Quote:
1. Improving Primary Health Care: USAID is helping strengthen essential primary health care services throughout Iraq.
- In 2005 alone, USAID-supported emergency campaigns immunized 98 percent of Iraqi children between 1-5 years old (3.62 million) against measles, mumps, and rubella
- Also in 2005, USAID immunized 97 percent of Iraqi children under five (4.56 million) against polio.
- In all, USAID partners have trained more than 2,500 primary health care workers to expand access to essential primary health care services.
2. Expanding Access to Electricity: In 2002, Baghdad had access to electricity 24 hours a day; the rest of Iraq was limited to 3-6 hours.
- Currently, all 18 governorates receive nearly 14 hours of electricity daily, an incredible improvement for a country emerging from decades of conflict and little investment.
- USAID efforts have added 1,400 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity to the national electrical grid, expanding access to 4.2 million Iraqis throughout most of Iraq.
3. Providing Potable Water: Many parts of Iraq had no access to or provision of clean potable water. Indeed many of Iraq's waterways were contaminated with refuse and sewage.
- Over 4 million Iraqis who had no clean drinking water in 2002 now have safe, potable water piped to their homes following USAID efforts to refurbish water treatment plants in 15 cities.
- USAID is also providing plant-level operations and maintenance (O&M) training at major water and wastewater plants nationwide to ensure that these plants remain functioning.
4. Restoring Sewage Systems: Before 2003, Iraq's cities suffered from inadequate sewage systems; backed up sewage created pools in neighborhoods or emptied directly into nearby rivers.
- Today, USAID's rehabilitated sewage treatment plants throughout Iraq process a total of 339.7 million gallons daily.
- These plants alone provide 7.2 million urban Iraqis - over a quarter of the national population - access to functioning, waterborne sewage, greatly improving sanitation and contributing to a decrease in waterborne disease.
5. Improving Local Governance and Community Development: Iraqi democracy must prove itself through service delivery and community-based solutions to local problems.
- With USAID assistance, representative provincial and municipal governments are more capable of delivering essential services to their constituents.
- Countrywide, more than 670 community action groups focused on civic education, women's advocacy, and anti-corruption have been supported by USAID.
- Working through local NGOs, USAID has implemented 4,672 quick impact projects throughout Iraq, providing short-term employment and restoration of basic services.
6. Connecting Iraq to the Global Economy: The private sector is the engine for sustainable job creation and economic growth. To help guide policy reform, USAID's Investor Roadmap analyzes constraints to investment.
- Iraq's Investment Promotion Agency was recently established with USAID assistance, and will serve as a resource to international investors.
- USAID worked with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to develop a Competitiveness Study, helping integrate efforts to create a robust private sector that fosters job creation.
- USAID programs assist Iraq's MoF, Central Organization for Statistics and Information Technology (COSIT), and Iraq's Central Bank in meeting their International Monetary Fund (IMF) requirements. This $19 million technical assistance effort is expected to return to Iraq $480 million in the IMF Standby Agreement by December 2005 as well as debt forgiveness of $27 billion from the Paris Club by March 2006.
- Working with the MoF, USAID introduced the new dinar currency to promote national unity and a sound functioning monetary policy. Currently, 4.62 trillon new Iraqi dinars are in circulation in Iraq.
7. Expanding Political Inclusion and Expression: USAID assistance has helped prepare Iraq for two national elections, numerous provincial and municipal elections, and the Constitutional Referendum of October 15.
- In preparation for the January 2005 election, USAID helped the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) establish a voter registration system, and worked with the UN on improving balloting procedures.
- USAID-supported NGOs distributed election materials, helped televise debates, and led over 22,000 town meetings to educate Iraqi voters.
- USAID and a local NGO trained over 8,000 election monitors.
- Current efforts are preparing 15,000 elections monitors for the December 15, 2005 elections.
8. Supporting the New Iraqi Constitution: The January 2005 Interim Government election put into place a National Assembly to frame a constitution emphasizing democracy and the rule of law.
- USAID partners provided constitutional specialists to the Drafting Committee while input from over 111,000 national surveys kept the Committee in touch with national sentiment.
- The Iraqi Women's National Coalition, supported by USAID, developed a 10-point statement adopted in the constitution.
- A USAID-supported NGO televised debates and distributed information. Nearly 9,500 monitors, trained by USAID partners, helped ensure a successful constitutional referendum.
9. Transforming Primary Education: USAID assistance has helped Iraq move away from rote learning methodology in decrepit, unsanitary classrooms to interactive learning in rehabilitated buildings.
- Since 2003, USAID has rehabilitated nearly 3,000 schools.
- Over 20 million new textbooks have been supplied by USAID (8.6 million) and UNESCO (12 million).
- By 2006, more than 133,000 primary school teachers - a third of Iraq's educators in all - will have received training and technical assistance. Already, the most recent primary school enrollment numbers show a 19 percent increase from pre-war levels.
10. Restoring Excellence in Higher Education: The USAID Higher Education and Development (HEAD) Program brings together five American and 10 Iraqi universities to help reestablish academic excellence in Iraq's higher education system.
- Since January 2004, more than 1,500 Iraqi faculty and students have participated in workshops, trainings, conferences, and courses in Iraq, the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
- University facilities -libraries, computer and science laboratories, lecture halls, and buildings - have been rehabilitated at colleges throughout the country.
- A mini-grant program supports new, innovative research throughout the country. In addition, books and electronic resources have been provided to university libraries.
