Empowering citizens Engaging governments Rebuilding communities

“
The community believed in what we
were doing and in our ability to help”
—Iqbal al-Juboori
1
Building community trust
supply equipment as long as the recipient maintained
consistent production. “You have to learn to be a
tailor,” she told the widow. “If you’re good, and if you
learn, then we’re going to come back and monitor
you, and we’re going to ask you how much you’re
selling.” This process was an established part of the
ICAP program. But a more immediate problem quickly
became apparent—the house was so small, there
was no place to put the equipment. “All I have is this
house,” the widow said. “And it’s only one room. So
where am I going to do this?”
IRD had access to revenue-generating equipment, procedures
in place to disburse grants, and a results-based
system of accountability to maximize a beneficiary’s
chance at success. If an issue required a programmatic
solution, IRD had an answer. But overcoming the physical
limitations of poverty and an overcrowded one-room
house? That was another issue entirely. Still, IRD found
a solution. Once the widow’s friends and neighbors
learned of her plight, they got together and found a
workspace to donate, provided IRD followed through with
giving her the grant. “The community believed in what
we were doing,” al-Juboori said, “and in our ability to
help. She got the grant, and then she learned to sew.”
The widow began selling coats, and over the course of
the grants process, IRD workers delighted in watching
her grow professionally and personally. “The first time
she received actual money from one of her coats, she
came to me, crying, and she hugged me,” al-Juboori
said. “And she looked at me and said, ‘I’ve struggled for
my whole life, and no one has ever helped me like this. I
don’t feel alone anymore.’”
ICAP: The first step to rebuilding civil society
Often called the cradle of civilization, modern day Iraq
is a country steeped in rich cultural and historical
heritage. Ancient Mesopotamia gave rise to some of
the world’s earliest cities, including Hatra, the capital
of the first Arab kingdom, and it’s where agriculture
was born. The region boasted accomplishments in the
arts, agriculture, architecture, law, and medicine. But
Iraq’s rich heritage proved of little value for much of
the twentieth century, as political turbulence and war
took a severe toll. After post-World War I British rule
ended, 58 separate governments ruled Iraq over 37
years, until a 1958 revolution overthrew the monarchy.
1 After the Ba’ath party took power in a 1963 coup,
a brief period of stability and prosperity produced a
secular state with a thriving oil economy, a rising GDP,
and a burgeoning education system. After Saddam
Hussein seized power in 1979 and almost immediately
launched a war with Iran, the country’s economic and
social infrastructure began to deteriorate.
In a short time, Iraq descended from affluence to a
country in which the standard of living was reduced to
a “subsistence level,” according to the UN’s Committee
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 2 As a closed
society, Iraq’s GDP plunged by more than $50 billion
in less than 10 years, food and agricultural production
slowed, and 60 percent of the population depended on
government rations. Malnutrition, a leading contributor
to rising infant mortality rate, grew rampant. 3 Essential
services slowed due to years of poor maintenance or
outright neglect. Approximately half the population did
not have regular access to potable drinking water, and
even fewer households were connected to a functioning
sewage system. Iraq was a failing state even before
the Hussein government fell in March 2003.
In April 2003, the Coalition Provisional Authority was
established as a transitional government. One month
later, USAID awarded cooperative agreements to five
American NGOs to implement ICAP, a central element
of USAID’s overall relief and reconstruction mission
in Iraq. ICAP was conceived as a community action
and mobilization initiative to foster civic pride in Iraqis
and to try and reconnect them to an operational civil
society (box 1). IRD, chosen to implement the program
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