The NGO Coordination Committee for Iraq (NCCI) organizes monthly meetings in order to coordinate and share information on issues pertaining to NGOs in the current emergency. The last meeting took place on Thursday October 30th in the NCCI office in Erbil and was attended by 24 national and international NGOs.
These NGOs discussed issues related to enhancing cooperation between different humanitarian actors in Iraq in the fields of security, advocacy and administration. In this framework the International NGO Safety Organization (INSO) provided the attendees with a brief on the scope of their operations in Iraq and their available services for NGOs. Following on this presentation, NGOs sought for ways to overcome common administrative issues, such as visa restrictions, which will be discussed in more details during the first of a series of meetings to bring HR representatives together on November 5th.
Furthermore NGOs discussed the development of an Advocacy Working Group (AWG) which will facilitate joint approaches to advocacy and influence policy change, while increasing local, regional and international awareness of the Iraqi humanitarian context. The first meeting of this working group will take place in the coming week.