CONTEXT
Post-Daesh Iraq is a country slowly trying to return to normalcy. There are still large numbers of people trying to return to their homes. The entire society is riven with conflict, trauma and sectarian divisions. Paying the highest price for all this are women and children. Weak state institutions are challenged daily by the many militias, affiliated with regional powers, that control infrastructure, checkpoints, as well as actual portions of territory. The Iraqi mosaic, from an element of millennial wealth, has sadly turned into a struggle for supremacy. Iraqi youth have been taking to the streets for years, demanding an end to sectarianism, corruption, and the dominance of arms. And organized civil society is constantly engaged in the long and complex work of rebuilding social ties and peacebuilding.

THE PROJECT
In Iraq, these are time of elevated social conflict, as is evident from the massive protests that have been ongoing since October 2019.

In this scenario, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) can bridge the gap between Iraqi authorities and the local communities acting at a grassroot level to promote constructive change, facilitate dialogue, protect human and environmental rights, provide equal opportunities to women and men.

To be more effective in this role, Iraqi CSOs need support to reinforce their internal structures and to improve their advocacy skills, giving adequate space to women and youth within their leadership. External support needs to respect their ownership on any process of cultural and social change, therefore this project has been built and will be implemented with a participatory and gender-sensitive approach.

The main objective of “Tatweer” is to enable CSOs in Iraq to have a greater impact on the promotion of human and environmental rights, to respond more effectively to the needs of individual communities and to collaborate with local and national authorities.

We will do it through these key activities:

Opening 3 Civil Society Service Centers (CSSCs) in Erbil, Mosul and Basra, that will operate acting as open spaces for trainings and experience-sharing for local civil society organizations in Iraq;

Develop and disseminate quality training materials that will be used as training packages on good governance, strategic planning, campaigning, project management, fundraising;

Provide accompanied grants to CSOs, that will be used to implement projects relating to human rights, environmental protection, peacebuilding and development;

Creation of a civil society web-platform, that will be available for sharing experiences and tools among CSOs that pursue good governance, strategic planning, campaigning and effective project management;

Organization of regional exchange of effective practices and development of international partnerships, in order to improve national and international advocacy.

To reach these objectives, several meetings, workshop, trainings, cultural events will be organized, providing in the same time legal assistance for NGOs and CSOs in the region.

UPP IN IRAQ
Un Ponte Per (A Bridge To...) begins its story in Iraq back in 1991, alongside and in support of the civilian population who were victims of the Gulf War. Following the post-war emergency, it organizes the campaign to treat Iraqi boys and girls suffering from serious diseases in Italy, initiates school twinning between Italian and Iraqi schools, and launches campaigns to denounce and violate the embargo on the Iraqi population. After the 2003 war, following the burning and looting of the National Library and Historical Archives in Baghdad, Un Ponte Per set off with the program "The House of Books" to renovate its premises, restore manuscripts and train library staff. A commitment that continues to this day with the defense of minority cultural heritage and the preservation of Iraqi archaeological, cultural and environmental sites (such as the "Save the Tigris" water defense campaign). UPP has also been supporting Iraqi activists since 2004, out of whose synergy the Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative was born in 2009. At the outbreak of the war in Syria, UPP became involved in Iraq in the work of welcoming and providing psychosocial support to the many people seeking refuge in the country. It is at the forefront of the humanitarian emergency caused by Daesh's (Islamic State) conquest of large portions of Iraq and the ensuing civil war. After the expulsion of Daesh from Iraq, Un Ponte Per inaugurated in the Nineveh Plain its "Peace Workshops," centers where Iraqi youths can engage in sports activities, attend trainings, and socialize with people from different ethnic/religious groups. UPP consistently carries out work to protect and access reproductive health for women and girls. Its peacebuilding work and support for war victims continues till today.