Dr. Saad Salloum, General Coordinator of Masarat Foundation, delivered a comprehensive briefing on the development of the role of civil society in Iraq over the past 22 years, during a session held under the patronage of the European Union and the NGO Directorate at the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, with the participation of academics, activists, and representatives of the European Union, to discuss the future of civil society in Iraq.
The session, which was conducted in a podcast-style format, was titled “From Trust to Change,” as part of an expanded panel discussion entitled “Strengthening the Capacities of Civil Society Organizations and the Role of the European Union in Capacity Building.”
Dr. Salloum emphasized that civil society organizations in Iraq “have evolved from being recipients of funding to becoming influential actors and producers of values,” stressing that “change does not happen all at once, but through small accumulations,” noting that young people “are not the audience of civil society, but its core and primary driving force.”
For his part, Ashraf Al-Dahan, Director General of the NGO Directorate, pointed out that the period after 2003 witnessed a genuine birth of civil society organizations, which have today become a fundamental pillar of the democratic system. Al-Dahan added: “Civil society organizations today are not merely institutions, but true partners in creating change and building trust in the future of Iraq.”
