Sports for Peace
SPF implements the 'Sports for Peace project through the generous funding of IOM's Wasl programme.
The Sports for Peace is a PVE project, which capitalised on sports to increase youth, girls resilience to violent extremism in west of Mosul by preventing violent extremism and sustaining peace in the district.
Iraqi youth make up 68% of the total population yet they are largely marginalised and play little role in social affairs and the peace and reconciliation processes. This is more protruding in the recently liberated governorates, especially in West of Mosul, much of which remains in rubbles due to Daesh occupation and the bombardments during the liberation of the area. This increases youth vulnerability to Violent Extremism (VE), especially when the pre-2014 VE drivers continue to persist: despite the fact that the pull factors are less effective yet the push factors have not only remained, but in some cases they have increased.
PVE efforts are less effective when they do not engage the youth. Therefore, it is pivotal to engage the youth in PVE programming by meeting their needs and providing them with the respect, dignity and agency they so merit to empower them in ways that make them most resilient against the appeal of VE; and capacitating them to address grievances – especially when these are VE drivers.
Female youth are another intersecting marginalised social group: if the male youth are disfranchised, the marginalisation of female youth is multiplied. This is often reflected in PVE efforts because it is generally and erroneously believed: women are not recruited by VE groups; women only support VE under coercion and because of their connection to male violent extremists; women do not commit violence in VE groups ect.; however, we now know ISIS exploited women's and girls' marginalisation and female sentiments of political subjugation and oppression, their poor economical conditions and fears of sexual violence to recruit much of their female fighters and affiliates. In fact an assessment conducted by SPF in Mosul, demonstrates that ISIS used their female affiliates to recruit male fighters via sextorting them via the internet. Conversely, PVE efforts are impactful when they include women and girls and gender mainstreaming, build the capacity of women and girls to contribute safely and proactively to PVE, to support women and girls to undertake PVE activities ect. This gender mainstreaming is a pressing need in Mosul, especially in west Mosul because of the existing gender segregation resulting from cultural traditions and toxic masculinity that prevails in the area.
Therefore, it is imperative these disfranchised youth (both females and males) are capacitated and proactively engage in increasing community and youth resilience in mitigating the drivers of violent extremism in West of Mosul, Mosul district and Nineveh governorate in general. One of the best ways to engage these youth is through sports since sports have proven to be a pivotal and effective tool to reduce the effects of VE drivers among the youth and their respective communities.[2]
SPF will capitalise on their youth centre in west Mosul, their excellent connections with Directorate of Youth and Sports and their associated centres, SPF's excellent social capital and connection with the various sports clubs and their respective centres to engage male and female youth in sports and preventing violent extremism.
The Sports for Peace is a PVE project, which capitalised on sports to increase youth, girls resilience to violent extremism in west of Mosul by preventing violent extremism and sustaining peace in the district.
Iraqi youth make up 68% of the total population yet they are largely marginalised and play little role in social affairs and the peace and reconciliation processes. This is more protruding in the recently liberated governorates, especially in West of Mosul, much of which remains in rubbles due to Daesh occupation and the bombardments during the liberation of the area. This increases youth vulnerability to Violent Extremism (VE), especially when the pre-2014 VE drivers continue to persist: despite the fact that the pull factors are less effective yet the push factors have not only remained, but in some cases they have increased.
PVE efforts are less effective when they do not engage the youth. Therefore, it is pivotal to engage the youth in PVE programming by meeting their needs and providing them with the respect, dignity and agency they so merit to empower them in ways that make them most resilient against the appeal of VE; and capacitating them to address grievances – especially when these are VE drivers.
Female youth are another intersecting marginalised social group: if the male youth are disfranchised, the marginalisation of female youth is multiplied. This is often reflected in PVE efforts because it is generally and erroneously believed: women are not recruited by VE groups; women only support VE under coercion and because of their connection to male violent extremists; women do not commit violence in VE groups ect.; however, we now know ISIS exploited women's and girls' marginalisation and female sentiments of political subjugation and oppression, their poor economical conditions and fears of sexual violence to recruit much of their female fighters and affiliates. In fact an assessment conducted by SPF in Mosul, demonstrates that ISIS used their female affiliates to recruit male fighters via sextorting them via the internet. Conversely, PVE efforts are impactful when they include women and girls and gender mainstreaming, build the capacity of women and girls to contribute safely and proactively to PVE, to support women and girls to undertake PVE activities ect. This gender mainstreaming is a pressing need in Mosul, especially in west Mosul because of the existing gender segregation resulting from cultural traditions and toxic masculinity that prevails in the area.
