Challenges:
The Kurdish Shura Council plays a critical role in reviewing draft legislation and ensuring legal consistency across the Kurdistan Region, Iraq. However, the Council’s members faced challenges in applying modern legislative quality standards and in incorporating regulatory tools such as Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) and public consultation into their review process.
Limited exposure to comparative practices and methodologies in legislative drafting and evaluation created a need for structured capacity-building and practical learning opportunities.
Solutions:
To address these challenges, the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched a capacity-building programme comprising five seminars for 15 Shura Council judges.
Arab African Advisers (AAA) supported the programme by serving as a bilingual facilitator (Arabic and English) throughout the sessions, fostering interactive discussions, peer exchange, and completion of case study exercises.
The third seminar focused specifically on improving the quality of laws, covering:
AAA also prepared and delivered presentations and practical case studies in both English and Arabic, guiding participants through group exercises that linked theory to real-world legislative challenges.
Impact:
The program strengthened the Shura Council’s institutional capacity to assess draft laws using evidence-based approaches and to incorporate consultation and impact assessment into the legislative process.
Through AAA’s facilitation, participants gained hands-on experience with modern regulatory tools, improved their understanding of law quality criteria, and enhanced their ability to evaluate legislative alternatives.
The initiative not only deepened participants’ technical knowledge but also fostered a culture of dialog and critical analysis within the Council – laying the groundwork for more transparent, effective, and high-quality lawmaking in the Kurdistan Region.
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