Since early 2009, Mercy Corps has supported a nationwide network of 87 Iraqi leaders who are committed to promoting good governance and reconciliation through consensus-based negotiation. With funding from the Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Mercy Corps established The Network of Iraqi Negotiation Experts (NINE), which includes Sunni and Shia, Arab and Kurd, tribal elders, religious leaders, government officials, politicians, and civil society representatives from every region of Iraq. These leaders have worked together across regional, political, and sectarian lines of division to resolve almost 130 major disputes, including tribal conflicts over land, tensions between citizens and government over services, disputes over elections, and clashes between rival factions of the Iraqi army and police.
Through training in dispute resolution, intensive mentoring and coaching, and support for the direct application of new negotiation and mediation skills, these Iraqi men and women have stepped forward and achieved remarkable results. In addition to resolving nearly 130 disputes, network members are now resolving more disputes and reaching agreement more often than before the program.
- Participants who considered themselves highly expert in negotiation increased from 27% to 54% over the life of the program. Those who expressed high confidence in their ability to resolve disputes increased from 66% to 80%.
- Participants reporting involvement in three or more dispute resolution attempts in the prior year increased from 71% to 83%.
- Network members also reported higher success rates once they did intervene; participants who reported reaching agreement more than half the time increased from 83% at program start to 98% at program end.
Most important, they are able to point to clear examples of where their interventions have led to a measurable reduction in violent incidents. Their efforts have struck an incredibly responsive chord with Iraqi citizens and they have received widespread press coverage in Iraq. Iraqi government authorities have also provided significant monetary and other support to agreements negotiated by network members. Finally, participants’ are clearly committed to continuing their negotiation and mediation work and they have taken steps to establish a non-governmental organization, making significant cash and in-kind contributions in order to do so.
A number of factors account for these successes. Network members deserve the greatest credit. They represent a new generation of Iraqi men and women who are willing to put aside differences and take extraordinary personal risks to address the challenges facing Iraq. Another factor in the program’s success is strong Iraqi ownership. Mercy Corps Iraq staff played a key role in identifying influential leaders, delivering negotiation training, and mentoring network members as they applied new skills to concrete disputes. Network members also began to take on increasing responsibility for training and for developing negotiation materials adapted to the Iraqi context. Ultimately, the strong Iraqi ‘face’ of this program and the emphasis it placed on moving from training to action are the greatest reasons for the program’s success.
There are also several areas where the program could be strengthened in order to achieve even greater impact. First, more robust conflict analysis and early warning systems would help network members be more systematic in identifying disputes and would help them intervene earlier, before disputes become intractable. Second, the program fell short of its goal to include 25% women, ultimately reaching only 23%. Women were among the most dynamic network members and the program should recruit more heavily from women’s networks in the future. Finally, as network members took on more complex disputes, their need for expertise in areas such as land reform or commercial law also increased. Pairing network members with substantive experts and then linking them to policy debates in key areas will help these Iraqi leaders deepen their expertise and begin to address deeper structural issues that are leading to violence in Iraq.
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