Inside Syria: What local actors are doing for peace

This study seeks to increase understanding about the peacebuilding activities in which local actors in Syria are engaged. Based on 143 interviews conducted by Syrian researchers inside Syria, the study illuminates the perceptions of conflict causes, drivers of conflict, and its consequences, as well as local actors’ peacebuilding activities.

Commissioned by Finn Church Aid and executed by Swisspeace, Conflict Dynamics International, and FarikBeirut.net, the study records the main challenges as expressed by local actors: militarization and violence, ideological polarization, physical immobility, dire humanitarian conditions, and economic hardship. These were the most obvious obstacles preventing the realization of peace actors’ activities.