SUCCESS STORY
Dry Wells No Longer
USAID recently launched a program to bring potable drinking to 700,000 Iraqi villagers. The rural water program will install 71 potable water systems in rural communities of fewer than 5,000 people, resulting in 35 liters of potable water per person each day.
The sound of laughter echoes across the desert as children line up to dip their hands and face in their village's first potable running water. With these new spigots, each of the 1,100 residents of this small Diayla village can enjoy more than 35 liters of clean, safe water every day.
USAID's rural water program is installing 71 of these potable water treatment systems (with over 500 remote distribution sites) throughout Iraq. These sites collectively will process over 32,000 cubic meters of water per day, benefiting nearly 700,000 Iraqis. In villages where the safe drinking water is installed, the Ministry of Health will provide hygiene training in each village to augment the expected decline of infant mortality and gastrointestinal disease.
The water sites are designed to serve villages with populations between 500 and 5,000 people. The program utilizes chlorination, compact filtration units, and/or reverse osmosis filtration to purify the local water source (ground or surface water).
By placing water distribution points in remote villages surrounding the treatment sites, each site will generally reach a wider geographic area. Tanker trucks, provided by donor nations to the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works, will collect water at the treatment sites and deliver the potable water to storage tanks in the remote villages for daily consumption. In northern regions, where travel becomes difficult during the winter, pipelines supplied by USAID will be installed by the local populace to deliver water directly to these villages.
The program also provides six months of in-depth, on-the-job operation and maintenance training on how to operate the treatment systems and maintain the 300 or so delivery trucks to sustain this vital resource for rural Iraq.
ECONOMIC GROWTH
USAID works with Iraqi institutions to establish an environment for sustainable economic growth. Assistance empowers policy makers to formulate and execute decisions based on economic data, and to implement modern best practices in economic governance. USAID projects provide a framework for private sector trade, commerce, and investment throughout Iraq.
Highlights this week
Military and USAID team up to help small businesses in Iraq. In Baghdad, military civil affairs and USAID's Izdihar project recently coordinated to provide two days of training in financial planning and business association management to 18 small business owners from the Al-Rasheed and Al-Karradah chambers of commerce. The training was designed to help business associations build capacity, giving leaders and entrepreneurs the skills to expand their organizations and create new jobs.
"We are working hard to help these chambers of commerce become vibrant, functional organizations," said Maj. Carlos Molina, a civil-military operations economic development officer from the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. "[USAID's Private Sector Development] project is a perfect fit for our needs as it is focused on growing the private sector in Iraq and already provides excellent training for small businesses in a number of key areas."
The first day of training introduced the small business owners to accounting techniques and discussed cash flow, budgeting and an organization's balance sheet. The second day featured training in how to build a business association, how to generate money to run the association, how to select issues to advocate on behalf of the members, and how to become a more respected board member or leader of the association.
"The training programs are great and hard to find inside Iraq," said Mahmood Shakir from the Al-Karradah district. "It has helped me a lot. It will help me establish our chamber in Al-Karradah."
"We are excited to be working with the civil-military operations team to strengthen the business management skills of small business owners," stated Khalid Al-Naif, head of USAID's Izdihar project. "The desire of the businesspeople to gain new knowledge and skills bodes well for the future of Iraq's private sector."
According to Molina, the military's partnership with the Izdihar project is just the start of support that will help build the capacity of the local chambers. "We definitely will be providing more training programs ... and we are working with USAID to bring microfinance loans to these small businesses as well."
AGRICULTURE
USAID's goals are to work in conjunction with Iraqi ministries, the private sector, and higher education institutions to revitalize agricultural production, stimulate income and employment generation, nurture rural development initiatives, and rehabilitate the natural resource base.
Highlights this week
Canal cleaning brings widespread benefits. Under the previous regime, the agricultural canals fell into disrepair. Because the channels fill with silt, much of their water-carrying capacity is lost, lowering productivity. Most farmers do not have the technical skills, nor do they have the financial resources to pay to clean the canals.
Canal cleaning is a simple way to rehabilitate the existing irrigation infrastructure. Technical knowledge of water flows and relatively inexpensive inputs are all that is needed for widespread direct-impacting benefits. USAID's Agriculture Reconstruction and Development Program for Iraq (ARDI) has awarded 14 grants for canal cleaning projects that will rehabilitate canals in five governorates. At a total cost of $651,005, these projects will improve irrigation to 38,714 acres of land. ARDI estimates that productivity on the affected donums will increase by an average of 20 percent by improved water efficiency.
The effects of these canal cleaning efforts will reach over 45,000 farmers and community members. Once they are all completed, ARDI canal cleaning projects will have provided from 17-60 days of paid labor for 2,928 workers, many of whom are farmers themselves.
Flower nursery established for women's union. Through a grant to the Kurdistan Women's Union (KWU) to establish a flower nursery in Dohuk, ARDI is promoting economic innovation as well as community self-reliance and development.
In December, ARDI completed construction of the nursery complex, which includes an administrative office, a shed for equipment storage, four plastic greenhouses for plant propagation, a water tank, and a show room for direct sale of the grown flowers/plantlets. ARDI also provided a generator, peat moss processing machine, gardening tools, planting material, loamy soil, fertilizers, and vases.