Therefore, it is imperative these disfranchised youth (both females and males) are capacitated and proactively engage in increasing community and youth resilience in mitigating the drivers of violent extremism in West of Mosul, Mosul district and Nineveh governorate in general. One of the best ways to engage these youth is through sports since sports have proven to be a pivotal and effective tool to reduce the effects of VE drivers among the youth and their respective communities.[2]
SPF will capitalise on their youth centre in west Mosul, their excellent connections with Directorate of Youth and Sports and their associated centres, SPF's excellent social capital and connection with the various sports clubs and their respective centres to engage male and female youth in sports and preventing violent extremism.
United for Environmental Justice
SPF implements the ‘United for Environmental Justice’ project within the framework of Un Ponte Per’s ‘Hiwar’ project, which is funded by United Nations’ Development Programme (UNDP) through EU-Iraq funding.
The project capacitates, empower community members from Nineveh governorate’s Al-Qayyara sub-district by providing them with the necessary skills of effective dialogue, negotiation and advocacy; and providing them with a platform to promote and advocate for environmental justice by engaging the key stakeholder from the local authorities, such as: the Directorates of Environment and Agriculture so that they are able to minimise and mitigate the risks to the health and livlihood of the inhabitants of the area who are exposed to acute pollution resulting from oil fields and sulphur plants in the sub-district
The project capacitates, empower community members from Nineveh governorate’s Al-Qayyara sub-district by providing them with the necessary skills of effective dialogue, negotiation and advocacy; and providing them with a platform to promote and advocate for environmental justice by engaging the key stakeholder from the local authorities, such as: the Directorates of Environment and Agriculture so that they are able to minimise and mitigate the risks to the health and livlihood of the inhabitants of the area who are exposed to acute pollution resulting from oil fields and sulphur plants in the sub-district
Our Schools, Our Responsibility
United in Reducing Drivers of Violent Extremism in Diyala’s Education Facilities
‘Our Schools, Our Respnsobility: United in Reducing Drivers of Violent Extremism in Diyala’s Education Facilities’ is supported by the SILM Fund, which is funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
The project aims to Prevent Violent Extremism (PVE) in Diyala governorate through designing and implementing interventions at the governorate’s educational facilities, both primary and preparatory schools.
The project also works closely with the Office of National Security Advisory (ONSA) with the objective of implementing their national ‘Strategy to Combat Violent Extremism Conducive to Terrorism.’
This pilot project engages the key stakeholders, such as: representaives from the goverorate’s Directorate of Education, school managements and teaching staff; Parent Teacher Associations (PTA), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and activists; and last but not lest the very students themselves.
The aspired objectives of the project are: to conduct a deep assessment study as context anaalysis, actor mapping and analysis; and the development of a PVE training material for Training of Trainers (ToT) who will be capacitated to implement extra curricula lessons to increase student resilience to Violent Extremism (VE).
The project aims to Prevent Violent Extremism (PVE) in Diyala governorate through designing and implementing interventions at the governorate’s educational facilities, both primary and preparatory schools.
The project also works closely with the Office of National Security Advisory (ONSA) with the objective of implementing their national ‘Strategy to Combat Violent Extremism Conducive to Terrorism.’
This pilot project engages the key stakeholders, such as: representaives from the goverorate’s Directorate of Education, school managements and teaching staff; Parent Teacher Associations (PTA), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and activists; and last but not lest the very students themselves.
The aspired objectives of the project are: to conduct a deep assessment study as context anaalysis, actor mapping and analysis; and the development of a PVE training material for Training of Trainers (ToT) who will be capacitated to implement extra curricula lessons to increase student resilience to Violent Extremism (VE).
