Despite incremental improvements in recent years, Iraqi political parties continue to be largely male-dominated and organized around sectarian and ethnic lines, relegating women, youth, and components to the peripheries of decision making. To address the challenges to inclusion that Iraqi political parties face, the National Democratic Institute (NDI, or the Institute) conducted focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with key informants across Iraq to assess the current political inclusion of women, youth, and components in Iraqi political parties. This report contains the key findings of that assessment as well as NDI’s recommendations for addressing.

This report was developed with funding from the Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Bureau of the U.S. Department of State.