[{"bbox": [96, 153, 1164, 234], "category": "Text", "text": "the relatively small funding allocation for the Action, it is nonetheless meaningful because it complements the larger EU engagement of structural reform of basic education in Iraq and the EU's gender mainstreaming efforts across all areas of engagement."}, {"bbox": [96, 270, 1164, 406], "category": "Text", "text": "The Action will also contribute to realising the European Consensus on Development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its pledge to leave no one behind. The Action equally contributes towards SDGs 5 (gender equality) and SDG 4 (quality education) and 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). At the same time, the Action contributes to meeting the aggregate target for migration and forced displacement for the Asia-Pacific region by supporting displaced girls (IDPs, refugees, returnees)."}, {"bbox": [96, 443, 1164, 683], "category": "Text", "text": "Applying a triple Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus approach, the action capitalises on prior and ongoing EU's interventions. It places the needs of Iraq people and notably girl's needs at the centre of policy decisions. To ensure effectiveness and sustainability, the Action emphasises on civil society promoting community and youth volunteering for the benefit of girls' education in Iraq. Crosscutting principles, such as the rights-based approach and conflict sensitivity to programming are also key in the implementation of this Action. Climate action is promoted throughout the Action when it comes to climate change awareness. In this sense, the action is based on the EU Gender Action Plan III for 2021-2025, the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2021-2024, applicable Human Rights covenants and the international conventions. It also aligns with the EU's objectives under the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Iraq."}, {"bbox": [96, 715, 438, 742], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Public Policy of the partner country"}, {"bbox": [96, 742, 1164, 1005], "category": "Text", "text": "This Action is based on Iraq's National Development Plan (NDP 2018). To date, structural challenges identified in the NDP continue to hamper the development process include low efficiency of institutional performance, an inflated public sector, administrative and financial corruption, and a myriad of economic shortcomings such as the deterioration of the investment climate, a lack of access to finance, the distortion of sectoral structure, trade imbalance, and an imbalanced budget structure. A number of sector strategies complements the NDP. The NDP ensures the mainstreaming of gender strategies into national policies and the inclusion of programmes aimed at protecting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities. The action specifically supports the implementation of the Iraq National Education Strategy (2023), the National Enrolment Strategy (2021) and the National Framework for Inclusive Education (2021), as well as the second Iraq National Action Plan (2020) for UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325)."}, {"bbox": [96, 1033, 575, 1059], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Complementarity, synergy and donor coordination"}, {"bbox": [96, 1059, 1164, 1404], "category": "Text", "text": "The international cooperation landscape in Iraq still encompasses humanitarian, stabilisation and development programmes. However, with increasing donor fatigue, humanitarian and classical stabilisation programmes are phasing out. There is a strong momentum for the international community to engage with the Government in a coherent, coordinated partnership to implement a broad reform agenda for sustainable development, structural reforms and durable solutions for displaced populations on the basis of Iraq's new policies. In light of this challenging yet changing context, the EU has been shifting from post-crisis recovery support through Special Measures to long-term development programming through a dedicated MIP and Annual Action Plans (AAP). The Action is linked to priority area 2 (human development and social contract) of the MIP for Iraq 2021-2027. This Action builds on and is fully complementary to EU bilateral MIP actions in the field of general education sector reform¹⁷. Concrete synergies with other EU interventions are sought notably via the Annual Action Plans of 2021¹⁸ and the sizable programme for general education reform. In the education sector, a sector coordination platform co-chaired between the Iraqi Ministry of Education, the Prime Minister's Advisory Council and the EU serves as the national forum for coordination and for donor coordination, together with the dedicated working group on general education."}, {"bbox": [86, 1419, 340, 1449], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [96, 1465, 1164, 1519], "category": "Text", "text": "The Iraqi population, and in particular groups in vulnerable situations such as youth, women and children as well as displaced populations (internally displaced persons, refugees, returnees), have been severely affected by a significant"}, {"bbox": [86, 1554, 1143, 1601], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁷ In line with the division of labour in place with EU Member States and with all EU services operating in Iraq based on the triple Nexus strategy for Iraq, only EU bilateral MIP actions provide support to Iraq's general education reform."}, {"bbox": [86, 1601, 1143, 1647], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁸ AAP 2021 \"Support to durable solutions for Iraq's displaced populations: integration into the national labour market and national systems for education and social protection\""}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1143, 1707], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 6 of 23"}]