Changing The System from Within: Women’s Empowerment in the Iraqi Public Health System

In 2023, Alia joined the third phase of the UNITAR Gender Equality and Women Empowerment programme with 35 other participants from Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq who are decision-makers in their countries. The programme aimed to build the participants’ leadership skills, as well as their advocacy and communication capabilities, so that they can better implement gender equality through their work. 

Participants have undergone self-paced online modules, webinars with experts, group discussions and peer reviews as well as mentoring and networking sessions. Working in country teams, they developed concrete action plan on an existing gender-mainstreaming initiative in their ministry/country.

Through training on tools like SWOT analysis, Alia gained a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in her own programme. After the UNITAR programme, she shared her findings with her managers, including detailed information for future improvements. Alia also trained her staff and, as a result, they can now provide better services to their communities.

She highlights that there are many different paths to promote women’s empowerment. Women’s empowerment could take place through health care, logistics, funding and supporting women in the workplace. What’s important to Alia is to get started, even with small steps.

Her message is simple: “No violence, under any reason”.