Syria was held under the oppressive rule of its former dictator for 14 long years. Its people suffered human rights abuses, conflict, war and over a decade of arrested development. Now it faces the hard task of redeveloping, which includes basic services of the state.
Earlier this year, the new Syrian leadership asked Turkey to assist in producing new official ID documents, which include passports, identity cards and driver's licenses. Turkish officials said document production will be along the same lines as the country's own chip-based passport, ID and driver's license, ensuring the documents meet international security and identification standards.
As it now reaches toward progress under a new administration, signs of hope are appearing as Syrians return and rebuild. Nabil Orfali is one such individual, a Syrian who emigrated to Canada, and who is now architecting a project to address critical infrastructure challenges in his motherland.
Profiled by CMC Critic, Nabil Ofali graduated in computer science from Damascus University, working to build the first online payment system for the country's first ISP, before leaving Syria in 2001 as then-President Bashar al-Assad grew more hostile.
Following a successful career in Toronto, which includes building the firms TechGuilds and Kajoo, he has created 14.Digital to revive Syria's digital infrastructure.
"I've been in technology for my whole career, and my friends as well," he told CMC Critic. "So we got together, around ten or eleven of us, from across the globe. Places like the UK, Germany, the US, and Canada. We wanted to help in a bigger way."
The objective is to advance digitalization even as the country struggles with essential infrastructure. "They have very, very rudimentary resources," Ofali said. "There are frequent electrical outages, with power coming only a few times a day. It's improving, and people are getting creative with solar panels and batteries."
Training forms a key part of 14.Digital's broader mission, equipping the skills needed to navigate the digital landscapes. Ofali points out this is a priority for the country and includes not only technical skills but soft skills such as language. "A lot of these kids, they've been out of school for five years, ten years in some cases."
According to Orfali, his NGO is engaged in cybersecurity efforts, including audits of government websites. Following the collapse of the previous regime, there was a surge in hacking activity. The absence of robust data centers complicated remediation efforts.
Among the most ambitious proposals from Orfali and 14.Digital is the rollout of a secure core platform designed to underpin future digital government services. "Civil records were largely paper-based, and a lot of them were damaged during the war," he explained.
Without such records, elections and healthcare and basic identification is difficult to conduct. "So from that perspective, we proposed a project to provide digital identity to all government agencies for issuing IDs, driver's licenses, even passports down the road," Orfali said. "But we're going to build that core of digital identity in a very secure way."
14.Digital offers targeted services spanning software design, custom development, and infrastructure deployment. Its team specializes in building secure, scalable digital and cloud systems tailored to diverse business needs, while also delivering network architecture, cybersecurity protections, and AI-driven automation to boost operational efficiency.
A core aspect of 14.Digital's charter is to promote human rights and democratic values as it establishes national and community-based initiatives. The NGO is registered in both Syria and Canada, with the organization's team formed of professionals from a diversity of backgrounds and honed in digital infrastructure development and community support.
Over on Tech Policy Press, Noura Aljizawi, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, makes the case for digital infrastructure in rebuilding Syria.
Aljizawi highlighted the case of post-Soviet Estonia, which has created one of the most advanced e-governance systems in the world from scratch, as an example of investing in digital transformation. Syrian Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Abdul Salam Haykal, has said digital reconstruction and transformation are core to the national recovery strategy.
In post-conflict settings, digital transition is often dismissed as a luxury rather than recognized as essential for democratic recovery, transparency, public trust and institutional resilience, Aljizawi argues.
Under Assad, the rhetoric of "digital sovereignty" masked a regime of surveillance and repression. Internet restrictions, state-sponsored hacking groups and reliance on allies like Russia and Iran turned digital tools into instruments of censorship rather than empowerment.
Humanitarian data including refugee biometrics and detainee lists was collected, but the process lacked transparency, legal safeguards or informed consent, leaving Syrians' personal information vulnerable, the academic claims.
The redevelopment of Syria is complicated by its international status. Even after most Western sanctions were formally lifted, major platforms such as Google Play, Docker and GitHub continue to block Syrian IP addresses. This lays bare the challenges as the exclusion forces citizens and aid organizations to rely on unsafe workarounds, undermining humanitarian operations and broader tech innovation.
Syria's long-term digital recovery depends on treating technological rebuilding not as an afterthought but as the very foundation of national renewal, the researcher believes. Read the full piece here.