Me Too and I am not Alone
The ‘Me Too’ project is implementedwithin the framework of Un Ponte Per’s ‘Tatweer’ project, which is funded by EU-Iraq. Whilst the ‘I am not Alone’ project is funded by Cordaid: Together they tackle sextortion in Nineveh Plain and Mosul city (both the east and west bank of the city). The projects are based on the following Theory of Change (ToC) that:
“If women and girls are empowered and capacitated to stand up and act againat and report sextortion; and the community police are capacitated to receive, deal with and refer sextortion complaints; and Women Protection Centres (WPCs) are established to join efforts with the community police so that they can jointly tackle sextortion in the targeted areas and advocate for new legislation, then this will result in significant reduction in sextortion cases.
The projects’ interventions include: baseline survey, Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, so that an advocacy paper is produced and submitted to the relevant legislative and executive government institutions. The project also capacitates male youth and parents other than women and girls and community police on the harmful consequences of this phenomenon along with establishing WPCs to support women and girls who are exposed to sextortion and other forms of Gender Based Violence.The International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) coined the term “sextortion” to describe a pervasive, but often ignored, form of sexual exploitation and corruption that occurs when the extortionists seek to extort sexual favours in exchange for something within their power to grant or withhold. In effect, sextortion is a form of corruption in which sex, rather than money, is the currency of the bribe.
According to a 2019 article published by Middle East Online, entitled ‘Women Vulnerable to sextortion in Conservative Iraq’: women in Iraq say they are facing a staggering increase in online ‘sextortion’ by malicious hackers and former romantic partners to whom the women had sent photographs, a practice known as revenge porn. Iraq’s Civil Society and women rights’ activists blame this increase on the fact that in Iraq’s conservative society, social media is being used as a virtual dating platform whilst women and girls possess poor knowledge in terms of digital security and the country suffers from inadequate and/or weak laws to address sextortion.
The ‘Me Too’ project is implemented within the framework of Un Ponte Per’s ‘Tatweer’ project, which is funded by EU-Iraq. Whilst the ‘I am not Alone’ project is funded by Cordaid: Together they tackle sextortion in Nineveh Plain and Mosul city (both the east and west bank of the city). The projects are based on the following Theory of Change (ToC) that:
“If women and girls are empowered and capacitated to stand up and act againat and report sextortion; and the community police are capacitated to receive, deal with and refer sextortion complaints; and Women Protection Centres (WPCs) are established to join efforts with the community police so that they can jointly tackle sextortion in the targeted areas and advocate for new legislation, then this will result in significant reduction in sextortion cases.
The projects’ interventions include: baseline survey, Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, so that an advocacy paper is produced and submitted to the relevant legislative and executive government institutions. The project also capacitates male youth and parents other than women and girls and community police on the harmful consequences of this phenomenon along with establishing WPCs to support women and girls who are exposed to sextortion and other forms of Gender Based Violence.
The International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) coined the term “sextortion” to describe a pervasive, but often ignored, form of sexual exploitation and corruption that occurs when the extortionists seek to extort sexual favours in exchange for something within their power to grant or withhold. In effect, sextortion is a form of corruption in which sex, rather than money, is the currency of the bribe.
According to a 2019 article published by Middle East Online, entitled ‘Women Vulnerable to sextortion in Conservative Iraq’: women in Iraq say they are facing a staggering increase in online ‘sextortion’ by malicious hackers and former romantic partners to whom the women had sent photographs, a practice known as revenge porn. Iraq’s Civil Society and women rights’ activists blame this increase on the fact that in Iraq’s conservative society, social media is being used as a virtual dating platform whilst women and girls possess poor knowledge in terms of digital security and the country suffers from inadequate and/or weak laws to address sextortion.
The ‘Me Too’ project is implemented within the framework of Un Ponte Per’s ‘Tatweer’ project, which is funded by EU-Iraq. Whilst the ‘I am not Alone’ project is funded by Cordaid: Together they tackle sextortion in Nineveh Plain and Mosul city (both the east and west bank of the city). The projects are based on the following Theory of Change (ToC) that:
“If women and girls are empowered and capacitated to stand up and act againat and report sextortion; and the community police are capacitated to receive, deal with and refer sextortion complaints; and Women Protection Centres (WPCs) are established to join efforts with the community police so that they can jointly tackle sextortion in the targeted areas and advocate for new legislation, then this will result in significant reduction in sextortion cases.
