Civil Development Organization

Contact Information

• Where – Iraq (The Middle East)
• Website – www.cdo-iraq.org
• Contact Person – Atta M. Ahmed
• Email – atta_cdo@yahoo.com
• Address – Raparin Street 11, Sector 102 Building No. 1, Sulaimanyah province
• Other – Facebook – Civil Development Organization

Areas of Expertise

The Civil Development Organization (CDO) has expertise in a range of areas, including:

• Dialogue
• Education
• Mediation and Negotiation
• Human, Minority and Women’s Rights
• Youth Empowerment

Main Aims and Objectives

The Civil Development Organization (CDO) is a non-governmental, non-profit independent organization, whose goal is to strengthen civil society in Iraqi through capacity-building, promoting peace and democracy, developing human rights, providing legal aid to vulnerable groups, and observing elections and governments’ work.

The aims of CDO are:

• Improving the Human Rights situation;
• Raising the capacity of Civil Society Organizations;
• Conflict transformation, including strengthening the principles of peace;
• Empowering women and combat violence against women;
• Providing legal assistance for marginalized groups in society.

Upholding the Principles of Conflict Transformation

• CDO can contribute in building the capacity of the non-governmental sectors in the field of conflict transformation in order to expand the geographical coverage of the network;
• CDO can work at the grassroots level with different stakeholders that have impacts in their local community;
• CDO can facilitate and support the researchers that want to research conflict in Iraq;
• CDO can share experiences with other local and international NGOs working on conflict transformation;
• CDO will participate in the projects and activities that aim to strength peace in Iraq and other countries.

Where and with Whom

CDO geographical area covers seven provinces in Iraq:

• Sulaimanyah
• Kirkuk
• Erbil
• Dahok
• Salahadin
• Ninawa
• Diyala

CDO main partners and donors are:

1. UNHCR
2. UNESCO
3. UNOPS
4. International Rescue Committee (IRC)
5. International Relief and Development (IRD)
6. Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA)
7. RTI/LGP , USAID
8. National Democratic Institute (NDI)
9. International Republic Institute (IRI)
10. ACHRS
11. USAID – DAI
12. Iraqi Civil Society Program (ICSP)
13. International Alliance for Justices
14. International Human Right Law Institute (IHRL)
15. INTERSOS
16. Foundation for Promoting Democracy (FPD)
17. Peace Winds Japan (PWJ)
18. Solidarity Internasional – Andalusia (SIA)
19. Canadian International Development Agency
20. Diakonia
21. International Foundation for election system ( IFES Amman office)
22. Kurdistan Human rights project KHRP
23. Kurdish Human Right watch (KHRW)
24. International War and Peace Reporter (IWPR)
25. Press Now Organization.
26. NCCI
27. USG- Embassy in Iraq
28. Relief International – RI
29. Heartland Alliance

Main Activities in the Field of Conflict Transformation

1.Integrated coexistence program for northern Iraq – first step:

• Geographical area: Ninawa, Kirkuk, Diyala and Salahadin governorates
• Direct Beneficiaries: 5250 beneficiaries
• Target Groups: NGO, CSO, Media foundations, politician, tribal leaders, religious men …etc
• Strategy: Involve NGO and media foundations in peace building via using key persons in the local communities
• Activities: TOT courses, workshops , PSA, TV and radio programs, conferences, scientific researches
• Donor: United State of America – Embassy in Baghdad – Iraq.
• Budget: 881,962 USD

2.Integrated coexistence program for northern Iraq – Second step:

• Geographical area: Ninawa, Kirkuk, Diyala and Salahadin governorates
• Direct Beneficiaries: 7250 beneficiaries
• Target Groups: NGO, CSO, Media foundations, politician, tribal leaders, religious men …etc
• Strategy: Involve NGO and media foundations in peace building via using key persons in the local communities and increase awareness of children about peace
• Activities: TOT courses, workshops , PSA, TV and radio programs, conferences, scientific researches and showing film cartoons that speak about peace in the primary schools
• Donor: Relief International – ICCM program
• Budget: 210,178 USD

3.Animation as a platform for dialogue: inter-ethnic and cross-cultural Student exchanges:

• Geographical area: Ninawa and Sulaymanayah governorates
• Direct Beneficiaries: 10500 primary students
• Target Groups: Primary student from different nations and religions
• Strategy: Increase awareness of children about peace and strength relations between nations and religions via exchanging paints, poems and letters.
• Activities: Showing film cartoons which are about peace; encourage students to paint, write letters and poems for peace and exchange it with the other governorate of the project. Producing and printing a magazine contain student’s productions. Build a paint room in each school that participated in the project.
• Donor: Relief International – ICCM program
• Budget: 54,870 USD

4. Integrated coexistence program

• Geographical area: Kirkuk – Domez area
• Target Groups: NGO, CSO, Media foundations and youths
• Strategy: link between respond to basic needs with building peace
• Activities: Doing PRA process , TOT course, workshops , camp for youths and support income projects
• Partner: UNOPS
• Donor: Federal Republic of Germany
• Budget: 64,014 USD

5. National Reconciliation through Constitution Review and National Dialogue in Iraq

• Geographical area: Kirkuk city center
• Direct Beneficiaries: 400 benefices
• Target Groups: Mass people, students, Iraqi and Kurdistan parliament member
• Strategy: Create a dialogue between Erbil and Baghdad about distribution natural resources, constitution review and minority rights based on peoples view and opinions.
• Activities: Community meetings, Workshops, Seminars, debate sessions and a conference.
• Partner: UNOPS
• Donor: European Union
• Budget: 50,241 USD

6. Youth combat drugs and build peace

• Geographical area: Kirkuk – Domez area
• Direct Beneficiaries: 160 beneficiaries
• Target Groups: youths from different nations and religions
• Strategy: linking building the capacity of youth vocationally, combat drugs with peace building.
• Activities: Vocation courses, support income projects, posters and leaflets, round table discussion
• Partner: UNOPS
• Donor: Federal Republic of Germany