Democracy Needs Civic Education – a civic education platform for Iraq

Elbarlament is currently developing an innovative knowledge-sharing and knowledge-management digital platform for national and international actors for civic education in Iraq. 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.

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 will provide 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.

Elbarlament will initially set up the digital platform and provide information and material on:

• Political knowledge,
• Heritage, culture, and history,
• Civic values and skills and
• Thematic knowledge about relevant societal questions. 

The platform will include 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 plans to provide training activities to citizens in both rural and urban areas on civic education and build a network of civic education practitioners through various activities. 

The project is implemented by elbarlament and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.