Supporting Iraq Civil Society in Effective PVE

Iraq continues to face a myriad of challenges in relation to radicalisation and violent extremism. Additionally, inter-sectarian and inter-ethnic conflict continue to pose a risk to social cohesion and peacebuilding throughout the country. As a result, there is a pressing need create a strong Iraqi civil society with the skills and knowledge to address local drivers of violence and extremism, who can also play a role in the implementation of local P/CVE Plans of Action. 

In this project, funded by German Cooperation, ICCT’s PCVE team, supported by ICCT’s Centre of Excellence on Monitoring & Evaluation, and locally bases experts provided training and co-creation support to Iraqi civil society organisations seeking German funding for projects in the field of preventing violent extremism (PVE). ICCT's role was to help these organisations gain the knowledge and skills necessary to develop impactful project proposals. The focus of ICCT's work was to ground proposals in contemporary PVE approaches, ensure the formulation of SMARTly formulated project objectives, the identification of target audiences, and impact indicators, grounded in a strong monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan, including the development of a logframe. ICCT furthermore assisted in contextualising projects to the needs and challenges of different governorates across Iraq.

To this end, ICCT delivered English-language and Arabic-language training to over 75 representatives from 27 applicant organisations in Iraq. Additionally, ICCT international PVE experts and national conflict sensitivity experts provided tailored co-creation support to each organisation over a period of several months, supporting evidence-based project proposal design. ICCT led two iterations of this project. A first round of co-creation was held in 2022 and a second round in 2024. The project concluded in November 2024.