U.S. Department of State Grant: Capacity Building for IKR Civil Society

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The U.S. Consulate General in Erbil of the U.S. Department of State announces an open competition for organizations to submit applications to carry out a program to build capacity among various civil society groups in support of diverse goals.  

Priority Region: Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR).  

Program Objectives: 

This is an omnibus grant with six distinct objectives and target audiences.  

1) Law school students from rural universities (University of Raparin, University of Garmian, Soran University, Halabja University, and Koya University) in the IKR have few opportunities to engage with civil society and learn about the actual implementation of human rights-related laws and norms. Directly connecting them via paid internships with local civil society organizations (CSOs) to help them understand CSOs’ work helps ensure that rural residents in need of legal services will have better prepared legal counsel, who can help connect those clients in need to local CSOs able to support their needs beyond legal services, in support of overall human rights objectives. It also helps provide rural CSOs in need of legal services with legal teams better prepared to represent them in court.  

2) Human rights related NGOs are typically operated by individuals with few opportunities for professional development or training, and as a result are largely ineffective at fundraising and lobbying. Providing training to smaller, more rural, and/or newer CSOs on advocacy and lobbying techniques, fundraising best practices, strategic planning, and leadership and management best practices will yield more effective CSOs better able to advocate for democratic advancement within the IKR.  

3) Few IKR-based journalists attend journalism school, and journalism school students often graduate without effective understanding of tradecraft and ethics, yielding a media environment in which biased and substandard reporting are common, with a lack of fact checking, multiple sourcing, or other tradecraft skills. Providing training to journalists with fewer than 5 years of experience or journalism students will help rectify this issue.  

4) Understanding of modern water management techniques in the IKR is limited, even among specialist academics and practitioners, leading to significant agricultural production issues in the face of climate change-related drought. Helping environmental or agricultural CSOs better understand these techniques, as well as best practices in community advocacy, can help them spread these techniques to major water users including the agricultural sector, reducing overall demand for water.  

5) Similarly, environmental-focused academics have a key role to play in advising the government as to the best policies for improving overall water management within the IKR. Organizing a symposium or conference for water management and environmental science professors, academics, and industry leaders can help them come up with specific suggestions for implementation by both industry and the Kurdistan Regional Government.  

6) Finally, students with disabilities including but not limited to ADHD and autism spectrum disorder often face both social exclusion and a lack of preparedness on the part of teachers and schools to effectively teach such students. Training employees of the KRG Ministry of Education’s Training and Curriculum Development department on best practices in this field will help spread this knowledge throughout the IKR’s teachers and ensure better outcomes for students with disabilities.  

Above-mentioned programs should be designed in a way that they strengthen cultural ties between the United States and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region through programming that highlights shared values and promotes bilateral cooperation. All programs must include an American cultural element, or connection with American expert/s, organization/s, or institutions in a specific field that will promote increased understanding of U.S. policy and perspectives. Such inclusion may consist of U.S.-developed materials or resources, virtual speakers, or using key examples from the United States to advance outcomes.  

Participants and Audiences:

Minimum envisioned outcomes: 

(1) 25 total rural law school students from at least three of the aforementioned universities; (2) 25 human rights advocates from smaller/newer NGOs; (3) 25 newer journalists or journalism school students representing the IKR’s diversity; (4) 25 civil society activists from environmental organizations; (5) 25 academics working on water management or environmental issues; (6) 10 employees from the KRG Ministry of Education’s Training and Curriculum Development department.