Water, Peace and Security Symposium, Baghdad, Iraq
27 May 2025
This one-day symposium brings together technical and high-level stakeholders to discuss and reflect on how the outcomes of the work of the Water, Peace & Security partnership in the south of Iraq (Wasit, Missan, Basra, Dhi Qar) can contribute to inclusive, integrated, and informed responses to water-related instability.
The event will be held in Baghdad on 27 May 2025, following the 5th Baghdad International Water Conference (BIWC) (24-26 May).
The morning sessions will be designed for a technical audience from national and provincial authorities, universities and international organisations, focusing on how to operationalise solutions based on WPS tools, methods and local work. The afternoon programme opens with a panel discussing pathways to integrate the WPS toolbox in university curricula. The Symposium concludes with a closed high-level roundtable on the opportunities and challenges of increasing collaboration between provinces on shared water-related challenges, with participation from the federal government and provincial authorities.
Materials for participants:
- Global Tool
- How to use the Global Tool
- Iraq dashboard
- How to use the Iraq dashboard
- Southern Iraq flyer
- 2024 - A year in review Iraq
WPS Iraq publications
- Entry-points for Collaborative Water Governance in Southern Iraq - March 2025
- Understanding the Pathway from Water Insecurity to Urban Migration in Southern Iraq - March 2023
- The WPS Approach: A design for an integrated, inclusive and informed approach to address water-related security risks - January 2023
- Water Quantity and Water Quality in Central and South Iraq: A preliminary assessment in the context of displacement risk
- Water Governance in Iraq - Enabling a Gamechanger - September 2022
- Action Needed: Three Priorities for Iraq’s Water Sector - June 2022
- Water challenges and conflict dynamics in Southern Iraq - An in-depth analysis of an under-researched crisis - February 2022
- The Impact of Covid-19 in Water-Stressed Iraq
- Water for peace: how to make climate action conflict sensitive - 2021
- Ending conflicts over water - September 2020
- Interprovincial Water Challenges in Iraq - August 2020
- Are water and conflict linked and what actually links them - December 2019
Videos
- The drying marshes: Water, conflict and peace in South Iraq
- Water scarcity in Iraq: From Competition to Collective Action
- A single hand doesn't clap - Toward Collaborative Water Governance in Iraq
Training materials
1. Introduction to water and conflict
- 1.1 Definitions of conflict and related terms
- 1.2 The link between water-related risks and conflict with exercise
- 1.3 Investigation of the different intervening factors that determine the link between water and conflict
2. Hydrological and social dynamics in Iraq
- 2.1 Common water challenges in Iraq
- 2.2 Analysis of water resources within Iraq
- 2.3 Interprovincial conflict analysis in Iraq
3. Conflict sensitivity
- 3.1 Introduction to conflict sensitivity
- 3.2 Impacts of water policy on social cohesion
- 3.3 Power dynamics in water conflicts
4. Governance tools
- 4.1 Challenges with water quality and quantity governance
- 4.2 The role of institutions in managing water resources
- 4.3 Mechanisms and processes for managing water resources - Basin management planning
- 4.4 Environmental assessment for planning in a conflict-sensitive context
- 4.5 Lessons from hydrodiplomacy
5. Legal mechanisms
- 5.1 Transboundary conflict and cooperation - Legal and institutional mechanisms
- 5.2 Principles of national water law and their implications for conflict resolution
- 5.3 Water law in federal countries
6. Dialogue processes
- 6.1 Dialogue as a mechanism for conflict resolution and conflict-sensitive water management
- 6.2 Foundations of environmental dialogue and facilitation
- 6.3 Your role as facilitator
- 6.4 Understanding conflict sensitivity in dialogue facilitation
- 6.5 Analysis tools for conflict sensitivity - the onion diagram
7. System Analysis
- 7.1 Introduction to systems analysis
- 7.2 Systems thinking and policy analysis for IWRM
- 7.3 Introduction to causal loop diagrams with exercises
8. Modelling tools for policy dashboards
- 8.1 The basics of Agent-Based Modelling (ABM)
- 8.2 Analyzing water-related migration in Southern Iraq using Agent-Based Modelling with exercises
- 8.3 The basics of hydrologic models
- 8.4 Bridging hydrological and social analysis
- 8.5 Policy dashboard development