On October 24-28, 2021, EUAM Iraq organised a Senior Strategic Leadership and Change Management capacity building workshop, the first of its kind to benefit 14 high-ranking officials of the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior (MoI) and enhance their professional skills.

We spoke to two of the workshop participants about their experiences regarding the week-long activity. Here are the impressions of Brigadier General Jawad Kadhim Abid Salih, Technical Assistant of Infrastructure Directorate and Major Fatima Nasser Kassem Al-Najar, Officer at the Educational Affairs Department.

What is your current role at the MoI?

BG Jawad Salih: Currently I work at the Ministry of the Interior as Technical Assistant of the Infrastructure Directorate, it’s a general directorate at the MoI that supplies other directorates with goods such as weapons, ammunition, armoured vehicles, stationery etc. We support the logistics in all aspects.

Maj Fatima Al-Najar: As an officer at the MoI Directorate of Qualifications and Training, I teach English to police officers and commissioners. In addition to language courses at a beginner and intermediate level, we also provide them with an overview of some security and legal aspects.

What were your expectations when joining the course?

BG Jawad Salih: My expectation was to learn from others and also, to teach others. I was looking forward that someone in our group might have experiences that I don’t have, so that I could benefit from it. I believe we can build on such experience exchange.

Maj Fatima Al-Najar: My expectations were also very positive. I wanted to gain information about strategic leadership and think about how to put it into practice in my current work.

What was most interesting for you during the week-long workshop?

BG Jawad Salih: What attracted my attention the most was the information on situational awareness and on assessing the situation. I have a military background and in the military this is something you always do. Sometimes we do assessment on the spot, we look at the terrain. Also, we discussed what are the different measures that you can take to deal with the enemy.

Maj Fatima Al-Najar: I learnt during the week that organisational change is very important as well as good governance and transparency – as well as applying all this in our daily job. Also, to adopt the analytic framework, to always carry out a SWOT analysis, formulate the ideas and have a clear work map to identify goals and to achieve them. 

 What did you think of the scenario-based activities that aim to put theory in practice?

BG Jawad Salih: Indeed, during the week we were regularly divided into groups to discuss issues and scenarios including crime, intelligence, services etc. The good thing about it was that we were able to learn from each other. I might have information that maybe someone else doesn’t. They, in turn, have information that I don’t. So, it’s the exchange of ideas and reaching a common understanding that I enjoyed.

Maj Fatima Al-Najar: Thank to these activities I understood that it is very important to have an organised way of doing things – also, the actions must be transparent, effective and efficient in order for reform and change to be able to happen.

How do you plan to put what you learnt in use in your future work?

BG Jawad Salih: Basically, it is all about planning. In the future, we will adapt a clear plan identifying the groups we want to target. It is necessary to know who my audience is, who should receive the specific information. For example, different kind of people come to our directorate for help – civilian, military or even security companies.

From our side, we need to take into consideration that we have the right person in the right place, so we know how to provide the best assistance to these different groups. This way, we can build the trust between the citizens and the military institutions.

Maj Fatima Al-Najar: I will start putting emphasis on detailed planning and then move on to the implementation, also, having in mind a specific timeframe.

Is there anything else you would like to add in the context of the week?

BG Jawad Salih: What was very good about the workshop is that it allowed us to build on the information and the backgrounds we already had. However, I felt a workshop like this could be longer, last at least 2-3 weeks. There was so much valuable information and expertise from people with different specialties. We have this Iraqi saying – the older you are, the more experience you have. The more value you bring. And we had a lot of valuable experiences around the table during the week.

Maj Fatima Al-Najar: All in all, the week-long activity has been very useful! I would like to give thanks to Maj Gen Ziad and the Head of the qualifications and training directorate for giving me the chance to be part of this valuable workshop with others who contributed to the learning process and from whose ideas and experiences I benefitted from a lot. Also, a big thank you to the organisers and all those parties who supported the workshop and contributed to its success – EUAM Iraq, German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and DCAF from Geneva.

Read more: Workshop enhances strategic leadership capacity at the Iraqi MoI