dialogue Session On the Role of Civil Society in Enhancing Local Dialogue Mechanisms

2021-03-27
ASO – Amouda

Last Thursday, ASO Center held a dialogue session about the role and contribution of CSIs in enhancing dialogue mechanisms among local actors in Amouda city in NES.

28 representatives of CSOs in NES and 3 representatives of several political parties in the region, who attended as observers and listeners, have participated in the dialogue sessions conducted by Osama Ahmad; a Capacity-building researcher and consultant for CSOs.

Ahmad spoke in the session about the importance of the CSOs’ role in enhancing confidence among local actors and gave a detailed explanation about the international experiences that confirm this role, including the role of the quartette-committee in Tunisia, which played an equal role among Tunisian political entities in drafting the constitution. It won the Noble Peace Prize in 2015 due to that role.

Participants focused on the necessity of: ‘’enhancing the culture of civil society concept among society members in general and in the marginalized areas of cities and rural areas in particular.”

One of the participants indicated in the session to: ‘’the necessity of breaking stereotypes in the work of civil institutions; as the roles of the majority of organizations are limited to relief due to the frequent displacement waves to the area and the collapse of dollar exchange rate in comparison with Syrian Lira (pound).”

While others linked this stereotype to; ‘’the policy of donors who impose certain projects and agendas on the work of local organizations without paying attention to societal issues, especially civic peace and societal cohesion.”
Another participant found that; ‘’local actors and political blocs do not trust in CSOs and their role in any dialogue process.”

This was attributed to the absence of impartiality in dealing with problematic political topics in the region, and the accusation of organizations’ governance bodies of communicating with external parties within their work as well as the affiliation of others with external and internal political parties and blocs.

Others emphasized the weak presence of women in the dialogue process among local actors, and called out for; ‘’imposing a women quota in the dialogue sessions between the political parties and local actors or building the capacities of women-actors in the society in order to avoid this gap’’.

Participants added; ‘’there is a weakness in the capabilities of local actors in how to hold dialogues and negotiations so as to enhance trust and interaction among them, in addition to the absence of joint interactive spaces’’.

Representatives of civil organizations recommended the necessity of establishing a network or a platform for the local CSOs that takes part in any dialogue process as their representative, holding regular workshops and discussion sessions and enhancing women role in political dialogues.

Moreover, participants demanded the necessity of: ‘’providing space for organizations in order to encourage public opinion on common and contradictory points, setting them as a mechanism to oversee political dialogue process, part-taking of all societal components and political blocs and eliminating bureaucratic obstacles against civil institutions in order for them to play their real role in dialogue process.

They stressed the necessity of positive reflection of dialogue processes on citizens' lives and the necessity of informing public opinion of all details and outcomes of the processes.

It is worth mentioning that, sessions that aim to enhance trust between CSOs and local political actors come within the third phase of Enhancing Participatory Democracy Approach Project in NES.