The projects’ interventions include: baseline survey, Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, so that an advocacy paper is produced and submitted to the relevant legislative and executive government institutions. The project also capacitates male youth and parents other than women and girls and community police on the harmful consequences of this phenomenon along with establishing WPCs to support women and girls who are exposed to sextortion and other forms of Gender Based Violence.
“If women and girls are empowered and capacitated to stand up and act againat and report sextortion; and the community police are capacitated to receive, deal with and refer sextortion complaints; and Women Protection Centres (WPCs) are established to join efforts with the community police so that they can jointly tackle sextortion in the targeted areas and advocate for new legislation, then this will result in significant reduction in sextortion cases.
The projects’ interventions include: baseline survey, Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, so that an advocacy paper is produced and submitted to the relevant legislative and executive government institutions. The project also capacitates male youth and parents other than women and girls and community police on the harmful consequences of this phenomenon along with establishing WPCs to support women and girls who are exposed to sextortion and other forms of Gender Based Violence.The International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) coined the term “sextortion” to describe a pervasive, but often ignored, form of sexual exploitation and corruption that occurs when the extortionists seek to extort sexual favours in exchange for something within their power to grant or withhold. In effect, sextortion is a form of corruption in which sex, rather than money, is the currency of the bribe.
According to a 2019 article published by Middle East Online, entitled ‘Women Vulnerable to sextortion in Conservative Iraq’: women in Iraq say they are facing a staggering increase in online ‘sextortion’ by malicious hackers and former romantic partners to whom the women had sent photographs, a practice known as revenge porn. Iraq’s Civil Society and women rights’ activists blame this increase on the fact that in Iraq’s conservative society, social media is being used as a virtual dating platform whilst women and girls possess poor knowledge in terms of digital security and the country suffers from inadequate and/or weak laws to address sextortion.
The ‘Me Too’ project is implemented within the framework of Un Ponte Per’s ‘Tatweer’ project, which is funded by EU-Iraq. Whilst the ‘I am not Alone’ project is funded by Cordaid: Together they tackle sextortion in Nineveh Plain and Mosul city (both the east and west bank of the city). The projects are based on the following Theory of Change (ToC) that:
“If women and girls are empowered and capacitated to stand up and act againat and report sextortion; and the community police are capacitated to receive, deal with and refer sextortion complaints; and Women Protection Centres (WPCs) are established to join efforts with the community police so that they can jointly tackle sextortion in the targeted areas and advocate for new legislation, then this will result in significant reduction in sextortion cases.
The projects’ interventions include: baseline survey, Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, so that an advocacy paper is produced and submitted to the relevant legislative and executive government institutions. The project also capacitates male youth and parents other than women and girls and community police on the harmful consequences of this phenomenon along with establishing WPCs to support women and girls who are exposed to sextortion and other forms of Gender Based Violence.
The International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) coined the term “sextortion” to describe a pervasive, but often ignored, form of sexual exploitation and corruption that occurs when the extortionists seek to extort sexual favours in exchange for something within their power to grant or withhold. In effect, sextortion is a form of corruption in which sex, rather than money, is the currency of the bribe.
According to a 2019 article published by Middle East Online, entitled ‘Women Vulnerable to sextortion in Conservative Iraq’: women in Iraq say they are facing a staggering increase in online ‘sextortion’ by malicious hackers and former romantic partners to whom the women had sent photographs, a practice known as revenge porn. Iraq’s Civil Society and women rights’ activists blame this increase on the fact that in Iraq’s conservative society, social media is being used as a virtual dating platform whilst women and girls possess poor knowledge in terms of digital security and the country suffers from inadequate and/or weak laws to address sextortion.
