On July 4th, the Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS) hosted a policy roundtable at the sidelines of Baghdad Forum for Young Leaders.
Based on the belief that citizens and communities should have access to data they need to ensure a healthy and safe environment, the aim of the roundtable was to strengthen collaboration between the government and communities in environmental monitoring and create the necessary buy-in from the relevant stakeholders for community involvement in environmental action in Iraq.
The roundtable brought together stakeholders from the government, academia and civil society to discuss the promotion of community involvement in environmental monitoring through the utilization and application of citizen science. It featured Sarmad Amjad, Director at the Ministry of Environment; Hamdiya al-Khafaji, Deputy Director of the Center for Water Resource Management at the Ministry of Water Resources; Zainab Baha, Director of Environmental Research Center at the University of Technology; Qutaiba Jwad, Director of Environmental Observatory Platform; and Ammar Al Atta, Advisor to the Health and Environment Committee at the Council of Representatives.
The speakers discussed the challenges, opportunities as well as the ongoing efforts for environmental action and highlighted the need for increased community involvement through monitoring and cooperation with the relevant agencies to address the adverse impacts of water and air pollution and their implications for public health.
This roundtable is part of the Strengthening Collective Climate and Environment Action in Iraq program. Over the course of three years, the program aims to train students from Baghdad, Basra, and Sulaimaniyah on community-led environmental monitoring and citizen science and how to use citizen science tools for water and air quality monitoring to develop evidence-based advocacy campaigns and bottom-up accountability mechanisms.
