Current Projects & Activities

To realize our mission, the Foundation implements projects in Iraq that promote our vision. In addition to our humanitarian efforts, the Iraq Foundation currently has four active projects for the project year 2008, which focus on human rights, civil society, and democracy building:

Human Rights Advocacy Initiative

Women's Empowerment Project

Maysan NGO Capacity Building Project

Provincial Accountability and Governance Project

Post Election Democracy Project

Achieved Projects & Activities

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Human Rights Advocacy Initiative

The goal of the Iraq Human Rights Advocacy Initiative is to empower Iraqi human rights leaders—in civil society as well as in government ministries, parliament and in the media—to be better advocates for human rights. The Iraq Foundation proposes a basket of initiatives designed to consolidate Iraq’s budding human rights community into a strong, broad-based advocacy coalition pressing to hold the Iraqi government accountable for the state of Iraqis’ civil and political liberties. The initiatives will be designed and synchronized to be mutually enhancing and reinforcing.

Widows Empowerment Project

The goal of the project is to train disadvantaged Iraqi widows on a set of skills that will empower them politically, and increase their economic independence. The project also aims to enhance the Iraqi women’s understanding of their rights and civic responsibilities to be better able to participate in the democratic process and civic life.

Maysan NGO Capacity Building Project

The Goal of the Maysan NGOs Capacity Building (MNCB) project is to promote the growth and effectiveness of civil society organizations in the Maysan province so they can ensure that the interests of citizens are weighed by public institutions that make policy and allocate resources.

Provincial Accountability and Governance Project

The Iraq Foundation was awarded a grant from the US Department of State's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA) to implement a project to promote good governance, improve provincial government accountability and transparency, increase capacity of Iraq's anti-corruption institutions at the provincial level, and strengthen civil society organizations' capacity to conduct oversight activities.

The goal of the project is to bring about change in knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding ethical provincial administration, and to instill a new culture of transparency, accountability, and good governance. Through educating, monitoring, and building alliances between provincial officials and local civic leaders, Iraq Foundation will chart a course for change toward more responsive, more accountable government in Iraq.

Post Election Democracy Project (PEDP)

The Iraq Foundation has been awarded a grant to implement a three year project to meet the need for good governance in Iraq during the period following the elections for a new Council of Representatives, which will seek to improve capacity and performance of newly elected women parliamentarians in the new CoR, raise the responsiveness and accountability of the government by empowering civil society, and expand civic awareness and participation in the democratic process, especially among youth. To achieve these objectives, IF will train new women parliamentarians in legislative skills and facilitate exchanges with regional women parliamentarians, provide training to civic leaders on methodologies and techniques for monitoring and reporting on good governance, government policies, establish summer courses on leadership at the American University of Iraq-Suleimaniya for young Iraqis, provide small grants for national reconciliation projects and internships for young, and awards for short videos on civic relations. A web portal for the project will be created to carry all training materials.