Local Community Empowerment (LCE)
Local Community Empowerment (LCE) is a French non-profit association established in 2021 to strengthen local communities across the Mediterranean region through participatory governance, institutional development, and civil society empowerment.
In particular, LCE was established by founders that are were linked to the Syrian organization Local Development and Small-Projects Support (LDSPS), some of which even were founders of LDSPS. LDSPS, that was created in 2013, has been supporting local communities in Syria (at the time in areas that were out of the control of the previous Syrian regime). I has a long history of working on empowering local communities and supporting local representative governance models
Just after its creation, LCE and LDSPS signed a strategic and representation agreement making LCE a representative of LDSPS and a main intermediary allowing LDSPS to receive funding from its main contributors (mainly European ministries of foreign affaires and European public agencies for development and cooperation).
While at the beginning, LCE helped LDSPS to receive funds that were given to LDSPS itself, LCE, as legal entity representing LDSPS, signed its first direct funding agreement with the EU at the end of 2023 and a complementary funding agreement with the Asfari Foundation during 2024. Both agreements were related to the funding of a project, implemented by LDSPS on the north of Syria, to support local civil society actors representing local stakeholders in the education sector (parents, teachers, women working in the sector). This 2-year project that has just ended and that is described below, represented the main activity of LCE during the years 2024-2025.
Working in Sectoral Governance
Education Sector as a Model
Project Launch (2019–2025)
Our work is founded on a simple yet fundamental belief: sustainable development cannot be achieved by moving directly from humanitarian response without meaningful community participation. Genuine participation must take place at both the local and sectoral levels, ensuring that community voices contribute to national planning and decision-making.
This requires strengthening public institutions and government administrations while simultaneously empowering representative civil society structures capable of supporting—and actively participating in—the transition from emergency response toward long-term sustainable development.
Capacity building alone is not sufficient. It must be accompanied by building bridges of cooperation between institutions—whether local or sectoral—and the communities they serve. This is achieved through the principles of good governance: transparency, open communication, cooperation, and mutual accountability.
Together, these principles form what we define as the Participatory Governance Mechanism.
Building upon this philosophy, LDSPS began a long-term governance journey in 2013 by supporting local councils and creating practical communication and cooperation mechanisms between public institutions and their communities across Eastern Ghouta before expanding into western, northern, and eastern Aleppo.
As a natural continuation of this experience, our sectoral governance journey officially began in Idlib in 2019, with the education sector serving as the first practical governance model.
Education—like every other public sector—cannot be managed effectively or sustainably without the active participation of the communities it serves. Therefore, since 2019, we have adopted the Participatory Sectoral Governance approach, bringing together public institutions and organized civil society to jointly design, implement, and monitor education policies.
The Founding Experience in Idlib
Building the first participatory governance model for the education sector (2019–2022)
Launching the Participatory Governance Model
The initiative officially began in 2019 with a pioneering governance model in Greater Idlib. The objective was to activate a participatory governance mechanism capable of bringing together education authorities and organized civil society around a shared vision for the education sector.
The governance platform united the Idlib Directorate of Education, the Western Aleppo Directorate of Education, and representatives from local civil society organizations working within the education sector.
Creating Shared Decision-Making
Throughout this period, cooperation between the education directorates and civil society organizations created an unprecedented environment for collaborative planning. Decision-making was no longer limited to public institutions alone, but became a shared process involving representative community actors.
This model significantly expanded participation within the education sector and demonstrated that public institutions and civil society could jointly develop policies through constructive dialogue and mutual accountability.
A Representative Governance Platform
The participatory mechanism included representatives from government institutions alongside a diverse range of civil society actors, ensuring that educational planning reflected the needs and priorities of local communities.
Government Institutions
- Idlib Directorate of Education
- Western Aleppo Directorate of Education
- Education administrators and technical departments
Civil Society Partners
- Teachers' Syndicate
- Parents' Councils Union
- Association of Women Working in Education
- Parents of Students with Disabilities Association
- Specialized NGOs and supporting organizations
Key Achievements of the First Phase
The first governance experience generated practical institutional outcomes that later became the foundation for national expansion.
Shared Strategic Vision
For the first time, education authorities and civil society organizations jointly developed a comprehensive vision, strategic objectives, and sector-wide education plan for Greater Idlib.
Rather than relying on fragmented donor-driven response plans, the strategy reflected locally defined priorities and collectively agreed development goals.
Aligning International Support
The strategic framework was presented to education stakeholders and international donors through dedicated workshops encouraging them to align their interventions with locally developed priorities.
The initiative attracted considerable attention from international partners, including direct engagement with the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
Participatory Decision-Making
The governance mechanism institutionalized participatory decision-making by broadening representation beyond public authorities to include teachers, parents, women leaders, disability advocates, and community organizations.
This reduced centralized control over educational policy while improving transparency and accountability.
A Replicable Governance Framework
The experience evolved into a practical governance model that could be adapted and transferred to other Syrian regions.
It became an institutional reference that later formed the foundation for the European Union–funded expansion project.
A Lasting Institutional Legacy
Following the devastating earthquake of 2023 and the increasing role of central ministries, the operational space available for participatory governance became more constrained. Nevertheless, the experience remained an important institutional reference and preserved valuable methodologies, partnerships, and governance practices that directly informed the next stage of the initiative.
Rather than ending with the first phase, the model demonstrated its resilience by becoming the basis for a significantly larger program supported by the European Union.
