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Since 2003, Mercy Corps has worked to directly engage Iraqis in the rebuilding and renewal of their country, while providing humanitarian and development assistance to over 5 million Iraqi citizens affected by war, violence and displacement.
Mercy Corps’ goal in Iraq is to help Iraqi communities meet their immediate needs, while providing a solid foundation for the development of a secure, productive and just society. The success of Mercy Corps’ Iraq programme, as well as the security of staff and programme sites, depends on the acceptance and good will of local communities and leaders. The “Iraqi face” of Mercy Corps’ staff plays a critical role in fostering such acceptance. A continuous effort to create mutual understanding and foster community investment in our work has also been highly successful, enabling programmes to keep running even through very turbulent times.
Iraq Community Action Programme (CAP)
Since 2003 Mercy Corps has provided development assistance in Iraq through the USAID-funded Community Action Programme (CAP). Mercy Corps has invested heavily in the creation of a vibrant civil society and the expansion of citizen government interaction. For example, we helped establish approximately 600 community action groups in south central Iraq.
These groups identify and prioritize where they want to make investments in social infrastructure, such as rehabilitating schools, constructing clinics and improving community marketplaces. Through CAP, Mercy Corps goes beyond bricks and mortar by including development initiatives that enhance infrastructure work with transformative community-based activities. These initiatives include but are not limited to the following:
• Empowering persons with disabilities to advocate for their own rights.
• Increasing access to information and communication technology for persons at all levels of society.
• Promoting women to be full partners in development, which includes a women’s education programme that provides basic education and rights awareness classes.
• Encouraging creativity and community engagement in youth through activities such as theater productions, art lessons, awareness campaigns and sports.
To date, Mercy Corps has invested nearly £53 million in Iraqi communities. These funds, combined with over £14 million in community contributions, have been used to complete more than 1,746 projects and development activities and create nearly 25,000 short-term jobs through the Community Action Programme.
A New Phase for CAP
In December 2010, Mercy Corps began the fourth phase of our CAP programme. Building on the foundations established in CAP III wherein CAG and local council members developed expertise in community needs identification and prioritization; proposal development and project implementation; budgeting; monitoring and evaluation; and strategic and participatory planning, Mercy Corps will support Community Action Group (CAG) and Local Council (LC) members in achieving greater levels of success by focusing on effective outreach, advocacy, leadership, and management through training and opportunities for practical applications of obtained skills. Mercy Corps will continue to focus on promoting the participation of minorities – including women, youth and persons with disabilities (PWDs) – and providing CAGs and LCs with resources to Iraq. In addition, Mercy Corps will begin working with IDPs and returned refugees in population centers in the South Iraq AoR area (Basrah, Muthanna, Thi-Qar and Missan), either via existing CAGs in these areas or through the formation of new CAGs, attempting to ensure that the specific needs of these communities are included in discussions and projects at the local level.
Emergency Response Programmes
Working with local communities and with funding from the U.S. government and the United Nations, Mercy Corps is helping overstretched host communities by increasing the outreach of health services, ensuring a safe supply of water and appropriate sanitation, and providing fuel and essential household items. We’re also helping youth and families deal with the stress of conflict and displacement and focusing on civil society capacity building through emergency micro-grants. In highly volatile and insecure areas, Mercy Corps operates through a system of dedicated individuals who work undercover in their own communities as they liaise with local government officials, NGOs and community leaders to implement assistance projects.
Building Peace, Managing Conflict
Supporting Effective Advocacy for Marginalised Groups (SEAM), funded by the U.S. government, helps civil society organisations (CSOs), especially those focused on women and youth, play a more significant role in their communities. It works mainly along “the seam,” territories in dispute between the central Iraqi government and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG). By strengthening the capacity of CSOs and helping them better understand the role of state actors and civil society in a democratic framework, SEAM helps marginalised groups become advocates. We’re also helping to establish strong relationships and trust between CSOs and government officials. Mercy Corps is providing CSOs with new tools and technologies to improve their project implementation and advocacy efforts.
Mercy Corps’ Conflict Management Group reaches out to provincial council members, tribal sheiks, civil society leaders and other influential Iraqis with a series of negotiation and conflict management trainings to be offered throughout the country. As the programme wraps in late 2010, 1,000 participants from 18 governorates have been trained in conflict mitigation and resolution skills; 112 negotiations have resulted in agreements benefiting 500,000 Iraqis.
Women and Youth
All Mercy Corps programming takes into account the special needs of women and youth, often the most vulnerable people in their communities. We are committed to helping women move from dependence to independence, in communities that recognize their worth as valuable members of society. Our USAID-funded women’s literacy programmes have reached more than 26,000 women and girls over the last five years, supplying them with basic literacy and numeracy skills as well as information about democracy, human and women’s rights, and health and hygiene.
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