April 30, 2008

ACDI/VOCA Participates in Iraq Conference

Two ACDI/VOCA HQ staff members, Sally Iadarola and Daniel Wortman, traveled to Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, to attend the April 9-11 Iraqi Community Action Program (CAP) National Conference. Hugh Brown, Melinda Witter and Dr. Suzanne Saulniers of our field office also participated in the conference, along with 7 Iraqi staff members and 33 citizens from assisted communities, including 7 mayors.

Over 200 participants in the two-year CAP project from all regions of Iraq, including local government officials, community action group members, USAID officials and representatives of the partner implementing agencies, CHF, ACDI/VOCA, IRD and Mercy Corps, attended the conference at the Erbil International Hotel. The goal was to share best practices in order to strengthen cooperation and improve project operation.

The CAP project is distinguished by its organization and support of community groups to facilitate cross-community dialogue. The resulting collaboration helps build a stable and prosperous society. At the conference, removed from the daily hubbub but amid tight security, participants had the chance to gain a perspective on all that had been accomplished, what remains to be done, and how to do it.

Topics included relationship building, advocacy, gender mainstreaming and equity, conflict transformation and reconciliation, youth development and leadership, and social capital.

The conference also covered the operation of the Marla Ruzicka Iraqi War Victims Fund, which is implemented through CAP. Marla Ruzicka's family attended the conference as a show of support. The Marla Fund helps Iraqi war victims reclaim their lives after losing their homes, livelihoods and loved ones as a result of coalition forces' operations. It also builds civil society through small-business grants, vocational training, education for orphans, new homes for displaced families, and medical care for the injured.

The conference’s closing remarks were delivered by Ambassador Lewis Lucke, who served from 2002-2004 as the first USAID mission director in Iraq, where he managed a $4 billion reconstruction program, the largest USAID-financed reconstruction program ever and the largest such U.S. program since the Marshall Plan. He said that the project puts the decision-making responsibility and the ownership of the activities into the hands of the Iraqi people.

Ms. Iadarola, managing director of ACDI/VOCA's Emerging from Conflict portfolio, commented, "Iraq's ongoing problems notwithstanding, there is much to be proud of in the way this project has brought people together across religious, sect, gender and other barriers to address their common interests. Their pride in learning to work together and getting things done was evident, as was their desire to get better at it."

For more information on ACDI/VOCA’s work in Iraq, click here.