LocationsFrom a Public Youth Center to Iraq’s First Public Innovation Hub in the South
December 24, 2025
What happens when you take a public Youth Center and turn it into a community innovation hub? In Thi-Qar, that question became a real experiment. Souq Al-Shoyukh Community and Climate Hub (SSCH) is now Iraq’s first government-based community innovation hub in the south—built through partnership, co-financing, and co-design by UNDP-Iraq, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the Bahr Al-Uloom Foundation. This is the story of how a government facility became a locally owned platform for youth-driven innovation and better services.
Where the idea started:
Building on UNDP Iraq’s Deep Demonstrations work to reimagine the social contract, the portfolio approach in Iraq was positioned to build shared intent among Government, the wider development ecosystem, and donors—translating that intent into a system-wide ambition for societal wellbeing across four interconnected result areas: Effective Government, Citizen Agency, Human & Community Security, and Economic Opportunity. To operationalize these positions, the portfolio outlined more than 11 potential intervention pathways, including the establishment of responsive local community innovation hubs.
A community innovation hub is a shared space that combines community and co-working with incubation/acceleration-type support to help people turn ideas into real solutions and ventures. In this context, such hubs are designed to harness local knowledge to support economic diversification, entrepreneurship, climate action, innovation, and future-proof skills.
The next logical step was to answer two practical questions: where should this hub be located, and what model would make it last? An analysis of existing hubs across Iraq was conducted to pinpoint the best location and the most sustainable setup. The findings were clear. First, most hubs are clustered in Baghdad and the north (Erbil, Sulaimani, Mosul), while the south—despite its significant economic needs and escalating climate challenges—has far fewer hub models. Second, the analysis also revealed a sustainability gap since many hubs struggle to survive because they rely heavily on donor funding, while the model assessed as the most sustainable was the government-supported hub in Sulaimani. These insights shaped the decision to locate the hub in the south of Iraq and embed it within a government facility, strengthening long-term sustainability and positioning the government as a key driver of innovation, economic diversification, and climate action, leveraging its financial resources, human capital, and willingness to lead.
What made the hub work:
A sustainable and relevant hub starts with the right partners to unlock local intelligence and ensure early buy-in. Based on research and market analysis, UNDP identified Bahr Al-Uloom Foundation (BAF) as an effective and deeply networked local partner. In parallel, UNDP and BAF identified the right government partner to anchor ownership and enable scale; the analysis pointed to the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS), given its mandate to support youth, employment and job creation in Iraq. This partnership model-UNDP, BAF, and MoYS- was essential to enable needs-responsive design, support the formation of governance structures, and ensure initiatives were shaped around real priorities rather than assumptions.
Sustainability is strongest when the hub is anchored in public systems, not projects. The hub analysis showed that the biggest cost drivers are physical space and ongoing operational human capital. The partners addressed these challenges directly by repurposing and upgrading an existing government Youth Center rather than creating a new facility, positioning MoYS as a driver of innovation and economic development. By embedding day-to-day operational responsibility within the Youth Center, Ministry staff and youth teams, the model reduced dependency on external support for core running costs and strengthened sustainability beyond the project cycle.
Co-financing turns partnership into delivery. SSCH was enabled through combined support from UNDP, the Government of Denmark, Sida, the Commission on Media and Communications, BAF, and MoYS. This blended financing mechanism unlocked the practical inputs needed to operationalize the hub—infrastructure, technical equipment, and capacity building and skills development. By distributing support across multiple partners, the model reduced reliance on a single funding stream and strengthened the hub’s ability to sustain its services beyond the project cycle.
How we built Iraq’s first public innovation hub in the South:
The Souq Al-Shoyukh Community and Climate Hub is now a reality, but the key question from the outset was how to design, build, and operationalize it in a way that lasts.
Who: The project partners set the overall objectives and direction, yet governance and ownership were handed over early to ensure local leadership from the start. A project board was established—bringing together the MoYS, BAF, UNDP, and local community representatives—to own the hub’s vision, provide overall direction and leadership for implementation, and manage the interface with key senior stakeholders. In parallel, working groups of public servants and community members were formed to support the co-design process, follow up on implementation through practical initiatives, and support the hub’s operationalization. Together, these structures and the commitment of the people created a clear system for leadership, implementation, and sustained local responsibility.
What: The model and its core functions were shaped through a co-design process that brought all partners together across multiple sessions using innovative methodologies including systems thinking, issue mapping and foresight tools to design a future-proof hub. The process was also strengthened through visits to model hubs to learn what works and adapt it to Souq Al-Shoyukh. Through this journey, the partners identified key local challenges including skills and employability gaps, limited entrepreneurship and private sector opportunities, and environmental and climate pressures. The challenges were then translated into a practical hub blueprint including co-working and tech-enabled spaces, renewable energy solutions, and a smart farm model linked to climate-smart practices and training. Overall, the co-design process ensured the hub’s design was locally grounded, evidence-informed, and built around functions that could be operationalized by local teams.
How: The co-design process and the teams were reinforced through intensive capacity building to ensure local actors could run the hub and its initiatives sustainably. Multiple sessions were delivered by UNDP, UN volunteers, BAF, Tafa3el Hub, and MoYS, focusing on solutions and initiatives design, workplan structuring, leadership and entrepreneurship, communications and media, and monitoring and follow-up. In parallel, operationalization was reinforced through experimentation with potential initiatives and designed to activate the hub, including four initiatives. Overall, this approach transferred co-design into day-to-day practice and enabled teams to deliver the hub’s interventions.
To ensure consistent public engagement and visibility, SSCH built its institutional identity by giving the hub a clear name—Souq Al-Shoyukh Community and Climate Hub (SSCH)—and developing a cohesive visual identity. This was reinforced through a dedicated website to share information, activities, opportunities, and resources.
What changed on the ground:
The hub’s opening and handover back to the Youth Center was a celebration—not only an event—marking the transition of a government facility into a functioning community and innovation hub owned and operated locally. The spaces were officially opened by the Minister of Youth and Sports, recognizing both the visible transformation of the space and the less visible shift in people—capacity, ownership, and confidence.
- What changed physically: the rehabilitation of the Souq Al-Shoyukh Youth Center into a sustainable community and innovation hub, as highligted by Minister of Enviornment including a co-working space and a tech-lab to support economic development and youth.
- What changed in people: intensive capacity building that upskilled more than 50 active members of the center, strengthening their ability to manage operations and lead the hub sustainably.
- What changed in opportunities: the hub created practical pathways for economic development by expanding opportunities for youth and the wider community through skills-building, employability, entrepreneurship support, and by strengthening the enabling environment for agriculture sector development through the smart farm model renewable energy, and climate-smart practices.
- Replication momentum: these achievements positioned SSCH as a key engine for innovation and employment in southern Iraq and strengthened momentum for deeper cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and replication in other governorates.
- Sustainability after the project: the hub was designed to sustain beyond the project cycle by linking physical upgrades with local capacity to operate and maintain services over time.