Managed by the KWU, the nursery aims to produce and sell 38,000 flowering plants, 2,700 shade plants, 4,000 flower bouquets, and 8,000 kg of peat moss per year, as well as to provide garden services for the public. The KWU will use the net revenue to fund smaller nurseries in other communities. Once firmly established, the nurseries will provide the KWU with sustainable funding for activities geared toward aiding women, especially poor Iraqi widows.
The 23 local women selected to work at the nursery are all widows with small children and no means of earning income. The next phase of implementation will be training the recently hired women. The KWU has contracted horticulture specialists to design training courses for the employees next month. Through work at the nursery, the women will learn business management and technical horticultural skills.
EDUCATION
USAID's goals are to increase enrollment, improve primary and secondary education, ensure classrooms have sufficient supplies, facilitate community involvement, train teachers, implement accelerated learning programs, and establish partnerships between U.S. and Iraqi colleges and universities.
Highlights this week
USAID renovated the law library at a northern Iraqi university as part of the Higher Education and Development (HEAD) program. The new resources and study area have allowed students to re-connect with international law and pursue aggressive research on topics including terrorism, Islamic law, and media crimes. "We are winning their hearts while enriching their minds" said Kimberly Morris, the chief of party for DePaul University, one of USAID's partners implementing higher education reforms at several Iraqi universities.
The new library has reconnected students and faculty to the global international law community. Most of the library resources had been outdated and obsolete because, as an Iraqi professor explained, "Saddam stopped the books from coming in 1990." Internet access was virtually impossible; the entire university of 12,000 students shared only 30 computers. Now the 600 law students have their own internet center and law library. New books and resources, mostly in Arabic, line the newly installed rolling stacks, a simple technology that increases book storage space by 75 percent.
Senior law students radiated enthusiasm when talking about their new research facilities. The current resources in the library and internet center give the students a dynamic education, keeping them abreast of current international legal thought.
In a region riddled by human rights violations, these Kurdish students pursue law so they can become "defenders of human rights" a third-year student explained. "We need to pave the way for our society to become a civil society," a young Kurdish woman who hopes to use her law degree to become a political leader explained. "We can't solve our problems in a tribal way; we need social solutions."
USAID's HEAD program ended December 31, 2005. Since 2004, DePaul University College of Law, one of the five U.S. partner universities, has worked to advance and reform Iraq's legal education, bringing a new emphasis on rule of law, curriculum reform, clinical education, and library and education technology. Throughout the program, HEAD/DePaul provided seminars for professionals and academics on post-conflict justice, facilitated training programs and workshops on curriculum reform, and established moot courts in three different major university law schools, giving students the opportunity to try their skills at writing and presenting briefs before a judge in a simulated session. Three law libraries were renovated while equipment and new text books were delivered to improve access to information.
TRANSITION INITIATIVES
USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) supports the transition to a participatory, stable, and democratic country. OTI provides quick-dispensing, high-impact grants meeting critical needs -- providing short-term employment, restoring basic government and community services, increasing access to information and communication, and encouraging protection of human rights.
Highlights this week
Writing a new chapter for Iraq's children. Iraq Transition Initiative (ITI) supported 25 artists in their efforts to create a children's magazine. The magazine promotes peace by teaching about democracy and tolerance in a colorful and entertaining format. Using illustrated fables and drawing workbook exercises, the magazine engages the young reader in its lessons. The characters come from across the spectrum of Iraq's ethnicities, showcasing the potential normalcy of cross-ethnic interactions and friendships. The main objective of the magazine's creators was to convey a peaceful environment for children whom may never have encountered one first hand. The magazine aims to highlight the hope the children themselves embody, empowering them with visions of a tolerant and peaceful future. As a result of ITI's support, the magazine reached over 4,000 Iraqi children.
A central Iraqi community takes action to improve sanitation. In one neighborhood in central Iraq, community members came together to fix the problem of trash in public areas. They felt the debris was impeding the return of an optimistic atmosphere. The community members decided the best place to start on the project was the grounds of the local hospital. ITI encouraged the community to address the problem by offering a grant for $8,000. The ITI grant provided the labor costs, cleaning equipment, and garbage bins necessary to clean the targeted area. This cooperative effort dramatically improved sanitation in the area, benefiting over 1,000 local citizens.
Two community-elected projects in central Iraq. A central Iraq based non-governmental organization (NGO) is trying to inspire optimism by demonstrating to the community the potential benefits of the democratic process. The NGO organized meetings in two underprivileged neighborhoods. Community members came together to discuss progress in Iraq. The NGO guided the discussions towards accessing community needs. Local residents identified and described priority concerns. After members were given time to voice their opinions, projects were chosen by consensus.
ITI supported these efforts by offering each neighborhood a grant to complete their respective projects. Both neighborhoods chose to renovate local schools because the communities wanted to convey the importance of education. They felt that renovating the building with fresh paint, proper sanitation, and adequate desks would help demonstrate to the children the respect they should feel for their schools, teachers, and classes. In addition to the services already mentioned, the grants provided roof repairs, fans, and garbage removal. Both ITI grants were cleared for about $9,500. Neighborhood-wide discussions continued during project implementation, solidifying a sense of ownership for the outcomes and instilling the habit of group discussions which lead to democratic action.
Through this initiative, ITI is helping inspire faith in the power and dependability of democracy.
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