The ‘Me Too’ project is implemented within the framework of Un Ponte Per’s ‘Tatweer’ project, which is funded by EU-Iraq. Whilst the ‘I am not Alone’ project is funded by Cordaid: Together they tackle sextortion in Nineveh Plain and Mosul city (both the east and west bank of the city). The projects are based on the following Theory of Change (ToC) that:
“If women and girls are empowered and capacitated to stand up and act againat and report sextortion; and the community police are capacitated to receive, deal with and refer sextortion complaints; and Women Protection Centres (WPCs) are established to join efforts with the community police so that they can jointly tackle sextortion in the targeted areas and advocate for new legislation, then this will result in significant reduction in sextortion cases.
The projects’ interventions include: baseline survey, Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, so that an advocacy paper is produced and submitted to the relevant legislative and executive government institutions. The project also capacitates male youth and parents other than women and girls and community police on the harmful consequences of this phenomenon along with establishing WPCs to support women and girls who are exposed to sextortion and other forms of Gender Based Violence.
Sharpen your Pencils, Not your Swords
Capacitating the youth, of both sexes, from the liberated governorates, Diyala, Anbar, Salaheddin, Kirkuk and Nineveh through a series of training workshops on creative writing.
A set of selection criteria were set and youth from the aforementioned targeted areas were selected. These youth participated in a series of workshops on creative writing. These workers were then compiled in a book titled: Sharpen Your Pencils, Not your Swords, which is currently being worked on by Enheduanna Publishing which is to publish it early 2022.
The project consisted of four phases:
Phase I: a series of training workshops on creative writing for the successful applicants.
Phase II: a guided writing process for the trained successful applicants.
Phase II: translating the writings produced by the trained successful applicants into English, typesetting, design and publishing these in a collection in both English and Arabic.
Phase IV: Launching event of the publication.
A set of selection criteria were set and youth from the aforementioned targeted areas were selected. These youth participated in a series of workshops on creative writing. These workers were then compiled in a book titled: Sharpen Your Pencils, Not your Swords, which is currently being worked on by Enheduanna Publishing which is to publish it early 2022.
The project consisted of four phases:
Phase I: a series of training workshops on creative writing for the successful applicants.
Phase II: a guided writing process for the trained successful applicants.
Phase II: translating the writings produced by the trained successful applicants into English, typesetting, design and publishing these in a collection in both English and Arabic.
Phase IV: Launching event of the publication.
Reflections
Building the Capacities of Academic Youth
Reflections: Building the Capacity of Academic Youth was a project which was initiated by SPF in March 2021 and the project commenced in May 2021.
The project aimed at training academic youth, taking gender balance into consideration, from the recently liberated Iraqi governorates, i.e. Diyala, Anbar, Salaheddin, Kirkuk and Nineveh on research methodology and how to conduct Participatory Action Research for peacebuidling in these conflict areas.
The youth were selected from the very affected communities of these conflict zone areas and empowered to reflect on the most salient issues facing their communities and produce research and policy papers, which can be capitalised on by the peacebuilding actors in planning, designing and implementing social cohesion and reconciliation programmes in these five governorates.
The project was divided into three phases:
Phase I: selection of the participating youth and their training on various aspects of research, such as: literature review, designing of your research methodology, qualitative and qualitative data collection and academic writing etc.
Phase II: Guiding the academic youth on writing their research and policy papers; and translating their respective research and policy papers into English.
Phase III: Publishing these research and policy papers in both English and Arabic through Sarqaya Publishing and launching the these in a concluding conference in Salaheddin.
The project aimed at training academic youth, taking gender balance into consideration, from the recently liberated Iraqi governorates, i.e. Diyala, Anbar, Salaheddin, Kirkuk and Nineveh on research methodology and how to conduct Participatory Action Research for peacebuidling in these conflict areas.
The youth were selected from the very affected communities of these conflict zone areas and empowered to reflect on the most salient issues facing their communities and produce research and policy papers, which can be capitalised on by the peacebuilding actors in planning, designing and implementing social cohesion and reconciliation programmes in these five governorates.
The project was divided into three phases:
Phase I: selection of the participating youth and their training on various aspects of research, such as: literature review, designing of your research methodology, qualitative and qualitative data collection and academic writing etc.
Phase II: Guiding the academic youth on writing their research and policy papers; and translating their respective research and policy papers into English.
Phase III: Publishing these research and policy papers in both English and Arabic through Sarqaya Publishing and launching the these in a concluding conference in Salaheddin.