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Transforming Lives

Training Helps Graduate Land Job in Iraq

Marwa Ahmed’s normal life ended in 2006 when her father was killed and her family fled to Syria in the midst of the violence that then gripped Iraq. Eventually, she and her three siblings returned to Baghdad.

“I was proud of being Iraqi and just wanted to live peacefully in my own country,” she remembers.

Iraqi Youth Find Employment
At the start of 2010, Iraq had one of the highest rates of unemployment in the Middle East. Thirty percent of its adults lacked jobs. More than half of the country's young urban males were unemployed. At 19 percent, female participation in the workforce was even lower, according to World Bank estimates.
 
USAID helped Ahmad Alsaabari establish a demonstration feedlot to raise sheep and teach farmers new feeding, monitoring and mark

The herders of south-central Iraq have traditionally let their sheep graze on the land. But grass and reeds are scarce and the animals are often small when taken to market. Ahmad Alsaabari, an engineer by training, had read about the success of Western foodlots and recognized the opportunity when the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) proposed founding of a demonstration facility in Babil Province, where lambs are considered among the best in Iraq.

Officials Learn to Embrace Citizenry

Until recently, citizen participation in government decision-making was a rarity in Iraq.  But thanks to a USAID project known as the Local Governance Program – Phase III (LGP III) –  provincial leaders have started to recogni

Beekeeper Ali Hussain Heremish founded this apiary with support from the USAID-funded Community Action Program, which helps Iraq

Ali Hussain Heremish knew the Iraqi buzz about honey.  There was a huge demand for local honey and Iraqis paid a premium for imported honey.

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