- Country: Iraq
- Project Name: Democracy Needs Civic Education – a civic education platform for Iraq
- Contact person: Philipp Salomo salomo@elbarlament.org and Asma Hriz hriz@elbarlament.org
- Project duration: 15.02.2023 – 15.02.2025
- Project objective: To contribute to a democratic, cohesive and peaceful Iraqi society through an increased social and political engagement of civil society, especially youth, at the local, regional and national level.
- Social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
Democracy Needs Civic Education – a civic education platform for Iraq
Elbarlament has developed an innovative knowledge-sharing and knowledge-management digital platform for national and international actors for civic education in Iraq. You can find it at www.ouriraq.org.
In addition, it is implementing capacity-building and networking activities in the field of civic education, in urban as well as rural areas and in cooperation with international and national actors.
The digital platform currently provides information and material on:
- Political knowledge,
- Heritage, culture, and history,
- Civic values and skills and
- Thematic knowledge about relevant societal questions.
It includes various features that promote participation and dialogue, like commenting functions, an event calendar, knowledge tests, a blog, polls, and surveys and will be made available in Arabic, English and Kurdish language. In addition to creating the platform, elbarlament is providing training to citizens in both rural and urban areas on civic education and building a network of civic education practitioners.
The project is implemented by elbarlament and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
Videos produced as part of the project
Iraq - between the Tigris and Ephrates rivers (in Arabic, with Kurdish subtitles)
Iraq - between the Tigris and Ephrates rivers (in Arabic, with English subtitles)
Iraq's political system (in English, with Kurdish subtitles)
Iraq's political system (in English, with Arabic subtitles)
Civic education is used to describe the democratic competencies of citizens to participate in social and political processes. It is crucial for consolidating the still-fragile transformation process of Iraq which in itself requires versatile measures. It is a way to promote peaceful nation-building and reconciliation, including dialogue between Iraqis of different tribes, religions, ethnicity, etc.
The project’s key component is the creation of a coherent political education offer in the form of a digital civic education platform. This provides interested Iraqis access to a range of resources, including articles, videos, and interactive materials designed to facilitate learning and engagement. The platform will help increase the visibility of organisations active in the field of civic education. You can find it here: www.ouriraq.org.
This project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office 