UNDP Iraq’s Peer-to-Peer project serves as a link between local authorities from Iraq and their European counterparts to cooperate and share their experience in a selected area of collaboration. In the case of Slovenia, the Association of Municipalities and Towns with its consortium partners is working simultaneously with two Iraqi Governorates, Basra and Anbar, on two different fronts, namely employment and agriculture.

Basra has grappled with unemployment for a long time, mainly because of its socio-economic climate, as well as its economy’s heavy reliance on the oil sector.

The second biggest city in Iraq is home to the largest oil fields in the country and the largest national oil company, yet the oil sector fails to cope with the employment demand of the local population. The city is in urgent need of intervention and long-term sustainable solutions in order to support its youth to integrate in the work force.

The Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia, from a country with a unemployment rate of 7-9%, is working together with the Governorate of Basra to provide the needed knowledge from its experience in the employment field. This particular area of cooperation was chosen by the Iraqi governorate.

The exchange of experiences and strategies between the Peers will result in tangible action for the local community. The representatives of Basra Governorate found that there is great potential in the region to establish a business incubator to promote youth employment, which will host a user-friendly online employment platform accessible to Basrawi job seekers and employers. Direct financial grants to the local population will be provided through local competitions as seed money to develop and finance their own project.

Both initiatives will strongly encourage the participation of women.  

Representatives of Basra governorate, experts and mayors from Slovenia met in person in Erbil over a four-day workshop to explore ways of establishing a business incubator in their community, discuss and design the first steps of an action plan to implement the incubator and the online platform in Basra, and simulate the Financial Participatory Approach (FPA), a method of decentralized decision making, that would practically be financial support to local citizens with the best project ideas, chosen in an open contest.

The Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia and its consortium partners is also collaborating with the Governorate of Anbar in the field of agriculture.

The Iraqi province has suffered heavily from consequences of war, most recently with the occupation of ISIL which led to the destruction of critical infrastructure, displacement of more than six million people and an economic downturn.

The region that was once exceptionally fertile and had sufficient water supply from Euphrates and surrounding lakes, today suffers from ongoing droughts and a decline in agricultural production. Prior to the war, this field employed most of the governorate’s population, especially women, over 40 percent of whom were employed in agriculture.

The province needs new approaches in appropriate agricultural management. This is where the Slovenian peer comes in. The European side’s role is to offer best practice examples, offer help with adapting them to the local context and implementing a viable model in Al Anbar, involving citizens in decision-making.

An example would be the establishment of a cooperative of farmers, owned by individual farmers. An initiative that can grow its competences and steer future of agriculture in Al Anbar, providing quality local food at fair price to the local population, addressing common challenges.

The Peer-To-Peer project is aimed at the development of projects, services and the betterment of Iraqi livelihoods. This initiative is implemented under the programme Supporting Recovery and Stability in Iraq through Local Development, funded by the EU and implemented by UNDP Iraq.