Marking the end of our project with final focus groups

Mid- September, two focus group meetings took place in Baghdad, marking the last activity of our project Quality and effectiveness in Dialogue and Participation in Iraq. Through the project, (local) civil society organisations were able to enter into a dialogue with high ranking decision makers from different ministries and from different governmental levels. In addition, governmental actors voiced that their doors are open for further collaboration with them while concrete suggestions were developed throughout the sessions.

Roadmaps (on the topics of climate change and water management, complaints mechanisms in Iraq and e-governance tools, youth participation, job opportunities for youth, vocational training and education) developed throughout the project received interest by different ministerial actors.

Our latest publication Toolkit for Dialogue and Participation in Iraq was also used.

This project was elbarlament’s contribution to Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH’s PDP project. Its aim was to advance and improve the processes and results of existing and ongoing processes as well as prepare future dialogue and participation (D&P) processes with enhanced governmental ownership.

During the project key stakeholders from government and civil society in the fields of Climate Change and Water Management, Complaints Mechanisms and e-governance tools, Youth Participation, Vocational Education and Training, and Job Opportunities for Youth were convened in round table discussions and a conference “The way forward” to discuss the implementation of the results of dialogue process into practice.

The topics discussed in both conference and round table discussions were introduced by experts that together with the participants analysed respective dialogue processes through interviews, document reviews and an analysis of the context for dialogue and participation in the respective issue area analysis.