Empowering citizens Engaging governments Rebuilding communities

“Local leaders were not paying attention to everyday people.
They would focus on their relatives or close friends. It wasn’t
the real people in need. And with ICAP we went directly to the
people in need.”
— Iqbal al-Juboori
Economic sanctions against Iraq following the 1991
Gulf War meant fewer economic and political opportunities,
while decreasing quality in public education led to
a surge in adult illiteracy among Iraqi women—as high
as 45 percent by 2000, according to United Nations
(UN) estimates. After the US-led invasion in 2003, the
Coalition Provisional Authority was charged to advance
women’s rights and to leverage women’s “skill and
knowledge” in the “revival of their country.” But in
aftermath of the occupation, the reality on the ground
was that huge numbers of Iraqi women had to support
their families, and they had to do so after decades
of diminished educational opportunities had severely
thwarted their technical skills and capabilities.
“Early on, I met a widow who was responsible for
feeding her two sons and one daughter, her father,
her mother, and her two sisters,” said Iqbal al-Juboori,
who at the time was an IRD business development
program officer in Baghdad. “She was the head of the
family. Her parents were too old to work, her children
too young, and her sisters couldn’t. Her husband was
killed during the war, and she didn’t know what to do.
Then she heard about IRD.”
Al-Juboori, who is Iraqi, joined IRD in July 2005,
two years after IRD had established its presence in
Baghdad with ICAP. One of ICAP’s cross-cutting objectives
was to encourage the inclusion and empowerment
of women in all activities. The community action groups
at the center of ICAP emphasized ensuring the equality
of men’s and women’s voices, while program grants
and employment programs gave women an opportunity
to engage in the local economy. Internally, IRD hired,
trained, and promoted women employees for nontraditional
management roles with ICAP, including al-Juboori.
IRD staff would often concentrate on widows, treating
them as people in need. When determining grant
awards, program officers would make home visits to
meet them and assess the individual circumstances.
When al-Juboori visited this particular widow, she
found a home no larger than a shelter, a single room
with little furniture housing the full family. The widow
was receiving nominal help, such as used clothes and
food, but as she met with al-Juboori, she remained
defiantly prideful. “I don’t believe anyone can help us,”
she said. “What makes you so special? What makes
you so different? All I need is a decent income for my
family.” As an Iraqi woman, al-Juboori knew that she
had an exceptional opportunity to relate to this widow,
standing there in the middle of her home. “You’ve got
nothing to lose,” she said. “So try us.”
As with many Iraqi women, the widow had no discernible
skills or earning power. Al-Juboori described
one of ICAP’s business development opportunities,
a home-based sewing program in which IRD would
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