The Protection Project (TPP) at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies has launched a new program entitled "Preparing Iraqi Women as Leaders, Advocates and Participants in the Political Process".

This program, part of the United States Department of State, Women's Democracy Initiative, provides comprehensive activities to prepare Iraqi women to take on leadership roles by equipping them with knowledge of their rights and by providing a practical set of skills to empower them to implement this knowledge in the political arena.

John Hopkins/SAIS is coordinating with Iraqi NGO’s to promote women’s rights throughout the educational and legal systems, and the media. The Protection Project is collecting and translating, into Arabic, documents such as comparative Middle East constitutions, international conventions, and covenants on women’s rights to have as resource tools. They are researching school curricula to encourage a greater incorporation of women’s issues, organizing workshops and training seminars, and creating contact databases to promote networking and information sharing.

The program consists of two main components, a Capacity Building Component and a Coalition Building Component. The Capacity Building Component is implemented in five phases, the first four of which build on each other to provide for a progressive transfer of leadership and knowledge capacity from the trainers to the Iraqi participants. The fifth component contributes to the conceptual development and sustainability of the overall project by providing a comprehensive base of readily available resources on the subjects of the program.

The first phase of the Capacity Building Component is Training of Trainers for Leadership and Advocacy, in which Iraqi Partner NGOs are educated and trained on women's rights issues and provided with practical skills to conduct further activities throughout the program and in their future efforts.

The second phase begins to transfer the leadership roles to Iraqi participants and consists of NGO-led Knowledge Sharing Workshops, in which Iraqi Partner NGOs take the lead alongside expert trainers from TPP in training local women's groups and associations, women's rights NGOs, female university professors and students, female secondary school teachers and female and (male) secondary school students.

The third phase continues to build on the transfer of leadership and is comprised by NGO-led Community Forums, in which women participants from local communities are trained by the Iraqi Partner NGOs on their rights and educated about voting and the electoral process, and encouraged to contribute to and participate in upcoming elections.

The fourth phase of the Capacity Building Component includes the formation of a Student Leader Internship Program, in which female students are chosen to intern with each Iraqi Partner NGO, and who contribute to the implementation of the NGO-led Community Forums.

The fifth and final aspect of the Capacity Building Component is the establishment of two Women's Rights Resource Centers in Iraq (Arbil and Baghdad), for which TPP provides financial resources and reference materials on the subjects of human rights and women's empowerment.

The Coalition Building Component includes the establishment of a "National NGO Committee for the Political Participation of Iraqi Women".

Dr. Mohamed Mattar, Co-Director of TPP supports the assertion that "the program underscores the United States government's attention to the equal participation of women in the region and aims to create and expand opportunities for women's full participation in political life". He further states "all activities in the program are firmly based in an understanding that women's participation is a crucial characteristic of a successful and fair democratic process in the new Iraq".