UNITED NATIONS INSTITUTIONS, UNIDIR + UNICEF
100cameras partners with the United Nations Institute of Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and Progress in Peace to implement the 100cameras curriculum and innovative methodologies in support of UNIDIR’s goals in developing child-sensitive methodologies for participatory action research with young people to improve peace-building outcomes.
This published Research Fieldwork Note details our pilot photography and storytelling curriculum with youth in Mosul, Iraq, that took place in June 2023.
This pilot equipped Iraqi youth who have been impacted by conflict with photography skills to help them express their experiences and create images that capture many of the themes of UNIDIR and UNICEF’s Managing Exits from Armed Conflict’s (MEAC) research in Iraq.
Based on the success, this pilot has since been contracted for 3 more interventions in 2024 in partnership with the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research.
BACKGROUND
By the time the war with ISIL ended in December 2017, there were some 5 million Iraqis displaced within the country. To date, most internally displaced persons (IDPs) have returned, but for many, this was not an easy homecoming. While all IDPs face challenges coming home, one group that has faced specific challenges due to the way they are identified by their communities are those families who are perceived to be affiliated with ISIL, often due to the behaviour or affiliation of a family member. In addition, there are tens of thousands of Iraqi children – most of whom are languishing in camps in Northeast Syria, or for older boys, detention there – who are also trying to return home. They face many of the same, as well as some unique, challenges to coming back to their communities and restarting their lives after conflict.
There is currently significant programmatic and research attention on the return and reintegration of Iraqi IDPs moving back to their communities and those coming back from Northeast Syria, particularly children. Yet, existing efforts to assess and respond to youth reintegration challenges remain largely extractive, with young people’s experiences and needs interpreted by adult researchers and practitioners, and engagement often tokenistic.
There is a pressing need to shift the paradigm of how the international community supports conflict-affected young people. In light of this need, UNIDIR, 100cameras, Progress in Peace, UNICEF, War Child UK, Bridge, and IOM launched an initiative to amplify the voices of returning youth and co-generate action research to inform programmatic interventions meant to address the unique reintegration needs and aspirations of returning Iraqi youth. This is a step in moving from treating young people as passive beneficiaries toward partnering with them to build peace.
OVERVIEW OF PILOT INTERVENTION
INTERVENTION
The Pilot Intervention and Study The pilot described herein builds on MEAC’s research in Iraq since late 2021, and its efforts to advance participatory research methodologies with young people more broadly since 2019. The experiences of conflicted affected children and youth captured in MEAC studies like Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Children from Families with Perceived ISIL Affiliation: 5 Experiences from Iraq and Al Hol informed the participatory research outlined in this and the accompanying report. The participatory research piloted in Iraq in 2023 by this consortium included two innovative interventions that engaged conflict-affected Iraqi young people as partners in action research to inform MEAC’s study in Iraq. The first intervention was a qualitative training programme for youth researchers held in Mosul, which sought to prepare young people to co-facilitate focus groups with their peers. If ethical and security conditions were met, the culmination of this training was to be youth-driven and co-facilitated focus groups with young people to gather nuanced insights into the challenges faced by returning Iraqi youth and what they identify as sources of resilience that sustain them in the face of adversity. A separate report details the implementation of this research training intervention in Mosul, discusses lessons learned, and provides recommendations for implementing similar interventions in other contexts.
Several of the research themes designed to be explored in these focus groups with young returnees were also the subject of the second intervention - a participatory photography intervention by 100cameras and Progress in Peace in Mosul. This transformative programme equipped youth with photography skills, enabling them to process their experiences and share their stories through images. The culmination of the photography intervention was a series of photo walks to respond to corresponding research theme prompts, which were intended to produce visual representations of the experiences, emotions, and aspirations of youth participants.
Ultimately, the objectives of these two intertwined pilot interventions were to:
• Ensure MEAC’s research and the policy research outputs it produces for UN partners reflect and amplify the perspectives of young, conflict-affected people in Iraq.
• Use different methodologies to explore the return and reintegration progress of Iraqi families with perceived ISIL affiliation to add different dimensions to and thus enhanced the resulting evidence base.
• Enhance the skills and networks of participating young people to benefit them, as well as their families and communities.
• Showcase to the international community the value and accessibility of, as well as challenges associated with, participatory research with young conflict-affected people in Iraq and beyond, and identify lessons learned that could assist other policymakers and practitioners who seek to integrate it into their work.