Today, EUAM Iraq in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Interior held the closing ceremony of a five-day ‘’Strategic Planning Workshop’’ in Erbil. 32 strategic planners from both the Federal and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Interior (MoI) attended the workshop.

- This experience has been very valuable, both in terms of the subject and in terms of being able to learn together with our colleagues from Federal Iraq. This workshop serves as a catalyst for future cooperation, and we have established important network among the participants, a Deputy Police Commander from Duhok says.

The workshops are specifically designed to build the capacity and expertise of the MoI strategic planners covering topics such as vision, values, objectives and how organisations develop their strategic plans. They key purpose of the workshop is to deliver reform within Security Sector Reform.

- I’m delighted to be working in partnership with the Planning and Follow-Up Directorate of the MoI to deliver this ambitious workshop, which has trained 290 high-level officials. Personally, I have been exceptionally impressed by the enthusiasm and participation of both the instructors and the participants. It is also great to see a Kurdish female participant in the course and hopefully this will encourage more females to attend the workshops in the future. This workshop has been a big ambitious project involving all the Mission, EUAM Iraq Senior Strategic Adviser on Planning and Strategy, Phil Haynes says.

EUAM Iraq advisers are offering European perspective, ideas, and support during the course.

- The participants are keen to have a good knowledge on how strategic planning is done by security institutions in the European Union. Our role is to help to facilitate and enable the discussion and to ensure that it’s Iraqi led. This is important for sustainability and national ownership. The workshop has revealed a real level of commitment to changing and improving existing strategic plans, EUAM Iraq Senior Strategic Adviser on Institutional Reform, John Mulcahy states.