The UNCT for Iraq is: ESCWA, FAO, ILO, IOM, OHCHR, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UN-HABITAT, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNIDO, UNIFEM , UNOPS, WFP, WHO
Background
As part of the United Nation's contribution to the nationwide reconstruction and development of Iraq, the UN Country Team (UNCT) in collaboration with the Iraqi Authorities, the private sector and NGO partners, have taken a lead role in the delivery of assistance and the strengthening of national capacity in Iraq.
Coordinated through the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), the UNCT has employed a "cluster" approach to its reconstruction and development programmes as presented in the Joint UN-Iraq Assistance Strategy 2005 - 2007. This cluster approach has proven instrumental in ensuring the UNCT addresses the priorities indicated in the strategy in an integrated fashion. Despite the continued constraints due to the prevailing security situation, reconstruction and development activities are being implemented by the UN agencies through national partners and counterparts.
Education
The education sub-cluster has been making an essential contribution to the long term goal through its programmes to undertake the physical rehabilitation of schools as well as to provide essential education and recreation materials.
In April, the comprehensive physical rehabilitation of 24 schools was completed and a further 46 were under construction. 20 schools benefited from fully rehabilitated water and sanitation facilities with an additional 156 schools being worked upon. 18,000 recreation kits were delivered and distributed to schools across the country and the Childcare Institution in Baghdad received essential educational materials for visually challenged children.
The Education Sub Cluster Long Term Goal is "to enhance access and improve participation and completion at all levels of education in Iraq while ensuring adherence to quality, standards and achievement of expected learning outcomes". Joint UN-Iraq Assistance Strategy 2005 - 2007
Mine Action
The country wide hazard posed by Explosive Remnants of War (ERW), such as landmines and unexploded ordnance, continues to hamper the daily routine of the Iraqi population. By limiting access to agricultural and grazing land, roads, water sources and residential areas, the civilian population is constrained from fully participating in the reconstruction and development process.
Towards this end, 25 National Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams consisting of trained Iraqi staff cleared 682,987 square metres of land, recovering and destroying 3,397 explosive ordinance items in the month. All the cleared areas are now safely being used for pasture and agricultural activities as well as providing safe access for local communities. As a means to identify ERW affected communities, the Iraq Landmine Impact Survey (ILIS) was used in mapping the location and degree of ERW contamination, surveying 5,735 communities to date and noting 967 affected communities prioritized and scheduled for eventual clearance.
Strengthening Iraqi National Capacity
As a vital ingredient in ensuring the sustainability of Iraq's long term reconstruction and development, the UNCT continues to undertake considerable capacity building activities in all clusters working with a wide range of Iraqi stakeholders. The following is a cross-section of these activities:
- Specialists from the Ministries of Education
(MoE) and Health (MoH) participated in a week-long training workshop on
school sanitation and hygiene education.
- 16 female staff members from the MoE
and Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA) undertook a 20-day study
tour in Egypt, looking at all aspects of Early Childhood Development programmes.
- MoE participants developed a pilot project
to cater for the learning needs of 50,000 children during a 3-day workshop
on the Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP). This was a first opportunity
for ministry staff from Baghdad and Northern Iraq to meet with each other
and share experiences.
- 20 MOLSA social workers from 3 northern
Governorates took part in a 2-week course representing the fourth phase
in the Social Workers Training Course.
- 14 Iraqi journalists completed a four
week intense journalism course from the American University of Cairo, increasing
to 67 the total number of journalists who have participated in this course.
- 22 staff from the Ministry of Electricity
participated in a training course in Japan and Korea. The engineers and
technicians were trained in maintenance and assessment techniques for thermal
generating power units; the backbone of Iraq's power system.
- 4 staff from the Ministry of Municipalities
and Public Works completed an inter-country training on emergency water
& sanitation disinfection.
- The Mine Risk Education Operational
Plan for the Centre and South of Iraq resulted from a 3-day workshop held
in Amman. The MRE Operational plan to be overseen by the National Mine
Action Authority (NMAA) represented an important contribution to educating
Iraqis to live safely in contaminated areas.
- 17 participants from 8 Governorates
learned to develop rainfall and run off models for watershed catchments
at a week long workshop held in Cairo with visiting American professors.
- Iraqi government administrators and
policy makers from the water sector and the Ministry of Environment attended
a workshop sharing the Jordanian water governance experience with participants
from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Central Asia.
- 20 senior staff from the Ministry of
Water Resources benefited from a project cycle workshop to enhance their
water-related project management techniques.
- 23 representatives from the region including 2 Iraqi staff from the Ministry of Planning completed a workshop in Amman to enhance their skills and expertise in resource capacity management within the Contract Research and Development field.
Child Protection
Caring for children who slip through the net is a critical issue being tackled. The establishment of 'drop in' centres for children at risk and street children in the cities of Basrah, Nassiriyah and Baghdad should provide the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA) with an important type of response mechanism. The initial response to these centres has been so encouraging that MOLSA and representatives from the affected communities requested for the replication of such centres on a wider scale in the country.
In addition to this, the establishment of transitional child homes in Baghdad has permitted an initial figure of 52 street children to be successfully reintegrated back into their families or to be placed with other recipient families. The success of this project has encouraged MOLSA to focus on increasing awareness among the community on the importance of stable family life on child welfare.
Towards Ownership of the Development Process...
Cleaning of a Baghdad City Hospital
Last week, in Baghdad, a group of 40 workers were cleaning the outdoor areas of a city hospital, as part of the Iraq Reconstruction and Employment Programme (IREP). After several hours, these areas became spotless and hygienic for the first time in years. Abdullah, 26 years old, was visiting a friend hospitalised there, and threw a glass bottle of juice from one of the upper windows facing the patio.
As the bottle smashed and the juice poured out on the clean patio, the workers shouted angrily at him, saying 'You should be ashamed to mess up a clean place. You don't respect our efforts and our work.' Abdullah left his friend's room, and went to apologise to the supervisor.
After he finished cleaning the mess he had created, he started a friendly chat with the IREP team supervisor. He told him 'Everybody got used to throwing things from the windows and corridors, and no one from the hospital cared, since the place was always dirty. But now the situation is different. The place is clean, very clean.'
Connecting a new water network to a village in southern Iraq
Under the previous regime, the 1500 people of this village were forced to relocate from their homeland in the Southern Iraqi Marshes. Their new village lacked all basic amenities and infrastructure and there was no willingness from the local authorities at the time to improve this situation. The women of the village used to go down to the river to get drinking water, to wash their dishes and to do their laundry. The possibility of having a water supply pipe line passing by their houses was beyond their expectation or comprehension at that time.
Recently, the village residents started to see significant infrastructure rehabilitation in the Hartha sub district and they noted that some of the nearby villages had managed to get their own water network. The residents asked the local water department for a similar network and they said they wanted to work on the project to earn an income at the same time. The Hartha water department brought the village proposal for submission to IREP and got approval.
The project was successfully implemented, installing a supply line that provides potable water to the village. At the same time, the village residents felt their self esteem and confidence was raised, as their request was considered and approved, and became a reality. The residents seized the opportunity to become a productive community by providing labour to complete the work and receiving a salary for this work. Most importantly, the village residents have a strong sense of ownership for the water network, seeing themselves as responsible to ensure the network is maintained and not abused so as to avoid the burden of fetching and carrying water from the river.
Within the Poverty Reduction and Human Development Cluster, IREP programme activities as illustrated by these two cases generated a total of 145,600 working days in April, directly benefiting 5,500 skilled and unskilled workers throughout the country.