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Since the summer of 2003, the International Republican Institute (IRI) has conducted a multi-faceted program aimed at promoting the development of democracy in Iraq. Toward this end, IRI works with political parties, indigenous civil society groups, and elected and other government officials. In support of these efforts, IRI also conducts numerous public opinion research projects and assists its Iraqi partners in the production of radio and television ads and programs.
Public Opinion Research
An important goal of IRI's program is to provide Iraqi politicians, opinion leaders, government officials and prospective candidates with timely and accurate assessments of public opinion. Results from IRI sponsored polls are shared widely and constitute one of our most valuable tools for teaching and promoting meaningful political dialogue and responsive politics.
IRI has partnered with an Iraqi organization in the fielding of more than 15 national opinion polls that solicit public opinion from all segments of Iraqi society. These polls provided an important baseline against which to evaluate the Iraqi public's understanding of the January and December 2005 nationwide elections, as well as the October 2005 constitutional referendum. More recently, they have played an important role in helping Iraqi politicians and others to gauge the overall level of public support for the new government. At the same time, IRI's polls continue to provide a unique insight into public attitudes towards the most prominent and divisive political issues facing Iraq today.
In addition to polls, IRI's Iraq program also conducts focus groups on a range of political and public policy issues. IRI's focus groups are conducted by specially trained Iraqi staffers in response to requests from public officials affiliated with a broad range of political parties. While IRI's focus groups do not serve as a substitute for the kind of quantitative data generated by survey research, they do provide an added qualitative dimension to IRI's polling operations. In so doing, they help Iraq's political leaders to develop a greater understanding of the roots of public attitudes towards different key issues.
Political Party Development
A core component of IRI's Iraq Program is to offer assistance to the broad range of political entities that have emerged. IRI party development programs focus on a variety of topics related to organization building, platform development, public communications, coalition building and campaigning for elective office. IRI's in-country staff and external trainers have held party training conferences since IRI's Iraq program began in 2003.
Campaign Trainings
In the run-up to the December 2005 elections, IRI conducted a series of 17 campaign management and campaign training seminars in Baghdad and Erbil. A group of international experts discussed budget management, media relations, volunteer recruitment, polling, and specific campaign tactics with nearly 400 senior level members of various parties. In conjunction, IRI developed and distributed a campaign management manual to all participants.
Party Agent Trainings
In a sustained effort to ensure party confidence in the electoral process, IRI has trained political party representatives to observe Iraqi elections. Leading up to the December 2005 elections, IRI conducted a series of party agent "train the trainers" sessions throughout the country that directly reached approximately 5,000 senior party agents, who, through subsequent training efforts, instructed approximately 50,000 additional party agents. Furthermore, IRI wrote, printed and distributed roughly 50,000 party agent manuals and 1,900 DVDs.
Debates
In an effort to educate the Iraqi public about party platforms, IRI produced and aired on Iraqi television a series of 10 political debates between December 4 and December 13, 2005. Participants discussed a single topic during each debate in order to highlight the importance of issue-based campaigns and to educate the Iraqi citizenry about the platforms of various coalitions/parties. Topics included: security, federalism, the role of religion, de-Baathification, the role of women, electricity, foreign policy, economic development and health care.
Governance
Good governance will be the ultimate basis upon which support for Iraq's constitution and its democracy will depend. Like other democratic regimes, the new, permanent Iraqi Council of Representatives (ICR) and Iraqi government must succeed in responding to the needs of the people in order to build confidence among Iraqi citizens.
Assistance to the Legislative Branch
IRI’s Iraq governance program focuses primarily on building and strengthening the capacity of several of the constituent Directorates of the ICR. These include the parliamentary Research Directorate, the ICR Library, and the council’s media and communications directorates. In addition, IRI engages the nongovernmental think tank community in the public policy process.
Towards these ends, IRI supports the advancement of the research, library, budget and archive departments within the ICR Research Directorate through technical assistance and training programs for the staff. IRI also works to strengthen and institutionalize communication functions within the legislature and between members and their constituents through mentoring, consultations, formal training and exchange programs for parliamentarians, their staff and committees.
Finally, IRI supports the development of nongovernmental, nonsectarian public policy think tanks, particularly on economic policy and security issues, and aims to facilitate their participation in the public policy making process. IRI supports its partners through technical support, capacity building workshops, and assistance for conferences and events. IRI also pursues opportunities to connect Iraqi think tanks with established policy institutes in the international arena.
Public Policy Foundations
Effective democracies include strong nongovernmental policy organizations that serve as a critical component in the policy making process. In order to build the capacity of Iraqi think tanks, IRI supports several promising Iraqi public policy institutes. IRI offers technical assistance and funding for various activities for partner think tanks, which cover a wide range of policy areas. Nine of these organizations are now cooperating as part of a confederation called the Popular Dialogue Forum (PDF). IRI believes these talented groups will be able to make a significant contribution on the legislation that the Council of Representatives will produce.
