The EU Madad Innovation Labs (“Labs”) are part of a growing number of innovation labs, bringing together people from diverse backgrounds to jointly learn and develop innovative solutions to local challenges in the context of the Syrian and Iraqi crises. The Labs seek to provide a platform for exchanging experiences, learning participatory techniques, and developing innovative approaches (prototypes) to strengthen the resilience of refugees/IDPs and host communities. Each Lab round addresses a different guiding question related to sectors such as education, skills development, social cohesion and local administration or address cross-cutting issues like gender, disability, and protection.

On 14 January 2018 the National Closure of the EU Madad Skills Innovation Lab took place in Erbil, North Iraq/KRI. Over the course of 10 months, the participants were trained in innovative design thinking methods, and guided in developing prototypes addressing the question of “How can we improve skills development measures for youth among Syrian refugees, IDPs and host communities?”.