ASO Center Organizes a Dialogue Session on Academics Role in Strengthening Local Dialogue Mechanisms

2021-05-24
ASO-Amouda

Yesterday, Sunday, ASO Center for Consultancy and Strategic Studies held a dialogue session on the role and contribution of academics to the mechanisms of local political dialogue in NES.

This session is one of the activities of the Project to Enhancing Participatory Democracy Approach in NES, in its third phase.

The session, which was facilitated by writer Amer Farso, took place in the Zana hall of the city of Qamishlo/Qamishli for participants indoors, and by the ZOOM app for residents abroad.

More than 25 NES academics, resident or non-resident, attended the session.

Dr. Azad Ali, the consultant of the dialogue sessions held by ASO Centre, presented the importance and role of academics in promoting societies and dialogues in all their forms, including society and politics. He called on academics to unite their hands to tap into their abilities and play their part in influencing the life of the general community and the dialogues taking place in the local political arena.

Participants attributed the weak role of academics in dialogues between local actors to the totalitarian ideology of the political and ideological parties of the region, as well as the lack of political or civilian blocs representing the academics of the NES.

Participants highlighted the potential for academics to play an active role with local actors to create and activate an appropriate dialogue environment.

Participants noted the need for research centres in all specialities, with government funding or a neutral outside agency, or from the owners of companies and businessmen, in order to consolidate experts efforts, knowledge and specialization, in order to put facts, information and figures before decision-makers and direct them to the right path, especially the political path.

Participants called for greater involvement of academics in local dialogues and general societal movements, the establishment of a unified body for academics and the identification of their representatives in local dialogues, to strengthen confidence between local actors and society.

On the other hand, they called for the necessity of providing the academic opportunity to play their part and allow them to work and establish research centres, not impose agendas or restrictions on them. They also require the authority to provide them with protection under the law.

It is expected that ASO Center for Consultancy and Strategic Studies will hold a session with clan elders, legal figures and clerics after the end of this session.

Earlier, ASO Centre organized a dialogue session on media and local political dialogue mechanisms, involving journalists, local media in the region and local actors.

ASO also convened a meeting between members of the NES NGO platform and the EU, with a view to building confidence and increasing coordination between members of the NES NGO platform and international actors in the Syrian issue.

It should be noted that this session is one of the activities of the Project for Enhancing Democracy Approach, which is implemented by ASO Center in the governorates of Raqqa, Al-Hasaka and Deir Ezzor, with a view to building trust between academics and local actors in the NES.