For the purpose of this research, we decided upon the following definition for “the Syrian Civil Society Organization”: A Syrian CSO is every non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental and non-violent institution that possesses a clear Syrian identity in terms of its managing members being all Syrian citizens. Its main activity is aimed towards the Syrian cause whether it be through endorsement (advocacy), lobbying, providing services to Syrians in Syria and neighboring countries or institutions that target a social or ethnic group of Syrians that include Civil and non-Governmental Organizations in a manner that does not affect its legal standing as to being a Syrian Civil Society Organization.

In the Syrian context, the need for an accurate definition of Civil Society Organizations takes on a very important dimension, due on the one hand to the recent emergence of this nascent society, and on the other to the misconception surrounding it. With the absence of a Central Government, the majority of organizations operating in areas that are outside the control of the regime all follow similar operational mechanisms due in part to numerous factors among which the fact that a large number of councils and governing bodies adopt organizational structures that greatly resemble those of Civil Society Organizations. One such example is Idlib’s Directorate of Health (which provides governmental services), in which the process entails electing a secretary council comprised of the province’s doctors that, in turn, appoints the head of the Directorate of Health. Owing to the fact that this directorate has no ties to any governmental party, receives funding independently through donors and is not affiliated with any political or profit-oriented organization, all of the aforementioned signifies that this particular organizational body fulfills the European Union’s definition of a Civil Society Organization by being a non-profit, non-governmental, non-partisan and non-violent organization.

However, in addition to the EU definition of a Civil Society Organization, we will use an additional criteria that excludes bodies that undertake roles traditionally associated with governmental organizations for the purpose of this research, and thus excluding from this mapping project institutions such as Local, Provincial and City Councils, and Public Services Directorates (health, agriculture, education, etc.).

Comprised of an assembly of citizens who aim to work towards solving a certain issue that hasn’t been resolved by official institutions, by partaking in collective activities that aim to pressure the government, or to an urgent matter. Civil Initiatives do not have clear hierarchical structures or titles, their decisions are unanimously determined.

Organizations that are recognized international bodies or are United Nations subsidiaries.

These are organizations that define themselves as being part of the Syrian Interim Government (SIG) or the Syrian Central Government or they are organizations which are directly linked to party groups and ones that have an armed wing or were proven to have been involved in acts of violence, in addition to organizations that supports extremist armed factions such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Nusra Front.

This term refers to the “Local Councils and Health Directorates”, which represent a transitional and vague structural formation owing to the fact that these types of organizations possess an independent hierarchy and an administrative board or independent supervision and funding. However, they identify as auxiliaries of the Syrian Interim Government (SIG) and its governing bodies which undertake duties that normally fall under the jurisdiction of governmental institutions such as the directorates of health and education.

Projects that are solely reliant on social media platforms as their only outlets have not been included in this report due to challenging classification, debatable credibility and inability to create content quality measuring criteria, or establish the level of professionalism for each of the pages, in addition to their influence within the frame of primary research, we are reviewing available information for over three thousand Syria-related pages, among which are four hundred active pages that share original content (do not rely on copying content from another source) to be included in the in-depth report. We are also considering the potential of including them in a separate report dedicated to social media pages and media outlets, additionally there will be a graph on the website that displays data about these initiatives and links to them due to their significance, particularly within the domains of both media and advocacy.

Organizations and media outlets which have not been active for over 6 months since the beginning of this research dated 1/6/2015 or organizations that are only active for a limited period of time.