Iraq

Critical to Iraq’s reconstruction and prosperity is a sound educational system. Hind Makiya, born and raised in Baghdad, has led a distinguished career in the field of education and is one of only five women appointed to the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council, which is composed of more than 200 advisers. From March to August 2003 she worked with the Ministry of Education, and she has worked with Baghdad’s Interim City Advisory Council (ICAC). As a teacher, teaching instructor, and senior lecturer, she has educated students of all ages. Based in London as an independent education consultant, she has worked in local government as senior manager of a school improvement team. Ms. Makiya develops national educational curricula and is the author of a number of books on teaching and learning. A lifelong advocate of the participation of women at all levels of government, management, and business, she stresses the importance of equal rights legislation in changing employment practices. Ms. Makiya is cofounder and director of the Iraqi Women’s Foundation, a UK-based NGO supporting the empowerment and participation of women in a new democratic Iraq, and the Baghdad Women’s Foundation, an NGO linked to but independent from the Baghdad ICAC. She holds a master’s degree in education from the Royal College of Art and has put her current MBA studies on hold to aid reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

Ms Makiya’s peace-building activities include:

• coordinating and authoring the first strategy for the role of women in post-war Iraq in cooperation with the late Aqila Al Hashimi, a member of Iraq’s Governing Council;
• working with a team of senior US advisers to plan a national strategy for Iraq’s new post-conflict educational system;
• consulting with the Baghdad Women’s Committee on promoting and widening women’s participation in local and national governance at district and neighborhood levels;
• coordinating and supporting the Baghdad Women’s Foundation, an NGO of female activists establishing women’s learning centers in Baghdad;
• raising funds to establish women’s learning centers throughout Iraq;
• training and advising on competency-based employment systems in the Baghdad Council and the Ministry of Education; and
• speaking at international meetings on Iraqi women in Iraq, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

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