An older mentor posing with smiling young trainees at a vocational training facility

Empowering Women in Iraq

Economic independence is the ground everything else stands on. A woman earning her own income makes her own decisions. That is why we start with qualification and enterprise — not with appeals.

Key figures

The starting point

Female labour force participation in Iraq is among the lowest in the world. The IMF names it, alongside high overall unemployment, as one of the central constraints on Iraq’s growth potential. (Sources: IMF, Iraq Country Report, 2025; ILO data)

This is not a question of qualification. Iraqi women reach high levels of educational attainment. The break occurs between graduation and employment: what is missing is access, networks, visible precedent, and practical support at the point of starting something.

That is also where limited resources go furthest. One woman who builds a viable business creates jobs — and becomes the precedent that was missing for the next.

A person attending a video conference about workforce development in an office

This is not a question of qualification but of access — and that is where limited resources go furthest.

Our approach

We organise continuing education, mentoring programmes and start-up support specifically for women in Iraq. Three considerations shape the design.

Concrete rather than symbolic. Not empowerment vocabulary — bookkeeping, business planning, access to finance, digital marketing.

Mentoring rather than one-off events. A workshop produces knowledge. A sustained relationship produces implementation. We connect participants with mentors in Germany and Iraq.

Within the local context. Provision that ignores social realities on the ground reaches no one. Our formats are developed with Iraqi women partners, not for them.