The Charter is currently in a draft form and open for consulatation. On 4 September 2013, MP al-Jabbouri and Minister al-Safi organized a joint press conference on the floor of the Iraqi parliament to announce completion of the most recent draft of the Charter of Cooperation between Public Authorities and NGOs for the Development of Iraqi Society.
MP al-Jabbouri led the press conference and announced the draft’s unanimous endorsement by representatives from the Iraqi government, parliament, and civil society. MP al-Jabbouri and Minister al-Safi were joined by three civil society representatives and six additional MPs, a clear visual signal of the cooperative, cross-sector process used to develop the Charter.
The press conference was covered by dozens of Iraqi radio, television, and newspaper outlets. Immediately after the press conference, the NGO Coordination Committee for Iraq (NCCI) launched a second round of consultations. As before, NCCI worked with the NGOs Directorate, UNOPS, local NGO partners, and trained volunteer facilitators to conduct consultation meetings in all eighteen governorates of Iraq.
For this round of consultations one representative has been elected at each consultation meeting to take part in a final consultation in Baghdad from 12 – 13 October. At the final consultation, representatives selected by their peers at each of the consultation meetings met together to prepare a final set of recommended changes for the project implementation committee (PIC). The meeting was overseen by ECNL's expert facilitator.
Finally, a third and final policy document on cooperation (PDC) drafting workshop is tentatively scheduled to take place from 16 – 17 November 2013. With the final draft of the PDC prepared, UNOPS and PIC members will work to ensure that the PDC is approved by the Council of Representatives and, if appropriate, endorsed by a wide range of Iraqi civil society organizations. Though it is difficult to predict legislative outcomes in advance, the final PDC might be approved by the Council of Representatives before the end of the current legislative term.
For more details on the specific activities that have taken place so far in the Kurdistan region, as well as on the federal level, please visit the thematic subpage of the Iraqi project on our website.