OCTOBER 2020

USAID Looks Local in Iraq
BY PAUL NATINSKY
It took three long years to push ISIS out of
Northern Iraq and begin repatriating villages
north of Mosul on the Nineveh Plan. The push
began in 2014. Since 2017, the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID)
has been rebuilding villages, reconstructing schools,
hospitals and power plants, as well as providing
counseling, job training and other support services
to the people in Iraq.
Between then and now, USAID has spent $470
million on such services and has been registering
growing success at bringing people in the region
back to their homes.
Bolstered by a 2018 Presidential Executive
Order and two acts of Congress, the United States
has made a powerful commitment to protect
religious freedom around the world, using the
Northern Iraq experience as a model for current
and future programs.
Local Lessons
USAID likely is the world’s largest official
international aid group, with an annual budget
of $27 billion, employing staffers and aid workers
across the globe. Despite its size and budget, the
group’s focus has been on becoming more effective
at the ground level. To that end, USAID has shifted
from working mainly with large relief organizations
to smaller, local groups that are strongly connected
to the villages to which they provide aid, said
Hallam Ferguson, an administrator and Middle
East specialist at USAID who has helped direct
Northern Iraq’s recovery from ISIS occupation.
Teamed with Samah Norquist, who advises
USAID on international religious freedom issues,
USAID has integrated with local groups such as
the Shlama Foundation, a group that has been
active for a long time in the region. It’s made up
of a number of young engineers who are eager and
excited to help get their town back up and running
after devastation caused by ISIS. Working in a
number of small Nineveh Plain towns, Shlama
provides vocational training for local engineers
and local workers in setting up solar power for
these villages to help meet energy needs.
Shlama is an example of a sea change taking
place at USAID regarding its approach to
partnerships.
“I really want to emphasize the significance
of us working closely with local groups,” said
Ferguson. “The NPI awards we made to six groups
last year, including the Shlama Foundation, are
the first direct awards we have ever made to local
groups in Iraq. USAID has never made a direct
award to a local Iraqi group before. That speaks to
how difficult it is for bona fide local groups to get
in the door. It speaks to how hard we have tried
to overhaul how it is that we are doing our work
there.”
NPI, or New Partnerships Initiative, is USAIDs
The NPI grant to the Shlama Foundation is improving
job opportunities through a vocational solar training
program. Engineers trained by Shlama install solar
power in homes, solar-powered water pumps for farms,
and solar-powered street lighting for small villages in the
Ninewa Plains.
formal program to partner with local groups.
“We have come a long way toward changing
some of the ways we do business when it comes
to assistance,” said Norquist. “We have worked
with faith-based organizations, local organizations
and we shifted a bit from talking to the big guys to
talking to the local communities and local leaders
that can really identify the needs we need to put
assistance into.”
Iraq has become a model for how USAID
operates around the world. In addition to setting
an example of local coordination, the Middle East
Bureau at USAID just launched a new call for NPI
on advancing religious freedom that is live right
now throughout the Middle East, said Norquist.
“The work we were able to do in Iraq has extended
now to ensure we can continue to work with local
communities (elsewhere),” she added.
Security, Still An Issue
Challenges remain. While ISIS was pushed from
the country three years ago, Iranian-backed militias
remain in many Nineveh Plain towns, preying on
returning villagers and operating much like a local
mafia, said Ferguson. He said diplomatic efforts
continue to rein in these militias, which emerged
under Iraqi government auspices to fight ISIS after
the regular Iraqi army was defeated.
PHOTOS COURTESY USAID
According to FOREIGNPOLICY.COM: “Two
Iran-backed paramilitaries are actively obstructing
the return of Assyrians: the 30th Brigade, a militia
comprising primarily members of the Shabak
ethnoreligious group, and the 50th Brigade, a
nominally Christian but predominantly Shiite
Arab militia. Both are closely associated with the
Badr Organization, an Iran-backed Shiite faction,
and Iran. The brigades’ leaders were sanctioned
by the United States last year for corruption and
human rights violations.”
“The people who actually make up these militias
are a sort of hodgepodge of Iraqis from throughout
the country, often from the south,” said Ferguson.
“They’re not residents or native to Northern Iraq.
Sometimes there is the veneer of localness. Some
of the leadership may be Christian, for example.
But they are bad militias led by bad people and
supported by bad outside actors that are a threat to
Iraq’s sovereignty and a threat to Iraq’s citizens and
a threat to us.”
Ferguson said the threat to aid workers and U.S.
diplomats is quite literal, as the U.S. Embassy has
faced recent rocket attacks from these groups.
A New Beginning
Still, there is hope that the Iraqi government can
take control and create a secure environment for
Nineveh residents to return home.
Norquist has seen positive steps from new
Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, including
recent calls for all Christians to come back. She
said many of the communities USAID met with
did not want to be considered “minority” and take
offense, instead viewing themselves as indigenous
or part of the fabric of the country.
Norquist said USAID is working hard to ensure
that Iraqi government continues to regard them
that way and give them equal access to rights and
services. She said USAID is leading by example in
providing access to its aid services.
Covid And Cautious Optimism
Recovery efforts in Iraq significantly slowed due to
the COVID pandemic. Adding to the problem is
Iraq’s status as an international hotspot. Returning
residents had to alter or cancel their travel plans and
some aid workers have contracted the virus.
USAID is doing its part to help stem the
pandemic, pouring $47 million into anti-COVID
efforts in Iraq, part of a $63.7 million total U.S.
commitment to the country.
While cautious optimism prevails, concerns
arise that the virus and other distractions will
eclipse American focus on helping Iraq rebuild.
“The U.S. government’s current focus on
the coronavirus pandemic and reports of troop
withdrawals could augur an era of disengagement
with Iraq. Yet this drawdown could not come at
a more critical juncture for Iraqi Christians, who
face increasing persecution from both Iran-backed
militias and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)
security forces seeking control of the last region in
Iraq where Christians are a plurality: the Nineveh
Plains,” reported FOREIGNPOLICY.COM in
August.
24 CHALDEAN NEWS OCTOBER 2020