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Sustainable Livelihoods

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  As is all too common in post-conflict zones, unemployment and underemployment figures in Iraq stand somewhere between 50 and 60 percent. These people’s needs are often overlooked because of ongoing unrest and fierce competition for scarce resources throughout the country.

  To alleviate this problem, systematic and sustained attention to this specific group, their families, and their communities is required. IOM Iraq staff strives to assist the un- and under-employed; our assistance programs, coordinated between three different departments, help to immediately improve quality of life, but more importantly, institute lasting employment structures that will thrive long after the direct IOM presence in these communities has gone.

  IOM Iraq’s Programme for Human Security and Stabilization, Community Assistance Projects, and Business Development Services Department focus on aiding the un- and under-employed and their communities, and have seen many great successes over the years of operation. Below is a more specific breakdown of their respective operations in regard to establishing sustainable livelihoods across Iraq:

  Community Revitalization Programme

  

  The Community Revitalization Programme (CRP) works closely with the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM) and Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA) to develop a wide-ranging set of grassroots economic development programmes, with a focus on small business development. CRP supports the efforts of Iraqis to rebuild their local economies and encourages locally focused, broad-based economic development targeting un- and underemployed community members, as well as returnees in need of work.

  As small businesses are the backbone of any economy, CRP assists small businesses in Iraq in developing their markets, expanding their workforce through business and skills training for employees, and purchasing equipment to enable businesses to offer a greater number of quality services to their customers. CRP is currently operating in the 13 governorates of Anbar, Babylon, Baghdad, Basrah, Dahuk, Diyala, Erbil, Kirkuk, Missan, Ninewa, Qadissiya, Sulaymaniyah and Wassit, with the support of the Governments of Germany and the United States, and IOM Iraq expects these activities to soon become a nationwide initiative. CRP provides tools, materials and skills development to the people of Iraq, and thus enables them to create economic opportunities for themselves and their families, rather than continuing cycles of dependence on aid. Iraqis have begun to rebuild their communities, their society and their country, and CRP strives every day to assist them in these efforts.

  Assistance to Female-Headed Households

  In late 2009, IOM Iraq began the implementation of a pilot project for psychosocial, legal and livelihood support to the most vulnerable internally displaced and returnee female-headed households in Baghdad, Diyala and Missan.”

  The project provides vulnerable IDP and returnee female headed households (FHHs) and other vulnerable women from host communities with psychosocial, legal and health support as a means of prevention and protection from social and economic exclusion and violence. In addition, it links these families to services that include information, referral and direct assistance in the areas of shelter and income-generation opportunities.

  In addition to direct targeted assistance provided to female heads of household and their dependents, IOM provides technical support to partner community-based organizations. This cooperation is aimed at enhancing their capacity to continue addressing specific issues related to women at risk including FHHs in the future.

  Private Sector Development

  IOM Iraq is an implementing partner with ILO and UNOPS as United Nations partners in the 'Private Sector Development Programme' (PSDP-I), an 18-month project (September 2010- March 2012) focused on enhancing 'Business Development Services' (BDS) in three governorates of Iraq – Anbar, Basra, and Erbil.

  The primary objective of the partnership is to build the capacities of local private and semi/private business development service providers and ensure access of local entrepreneurs, unemployed and other marginalized groups, to BDS.