Iraqi Women's Democracy Initiative

Since 2004, the Office of the Senior Coordinator for International Women’s Issues (G/IWI) has been implementing the Iraqi Women’s Democracy Initiative (IWDI). The $24.5 million Initiative works through U.S. NGO partners on the ground in Iraq to build the capacity of Iraqi women to participate fully in the political and economic life of Iraq.

To date, programs under the IWDI have trained some 7,000 Iraqi women in several key skill areas including: leadership, political participation, entrepreneurship, women's rights advocacy, coalition building, negotiation, how to create women's NGOs and media skills, in addition to providing training on Iraqi women's constitutional rights and women's rights under international law.

G/IWI recently announced an open competition for assistance awards for programs and requested proposals focused on empowering widows and women heads of households on the following themes:

• Women’s Rights Awareness: increasing support for women’s rights through multi-media public outreach particularly focused on reaching women who would not ordinarily be reached by training on women’s rights. Outreach could include PSAs, advertising campaigns, and publications.
• Leadership Training: identifying, recruiting and preparing women as voters, candidates, government officials, community leaders, and advocates for women’s inclusion at all levels of government.
• Economic Capacity Building: directly, and through sub-grants, providing economic skills training and educating women to create and run small businesses, particularly women who are the sole source of support for their families so women can support themselves.
• Women and Peacebuilding: training Iraqi women in negotiation, reconciliation, and peace building skills at the community, regional and national levels.
• Women in Justice /Combating Violence Against Women: training on monitoring and combating Violence Against Women, geared towards lawyers, judges, community organizations, and the Iraqi police, at the local, regional, and national levels.