The core of the Mission's mandate is to advise senior officials at the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the Ministry of Interior (MoI) on their coherent implementation of the civilian aspects of SSR. Consequently, the Mission is providing expertise on a diverse range of reform components, such as policy design, human rights, organised crime, security legislation and human resource management.

These reform efforts form part of a wide-ranging undertaking guided by Iraq's Security Sector Reform Programme and contribute to the implementation of the National Security Strategy, which aims to build state institutions capable of consolidating stabilisation gains, driving development and preventing the renewal of conflict. Several partners are supporting Iraq in this multifaceted, strategic process, and the Mission works closely with other contributors to help generate synergies and avoid overlaps between our respective efforts.

The Mission is based in Baghdad to enable continuous engagement with the ONSA and MoI, while teams regularly conduct so-called field visits to assist Iraqi efforts to strengthen the coordination between federal and subnational security agencies, which is a key element of the ongoing reform.