Over the past many years, senior officials throughout Iraq have been dealing with numerous crises. The greatest numbers of these are related to dislocation of people from territories controlled by ISIS, and from the ongoing violence and tensions between ethnic and sectarian communities. As the battle to defeat ISIS reaches its climax and more areas are liberated, attention will turn to issues of re-integration, reconstruction and unresolved existential questions over governance, sovereignty and the allocation of resources. 

 Some of the recent objectives being accomplished to help Iraq evolve its institutions to support fiscal federalism and decentralizationMap the current decision-making processes in Iraq that affect decentralization including budget setting and legislation making.

For the KRG to become a stable and reliable partner in a federal Iraq, its legal, institutional and administrative processes need to be improved. 

The Project Steering Committee (PSC) will be co-chaired by Dr. Madhi Alalak, Secretary General of the Council of Ministers of the Federal Government, and by Dr. Ali Sindi, Minister of Planning of the Kurdistan Regional Government. A senior official of the Institute on Governance and a representative of Global Affairs Canada will round out the PSC membership 

The Constitution of Iraq defines a federal state, with a division of authorities and responsibilities between the federal, regional and governorate levels. Although the principles of federalism and decentralization are embedded in the Constitution, Iraq has been unable to advance implementation.

The IOG is working with Iraqi elected and appointed officials throughout the country to provide dedicated intensive knowledge sharing. There will be six cohorts of twenty people focusing on fiscal federalism and decentralization. There will also be three cohorts of twenty individuals focused on reslience building in the KRG and reclaimed territories. Both of these groups will be provided training on common leadership competencies.

An overview of the project's strategy and objectives designed to build the organizations, business processes and relationships necessary to guide the decentralization process.

Why This Project Exists The constitution of Iraq reflects the wisdom of its founders and sets out a federal system for managing the nation’s business. It commands the national government, the 19 governorates and the Kurdish Regional Government to share power and assigns specific roles and responsibilities to each of them. The Iraqi people strongly endorsed this federal approach to government in the constitutional referendum of 2005. Read More