How can the international community engage better with Syrian civil society organizations during the civil war?

Since the start of the revolution in Syria, the number and activities of Syrian civil society organisations (CSOs) have multiplied extraordinarily. Whereas before the revolution civil society barely existed, CSOs are now involved in (i) relief and recovery, (ii) peacebuilding, peacemaking and peacekeeping, and (iii) advocacy, evidence gathering, media and monitoring. The international community is doing a lot to support Syrian CSOs. This paper benchmarks the Syrian CSO community and the international community’s engagement with Syrian CSOs against best practices. It looks to assess the capacity of Syrian CSOs and how effectively international organisations are facilitating increased capacity. It looks at both normal CSOs and the Local Administrative Councils (LACs) as a form of omnibus CSO.