Reimagining the Social Contract in Iraq

Starting in October 2019, a powerful wave of protests in Iraq signified a rallying cry for change from Iraqis. Reimagining the Social Contract in Iraq is part of a process launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Iraq in partnership with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

This policy paper investigates how Iraqis envision the social contract, including the ways in which various segments of Iraqi society experience their relationship with the State and how their position in society influences their expectations and visions for development. The key findings include corresponding policy recommendations which are intended to assist policy makers to help bridge the gap between the Social Contract as it stands, and the way it is envisioned by the Iraqi people.

Accompanying the policy paper is The Social Contract in Iraq Through Social Media, which uses Artificial Intelligence to capture the online sentiment of Iraqis on issues relating to the Social Contract, including a Big Data analysis of 76.8 million tweets from Twitter users in Iraq from January 2018 to June 2021.