Over the last two decades, there have been multiple national and international policy initiatives and programmes aimed at youth engagement and technical capacity-building. But the design of many of these interventions has overlooked the potential of young people to be proactive partners, capable of leading initiatives and influencing systemic change.
Over the last two decades, a range of policy interventions in Iraq have targeted the country’s youth through primarily technical means, pushing for civic engagement through official channels. Yet often, as Mustafa pointed out, these efforts have had limited sustainable impact amid the prevailing political turmoil. This chapter identifies lessons learned from some of the national-level and internationally supported initiatives and projects of recent years.
National initiatives
In August 2023, Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani announced the establishment of a Supreme Youth Council, with the aim of increasing youth participation and representation in the decision-making process in Iraq. The creation of the council was the first step in an ambitious programme intended to facilitate greater youth participation and representation in government, including providing suggestions from youth perspectives to the prime minister’s office, and monitoring government performance in various ways, such as via the Ain Al-Shabab (Eye of Youth) platform to report possible instances of corruption. Additionally, al-Sudani’s representatives across Iraq have designated more than 3,000 young ambassadors to represent their peers across all governorates.
Such bodies are nothing new to Iraq. A youth parliament, established in 2008 by the ministry of youth and sports under the government of Nouri al-Maliki, is now in its fourth term. The same ministry also set up youth advisory councils in each of Iraq’s governorates; the most recent round of applications was in 2021. While al-Sudani’s new council looks promising in terms of the expectations it is setting, previous administrations have seemingly used such bodies as a tokenistic ‘youth box’, without also doing the work and making available the resources needed to ensure that young people are substantively included in decision-making.
The approach of successive Iraqi governments towards the country’s youth has long been problematic, with young people often viewed not as genuine partners but either as a group to engage with when it suits a government’s interests to do so, or simply as competitors. Moreover, successive initiatives have overlooked a crucial aspect: the need to actively involve young people in shaping their own future. There is a risk that this failing may persist under al-Sudani’s administration, as evidenced by the fact that the Supreme Youth Council – members of which include government ministers and a senior adviser to the prime minister – notably lacks youth representation. While government-led youth initiatives have potential if there is a genuine commitment to engage with and include young people in decision-making, they often fail to address the core issues that deeply concern Iraq’s youth – in particular, corruption and a lack of strategic vision for the nation’s future.
In discussions with senior MPs, including one from the parliament’s presidency, as part of the research that has informed this paper, it was unanimously acknowledged that there is currently no comprehensive plan to address the needs of Iraq’s youth. One MP underscored that the foundations of the social contract are flawed, leading to unrealistic expectations among many young graduates that there will be job opportunities for them in the public sector. Even so, many of the political elite still use the ‘jobs card’ as a means to attract youth votes.
Simultaneously, new red lines are limiting what young people and dissenting voices more broadly can say and do to push for change. A pertinent example here is the tabling of legislation to restrict freedom of expression. There has also been an uptick in the use of the country’s judicial and security apparatus to suppress dissenting narratives. For example, the authorities have used vaguely worded articles of the penal code to justify the arrest of individuals who criticize officials. Similarly, authorities organized a campaign to arrest individuals for promoting supposedly ‘indecent content’, without defining what indecent content is.
International initiatives
The international community often perceives Iraq’s youth population primarily as recipients of funding or aid, in line with donor countries’ set priorities, rather than recognizing young people as proactive partners capable of leading initiatives and influencing strategic decisions. A consequence of this is that young people are often included as a ‘youth’ component in bigger projects. Such programmes aim to provide young people with technical skills and training in the hope that they become involved in the official channels of governance.
An example of this is a UNDP-led €47.5 million project on local area development, funded by the EU, which included a component focused on youth. Under the programme, 880 young people received social, political and vocational skills-training, intended to equip them for participation in businesses, local councils or the national youth parliament. Two years after the project’s conclusion, however, the youth parliament and councils supported through this project were found to be minimally or no longer active. UNDP’s own evaluation suggested that such initiatives require a robust sustainability strategy to ensure their continued effectiveness and impact.
Similarly, members of the UN team in Iraq working on youth training and capacity-building, interviewed as part of the research for this paper, acknowledged the constraints within their programming. One noted that the government officials they work with often nominate youth representatives who may not truly represent the wider youth population. Another highlighted the limitations imposed by the annual UN mandate, budget constraints and overarching priorities, noting that these factors sometimes result in rushed projects that lack sustainability, particularly those related to capacity-building.
Regarding young people primarily as beneficiaries of assistance overlooks the potential of Iraq’s youth population to contribute meaningfully to efforts to address the challenges they and their country face, which in turn limits the impact and relevance of international support. Engaging young individuals as key stakeholders and contributors, including through the everyday politics described in this paper, is essential for the creation of effective, sustainable and locally resonant solutions.
Importantly, too, several of the young interviewees whose insights are distilled in the case studies pointed out that international funding often focuses on technical capacity rather than addressing the systemic challenges faced by young people. From their perspective, the dominance of Iraq’s political elite complicates the implementation of technical approaches in Iraq. Therefore, supporting the constructive resistance of young people is crucial for enabling them to effect change. However, many international programmes tend to focus on formal institutions and processes, contributing to the ‘NGO-ization’ of youth movements. This phenomenon has been observed in some human rights and environmental organizations in Iraq, where grassroots efforts are often absorbed into more structured but ultimately less impactful initiatives.
Young activists struggling to build financial support locally may turn to international organizations for funding. But dependence on external funding raises questions about sustainability, and risks diluting the effectiveness and trust invested in grassroots movements as they increasingly rely on external support rather than securing backing within their own communities. Addressing such issues calls for a shift in emphasis, within both government-led and international initiatives, to prioritize long-term commitment and genuine engagement with the everyday politics young people are practising, along with a focus on promoting systemic change rather than implementing more superficial trainings and awareness-raising campaigns.