European Union Supported Expansion
Revitalizing and Scaling the Participatory Governance Model (2024–2025)
The project focused on strengthening existing representative civil society structures while establishing new organizations capable of influencing educational policy and strengthening community participation.
In February 2024, with financial support from the European Union, a new project was launched to reactivate the participatory governance mechanism in Idlib while adapting and transferring the model to two additional regions with distinct political and institutional realities.
Greater Idlib
Reactivating and strengthening the original participatory governance mechanism established between 2019 and 2022.
Northern & Eastern Aleppo
Building representative community organizations capable of overcoming institutional stagnation and introducing new civic participation models.
Raqqa Governorate
Creating flexible civil society structures prepared to expand their representative role when political conditions became more favorable.
Project Implementation
The European Union–funded initiative was implemented in two complementary phases, each responding to a rapidly changing governance landscape while preserving the project's long-term vision of participatory sectoral governance.
Strengthening Participatory Governance - Before the fall of the Assad regime
The first implementation phase focused on reactivating the participatory governance mechanism in Greater Idlib while establishing equivalent representative structures in Northern Aleppo and Raqqa. Although each region presented unique institutional and political realities, the overall objective remained consistent: creating representative civil society bodies capable of contributing meaningfully to educational governance.
Greater Idlib
Reactivating the participatory governance mechanism tested in 2019–2022, while strengthening the capacities of its members and broadening its representation to ensure its sustainability and effectiveness, and protecting the relative independence of the education sector from interference by the de facto authorities. In the northern Aleppo countryside.
Northern Aleppo
Building civic structures linked to the education sector that are capable of breaking through institutional stagnation and the dominance of Turkish transnational institutions, and breaking the prevailing pattern within society by introducing new and necessary civic concepts.
Raqqa
Building flexible civilian structures that operate outside the radar of the de facto authorities, awaiting the opportune moment, and are capable of expanding their representative base through available channels of communication and coordination.
Expanding from Local Governance to National Influence - After the fall of the Assad regime
The political transition that followed the fall of the Assad regime at the end of 2024 fundamentally reshaped the project's strategic outlook. With decision-making increasingly centralized in Damascus, influencing national education policy became an achievable objective for the first time.
The project therefore expanded beyond institutional strengthening to focus on national representation, cross-regional collaboration, and constructive engagement with central government institutions.
Strategic Expansion
- Expanding representative membership across Syria
- Replicating the governance model in neighboring regions
- Building cross-regional advocacy networks
- Strengthening institutional cooperation
New Opportunities
- Growing youth participation in public affairs
- Emergence of alternative civic participation mechanisms
- Experienced civil society leaders joining public institutions
- Direct dialogue with national decision-makers
Results & Impact
The project generated measurable institutional, organizational, and community-level impact while creating one of Syria's most comprehensive participatory governance experiences in the education sector.
Empowering 11 partner civil society organizations
Across the three regions (5 existing organizations supported and 6 new ones established), 9 of them received official licenses.
Expanding membership beyond funding
This resulted in approximately 31 new associations and groups in 12 new areas, including Eastern Ghouta, Deir ez-Zor, Manbij, Salamiyah, Aleppo, Tabqa, Maadan, Tell Abyad, and others.
Signs of Inter-Sectoral Cooperation
Initial coordination with the Directorates of Health and Social Affairs and Labor in Idlib to draw inspiration from this model outside the education sector.
Significant growth in the representative base
The membership of several associations increased dramatically, most notably the Association of Parents of Students with Disabilities in Idlib, which grew from 40 to approximately 1,300 members.
Genuine female leadership
Effective female leaders emerged, guiding structures that represent the entire community, not just women, and demonstrating remarkable effectiveness in a sector where women are the backbone of daily life.
Partnerships and Memoranda of Understanding with Official and Union Entities
Most notably, the Memorandum of Understanding between the Association of Women Working in Education and the Teachers' Syndicate in Idlib, as two independent and equal parties.
A Tangible Political Precedent
In November 2025, the Teachers' Syndicate in the northern Aleppo countryside—with significant participation from civil society organizations linked to the education sector—led protests that resulted in raising teachers' salaries in northern Syria and the reinstatement of a number of them. A similar scenario was repeated in Raqqa Governorate after the SDF withdrew its control.
Direct Contact with the Center
The partner associations held meetings in Damascus with decision-makers, most notably a meeting with the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor at the ministry headquarters, attended by representatives of the partner associations, and another meeting with administrators at the Ministry of Education. They also met with the head of the central teachers' union, where issues of union independence and the consolidation of their legal status during the transitional phase were discussed.
The Associations' National Announcement
At the end of the project, a major closing event was held at the Shahba Hotel in Aleppo, attended by approximately 160 people. Most of the attendees were representatives of the partners in the three regions and the newly expanded areas, as well as a number of administrators from the education sector and the directorates of social affairs and labor, along with supporting organizations and entities working in the sector—a public announcement of the existence of these civil society organizations and their role within the sector.
Towards the next stage
The current stage represents the beginning of a transition from local construction to national influence.
Completing this path requires: expanding the establishment of links to cover most of the Syrian geography, opening systematic channels of communication with ministries and directorates, protecting the independence of civil society to ensure its flexibility and ability to influence, and networking across regions to build joint coordination departments that have weight.
The farthest bet remains on transferring this model to other vital sectors such as health and agriculture, out of the belief that there is no real development in a sector without an actual partnership with its community.
The final narrative report of the project submitted to the European Union is attached to this summary, for those who wish to see the full details.