We are delighted to present the third issue of this year of Development Assets: Local approaches from Syria that covers the period September – December 2020. Development Assets is an attempt to influence the local development process in Syria today by increasing the average community awareness of resources and possible interactions in development work to provide a comprehensive vision rising above war and its geographic ramifications.

Development Assets is an attempt to influence the local development process in Syria today and to transcend from local initiatives to a new level of cooperation among stakeholders. Such endeavor is back-dropped against explorable local and national resources, with a comprehensive vision rising above war and its geographic ramifications. Expanding our perception of diverse surrounding resources and enhancing interaction among these resources generates a positive community-oriented energy that is fully aware of its environment and its needs, drawing on new quantitative and qualitative value chains for the development process. Community capital emerges locally and interconnects nationally and internationally, encompassing Syrian migrants, expatriates and refugees. This opens up opportunities for investing such a community capital in an integrated process of re-development and reconstruction.
Furthermore, improving individual knowledge for citizens of various age groups provides an essential entry point to raising average community awareness and ability to invest, interact and evaluate on the basis of evidence and dialogues. This opens up new perspectives to view the same daily landscapes, allowing synergies among different stakeholders’ efforts, and regenerating realistic hopes for local communities. Development Assets does not offer conclusions and judgments; it rather helps rearrange the landscape along with its resources and dynamics in a constructive manner. It would therefore enhance the ability to create opportunities by understanding local interactions among stakeholders and presenting them in a comparative way to help narrow the gaps between our communities in terms of services, economy, society, environment and space. Development Assets could be systematically replicated at the level of each neighborhood, village, municipality, city and country.
Development Assets Team