Building Bridges through Technology: Capacity Building for Collaborative Governance in Iraq (BBTT)

Center for Collaborative Technology, Civil Society Strengthening, Middle East and North Africa

The Building Bridges through Technology: Capacity Building for Collaborative Governance in Iraq (BBTT) program provides enhanced technical skills to improve the effectiveness of government personnel and civil society stakeholders (NGOs, journalists, and others).

A program of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and administered by IREX since its inception in 2008, BBTT also uses this technical training as a means to create a sustainable environment for collaborative governance among stakeholders that results in a more efficient and transparent government able to anticipate and respond to the needs of its citizens and a citizenry able to advocate for its priorities.

This project is now closed.

Goals

• Strengthen government and civil society actors’ information and communication-technology skills for improved internal systems and processes within their organizations/departments – including better collection and interpretation of data, as well as more effective technology-based strategies for outreach and communication

• Impart skills for consensus-oriented approaches to planning, problem solving, and policymaking

• Provide opportunities for select groups of participants to implement projects that strengthen government-community linkages and improve social-service delivery in communities

Background

Despite recent progress towards a more participatory, free, and transparent society, the situation in Iraq remains volatile. Many of the basic foundations of a functioning democracy, including a free and open media and the mechanisms for participatory governance, remain noticeably underdeveloped. A lack of both citizen-state dialogue and faith in the government hinders the development of an environment that encourages a more open, pluralistic democracy with freedom of information and a government responsive to needs of its citizenry.

Project Activities

Applied ICT trainings combine ICT training with complementary training on its application to effectively employ ICT software in the workplace or in programming (e.g.,Budget Management and Analysis using Microsoft Excel training). Applied ICT trainings have also been structured thematically to enhance opportunities to create synergies. Taking the previous training example, those participants (both government and civil society) worked with a common demographic group—youth—and on similar issues relating to them.

E-Governance projects are micro-projects that facilitate and support intra- or cross-sectoral government and civil-society actors working together using ICT tools on a defined and time-bound project to improve various dimensions of governance, including public service delivery, government transparency and accountability, and citizen oversight of government processes.

Training and community action projects—based on training methodologies from IREX’s experience administering the Internet Access and Training Program (IATP) --include short ICT trainings in areas such as internet usage, blogging, and wikis tailored to youth participants of various ages and gender.