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Middle East

Forum project trains 68 Iraqi academics on Federalism
Between June 2007 and February 2008, the Forum of Federations conducted three 2-week courses on federalism for Iraqi professors of law and political science and seven government officials. The Forum project is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

The two-week courses took place in Jordan, and included some 17 course presentations, break-out sessions and comparative discussions on federal principles and structures, as presented by Forum experts and complimented by visits from Amman-based diplomats representing several federal countries : Ambassadors of South Africa, India, Brazil, Switzerland and the Charge d’ Affaires from the Embassy of Belgium. UNAMI constitutional experts from Baghdad and UNDP officials in Amman also gave presentations which were very well received by course participants.

The courses enabled the Forum to realize its objective of training a critical mass of 68 Iraqi academics. Course learning and translated federalism materials have already been integrated into existing university courses on Comparative Political Systems, Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Local Government, Democracy and Human Rights, Economics and Finance. These professors are to serve as an indigenous capacity-building resource for educating and training Iraq’s future leaders and educators, building relations with government officials at all levels.

Other objectives of the Forum's work in Iraq included sponsoring the creation of the Iraqi Center for Federal Studies (ICFS), the development of federalism materials in Arabic and Kurdish, printed and distributed in Baghdad for all universities; fostering the development of an Iraqi course curriculum on federalism for the country's 21 universities; and creating a bilingual website for the Iraqi association (www.iraqcfs.org ), which was launched in February of 2008. All course presentations are on the Forum (www.forumfed.org ) and ICFS websites. Students have already been downloading these materials.
The ICFS website is intended to facilitate networking among trained academics, and for the posting of research and announcements on ICFS activities for public benefit.

The seven Iraqi government officials attending the February training were from the Advisory Commission of the Prime Minister's Office, the Council of Ministers' Secretariat and the Ministry of Higher Education in Baghdad.
The two-week course in February was provided by five subject matter experts, Dr. David Cameron, the chair of the political science department at the University of Toronto; William Spencer, a U.S. consultant in judicial reform and constitutional issues who has worked in Baghdad since 2005; Dr. Marie-Joelle Zahar, professor of political science at the Université de Montréal; Dr. Richard Simeon, professor of political science at the University of Toronto and visiting professor as Harvard University; and Dr Violeta Ruiz Almendral, professor of taxation law at Carlos III University in Madrid.

The events were organized and managed by Marc Lemieux, the Forum's Director for the Middle East.
The CIDA funding has enabled the Forum to deepen its involvement in Iraq, where its experts have provided advice on the drafting of constitutional elements related to federal governance since early 2005.
In the next phase of the Iraq project (2009-10), the Forum plans to:

organize the ICFS national conference of federalism experts in Erbil - Iraq, in October,
provide federalism training to 70 senior federal government officials including officials from the Kurdistan Regional Government and from Iraq's 18 governorates,
train judicial officials and newly-elected parliamentarians on federalism.

Recent activities in the Iraq program have included:

In 2006, two missions were conducted in the region: a 12-day needs assessment mission and a three-day curriculum development session.

Since the Summer of 2005, the Forum has been working with the National Democratic Institute and UNAMI, supporting the constitutional development of Iraq.

For more information on the Forum's Iraq project, contact Marc Lemieux.

The Forum of Federations publishes many documents in Arabic. Find them on our publications page.

Federalism course materials are available in Arabic and English.

Iraqi officials have given their approval for experts with the Forum of Federations to train Iraqi academics on a variety of federalism-related topics.