Official highlights accomplishments in Iraq's reconstruction, economy, job growth

Assistant Administrator for Asia and the Near East James R. Kunder spoke before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations on June 8. Kunder discussed the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) accomplishments in Iraq's reconstruction.

Since March 2003, USAID has been allocated approximately $5.1 billion in Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Funds (IRRF). Of this amount, $4 billion has been disbursed. USAID expects to disburse most of the remaining funds by this summer, Kunder said.

Iraqi Involvement

Kunder noted that Iraqis "are actively involved in the reconstruction process."

The Administration aims to harness Iraq's economic potential to create jobs and other opportunities for Iraqis.

Kunder emphasized the importance of Iraqi civilian institutions, adding that the U.S. and international civilian effort aids security by:

strengthening Iraq's capacity at the local and national level to govern and provide essential services to Iraqi citizens;

supporting Iraq's economic and social stabilization programs to minimize local support for the insurgency and foster support for the GOI;

assisting the public sector's sustainable economic development by creating an environment that will allow the private sector to flourish, providing the private sector with the resources for the economic growth necessary for job creation.


Iraqi Economy

USAID worked with the Treasury Department to provide assistance to the Central Bank of Iraq that helped stabilize the dinar, prevented hyperinflation and enabled Iraq to qualify for International Monetary Fund (IMF) lending and Paris Club debt rescheduling, Kunder stated.

USAID's assistance to the Ministry of Finance, through the design and placement of a Financial Management Information System (FMIS) at 53 centers countrywide, is providing the GOI with the ability to track its budget and expenses.

Increased statistical gathering and analysis provided by the new Government Public Distribution System is enabling USAID to provide assistance to the Iraqis in the most need, according to Kunder.

Electricity

USAID is working with the Project Contracting Office (PCO) to facilitate infrastructure repairs that are addressing gaps in power and water delivery.

To date, USAID projects have added 1,292 MW of new or rehabilitated generation capacity to the national grid. This is a portion of the over 2,700 MWs of new or rehabilitated capacity added in total by the USG. USAID partners provided operation and maintenance programs that will safeguard the investment of U.S. assistance, Kunder stated.

Telecommunications

USAID has installed 12 domestic switches and one international switch; installed a satellite gateway system and restored international calling service; and completed the installation of a consolidated fiber optic network which connects electricity and communications sectors and will allow Ministry of Electricity officials to monitor and control the electrical grid from three central locations, greatly improving the reliability of electric power service to Iraqis, according to Kunder.

Water and Sanitation

USAID has refurbished or expanded 19 water treatment plants in five cities in Iraq, increasing the supply of potable water from USAID projects to over 2.3 million Iraqis. USAID has also provided sewage treatment to over 5.1 million people.

"We have also been providing plant-level operations and maintenance support at major potable water and sewage treatment plants nationwide to ensure that these plants continue to function," Kunder said.

In addition, USAID's rural water program is installing over 70 small water treatment systems in rural communities of less than 5,000 people throughout Iraq. The rural water program will help to supply clean water to almost 500,000 villagers each day, Kunder added.

Agriculture

USAID is helping to build "a long-term sustainable economy" through agricultural assistance programs.

"USAID's Agriculture Reconstruction and Development Program for Iraq (ARDI) is generating real jobs that sustain livelihoods - up to 28,000 jobs per day, according to employment records in 2006," Kunder said.

The program is managed by a small core of expatriate technical advisers and a larger team of 250 to 300 Iraqis through five offices across the country with less than eight percent of project funds going toward security.

"Thanks to canal and water infrastructure improvements made possible by small-scale grants, 445,000 Iraqi farmers now have improved efficiency of irrigation or access to water on 320,000 acres of farmland."

Kunder added that ARDI has also established date palm nurseries in 13 governorates that will expand the true to type palm tree population by 410,000 new trees a year.

Throughout Iraq, ARDI planted 9,000 olive trees in 16 demonstration plots, "which will produce high value oil."

Iraqi Employment

"One of USAID's most valuable resources in ensuring program effectiveness and accountability are Iraqis themselves," Kunder said.

USAID has 107 Iraqi national staff in its Mission in Baghdad and through its implementing partners, an extensive network of Iraqi organizations that are critical to the design and implementation of USAID's projects, according to Kunder.

USAID and its implementing partners currently employ thousands of Iraqis in professional career positions.

Health and Education

USAID's education and health projects have partnered with the United Nations (UN) to improve education and health care for future generations through improving the quality of teaching and the learning environment for schoolchildren.

Additionally, the projects have been working to improve the capacity of the Ministry of Health to provide vaccinations against infectious diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella and polio, Kunder said.
http://www.portaliraq.com/news/Official+highlights+accomplishments+in+Iraq's+reco nstruction,+economy,+job+growth__1112013.html

Just a lil' silver lining...............:thumbsup:

We ARE doing some good there. Still, the odds that you'll be blown to bits when buying oranges at the local market are way too high. How to stop all the bombings though, is the question. Saddam did it by cracking down, hard, on any unrest, then throwing the bodies in pits and bulldozing over them. Brutal it may have been, but it was also fairly effective, and clearly more effective than what we've been doing. How ironic it could end up being, should we discover that the only way to have peace in Iraq is to become brutal tyrants, or at least facilitate the Iraqis brutalizing their own people to quiet unrest. Implausible? Not at all; we're almost there now.

Fairly effective yes but was it really fair? When 20% of the population kept 80% in poverty and fear this made for a good change. The fact that the 80% that were in that position are now including the 20% in top government positions is a big plus.

Look at post WW2 Germany with the SS insurgents. Also, look at the U.S. after the civil war and the insurgency that we experienced there.

It's always stated that this insurgency is aimed at the U.S. and the others from the coallition forces.....why is it then that the car bombs are aimed primarily at Iraqi's in shopping areas or their police/armed forces? The people are more and more turning in these folks. Then there's Al-Quada....middle eastern people not from Iraq killing Iraqi's...fellow Muslims!

So far people have said that there is no way that the Kurds/Shi-ites/Sunnis would EVER agree on a national constitution....they did it. They said that a unity government could never be formed with these three factions...they did it. They'll get by the insugency also....the same way that we and the Germans did. Remember this also, the main insurgency is Sunni groups.....their blowing up their bombs in heavily populated Sunni areas. This will eventually come to a halt also.

Have a good one!:thumbsup:

I'm not saying that we won't ultimately prevail and I'm not saying that they won't end up with a nice peaceful democracy (right next door to Syria and Iran even!). Just saying how ironic it would be if we DID find out that the only peace that's possible there is that achieved only when enough of the population is looking down the barrel of a gun, because the guy we deposed would've told us that, for a lot less money than a trillion dollars.