April 13, 2022 - A new study on Youth Interest in Public Affairs, conducted by Kesh Malek and Baytna, attempts to shed light on the root causes of Syrian youth’s retreat from participation in the public sphere, and on how they foresee friendly governance conditions under which youth in Syria could be empowered and have a greater role in the public arena. Data was collected on the experiences of 523 male and female youth from inside and outside Syria, and was analyzed along two main tracks.

The first track is a conjoint quantitative-qualitative analysis of the respondents’ perspective towards the hurdles that youth in Syria face, leading to the mainstream lack of engagement with public affairs over the past years. The second track part applies the same approach to examine youth’s vision of the ideal steps to take in Syria and in local communities that they consider pivotal for youth empowerment, and that would drive more youth to participate in Syria’s public affairs.

At the onset, the study focused on thoroughly understanding the nitty-gritty details of youth’s perspective of what they deem as public affairs. The questionnaire also worked to map youth’s background on their experience in Syria’s public affairs, and the potential of their pursuing a public affair endeavor in the current conditions in the country. It measures the extent of their interest in keeping up with Syria’s day-to-day news, such as following news reports, commenting and posting on social media, and it also measures the percentage of respondents’ participation in organized civil, political, or other activities.

The results show that the majority of respondents are highly interested in the civil aspect of public affairs, in contrast to the political affairs where youth interest is lacking. However, respondents in certain areas, such as eastern Syria and SDF-controlled territories, experienced an increase in engagement, interest, and participation rates in public affairs across all sectors. Data shows that while respondents currently residing outside Syria showed a high interest in engaging with Syrian affairs, they have numerous reservations about the current political climate in the country.