Empowering Women to Participate in Iraq’s National Reconciliation Process

This project aims to increase access for Iraqi women to decision making processes relating to national reconciliation in liberated areas of Iraq. It seeks to build the capacity of women from Anbar Ninewah Kirkuk and Salahaddin governorates to identify and transform conflict dynamics solicit women’s priorities on how best to achieve reconciliation and build cross-community alliances aimed at convincing key decision makers of the importance of strengthening the role of women in reconciliation processes. Project activities include: (1) providing financial management training for civil society organizations; (2) delivering conflict identification and transformation public policy development and platform development workshops for women activists; (3) conducting outreach activities and community meetings to seek input on local priorities; (4) facilitating meetings for women activists with national-level decision makers; and (5) developing a reconciliation toolkit for use in future advocacy campaigns.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased opportunities for Iraqi women to engage in reconciliation processes; (2) more effective participation of Iraqi women in decision making processes relating to reconciliation issues; (3) increased frequency and quality of Iraqi women’s contributions to reconciliation processes.