A six-month program to help women lead — not in theory, but in the real positions and roles they have already reached across Iraqi society.

Lean In is one of PDO’s important initiatives for building women’s capacity in management and leadership, with a deliberate focus on the positions and roles women have already attained. Part of a wider effort to strengthen women’s participation in Iraq’s stabilization and peace process, it was delivered under the name the “SPW project,” with financial support from the German organization GIZ.

ReachAcross three provinces

The program ran over six months in the provinces of Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and Duhok — meeting women where they live and work rather than asking them to travel to a single centre.

RecognitionFrom training to certificate

The training culminated in a certificate ceremony at the SULY M.I.C.E. Center, where participants were recognised for completing the program — a small, concrete marker of capability to carry into the roles they hold.