Civil Society Development
In order to make the transition from dictatorship to democracy successful, Iraqi citizens must be prepared, encouraged, and empowered to take part in the process of self-governance. IRI has concentrated substantial resources to promoting advocacy among all types of civic organizations that work for the people outside the halls of government. A large part of this effort consists of working with Iraqi civic leaders to develop voter education programs that utilize a combination of national media coverage and grassroots activism to promote substantive discussion of critical issues facing the nation.
Voter Education
IRI has helped a group of Iraqi nongovernmental organizations (NGO) to educate citizens about each of the three votes that took place during 2005. The institute's partner organizations come from all 18 governorates and represent a variety of national, ethnic, sectarian and issue-based interest groups. These activities played an essential role in ensuring that citizens from all segments of the population cast an informed vote and had confidence in the integrity of the electoral process.
In the run-up to the December elections, IRI worked together with numerous NGOs to develop and organize voter education activities through media campaigns as well as training workshops. IRI assisted in the production and broadcast of seven nationally-televised TV spots that encouraged participation in the elections and helped to film and produce two TV talk shows that focused on women's issues. Furthermore, IRI printed a multitude of posters, pamphlets, fliers and banners that were distributed throughout all governorates.
Looking Ahead
The Constitution Review Committee (CRC) is currently working on the review process that was laid out in the current Iraqi constitution. IRI is working with its NGO partners in their efforts to submit proposed changes to the constitution and enhance their capacity to lobby the CRC and the ICR. In the coming months, IRI will assist its partners in launching a campaign that will focus on educating the public about the constitution review process and ensure that public input is heeded by the members of the CRC in hopes that a widely-accepted constitution may foster a more secure and prosperous environment for future generations.
IRI will continue to make its media center and public opinion research capabilities available to Iraqi officials and civil society leaders during this critical period of forming a new government and supporting a stable democracy. The media center will offer Iraqi partners the ability to produce television and radio public service announcements and discussion programs focusing on the key issues under debate in the ICR.
Women's Programs
IRI assists women's advocacy efforts through its work with women's organizations and women political party members since 2003. IRI facilitated the establishment of an Iraqi institute that aims to help Iraqi women rise to positions of authority in government and civil society. This institute has held numerous conferences on NGO management and leadership, gender equality in the constitution and civil society involvement in the constitutional drafting process, among other topics, reaching hundreds of women's civil society organization leaders.
IRI supports Iraqi women's NGOs in conducting seminars, workshops and conferences on women's leadership in both the political and civic sectors. In 2005, after a very active summer of lobbying the Constitutional Committee to submit a constitution that would protect women's rights, women's NGOs continued activities to educate Iraqi women about the content of the draft constitution and areas of concern. They did this through signature drives, demonstrations and press conferences. Women's groups conducted get-out-the-vote campaigns consisting of TV spots, billboards and leaflets, reaching six to 10 million Iraqis.
In the run-up to the December 2005 elections, IRI supported women's NGOs in several campaigns to educate and mobilize Iraq's women voters. These campaigns yielded hundreds of thousands of educational pamphlets, posters, billboards and numerous other items that helped to achieve an impressive turnout among Iraq's women voters. In 2006, IRI has worked with Iraqi women's groups to continue to promote an increased awareness of the importance of women's participation in civil society and government. The women’s groups are now preparing for the upcoming constitutional review period and will undertake large-scale lobbying efforts aimed at ensuring women’s rights in the redrafting of the constitution.
Youth Programs
It is estimated that more than half of Iraq's population is less than 30 years of age. IRI recognizes that development of new political leadership from within the country's large population of youth will be essential to the success of the country's democratic transition. Since 2003, IRI has been involved in the promotion of student civic activities on academic campuses across the country.
In an effort to identify students committed to the democratization process and to create a student network, IRI helped to initiate a national youth coalition. These dedicated youth leaders organized a country-wide voter education campaign at university campuses encouraging student participation in the December elections. The campaign, which involved the printing and distribution of posters, brochures, fliers and notebooks, a TV spot, workshops and street theater performances generated a considerable amount of attention among students on these campuses. IRI continues to support youth activities throughout Iraq that increase youth participation in politics and encourage youth to seek a stronger, more unified voice to bring their legitimate concerns to the governing powers.
Central Eastern European Experience
In cooperation with its NGO partners in Eastern Europe, IRI brought several delegations of Iraqi politicians, political party and civil society leaders to Eastern Europe to participate in trainings by Eastern European NGO activists. The Iraqi delegates received lectures on the transition from authoritarian to democratic government and learned how to apply democratic principles in a post-authoritarian environment. Iraqis also held internships in Slovak parliament and ministries, observed Czech elections, attended the Ukraine National Women's Conference, and met with members of government to learn the day to day operations of a democratic society.
National Reconciliation Campaigns
During this period of increasing violence in early 2006, IRI's women, youth, and Sunni-area focused partners began with IRI's support a public education campaign about non-violence and anti-sectarianism with the goal of achieving national reconciliation. IRI's partners have thus far completed national conferences, local workshops, and artistic exhibitions centered on the theme of the role that people can play in their communities to maintain Iraq's unity and decrease the level of sectarian-based violence.
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