Community Action Program
USAID's Iraq Community Action Program's (CAP) overarching objective is to promote grassroots democracy and better local governance via a project process paradigm of demand-driven community development. Working directly through community action groups (CAGs) and in consultation with local government counterparts, CAP is continuing to create representative and participatory community groups.
CAP has five essential features:
- Involvement: Focuses direct citizen involvement in rehabilitation of Iraq.
- Locally Driven: CAGs are created by stimulating people to mobilize into groups for common action. The CAGs represent the range of groups in communities.
- Training: All CAGs received initial training in functional topics like community mobilization, participatory appraisal, democratic meeting methods, and project identification. After CAGs advance, they receive more training on details of needs assessment, project design, proposal preparation, approvals, contracting, record keeping, monitoring, and other aspects of project implementation.
- M and E: Monitoring and evaluation by CAP implementers of each project ensures accountability and gauges effectiveness. Most of the on-ground monitoring is conducted by Iraqis to ensure comprehensive oversight.
- Sustainability: Increasing levels of responsibility and authority delegation to local CAGs, so that the CAG becomes more Iraqi-driven and sustainable.
It is the process of a CAG's becoming an effective participant in local development that is CAP's primary concern. CAP projects are the artifacts of a CAG's ability to work in a democratic fashion internally and with local government to satisfy an identified community need.
- CAGs are responsible for identifying and approving the types of projects they wish to undertake.
- Communities are required to contribute between 15 and 25 percent of the value of each project. This contribution is often in the form of labor, in-kind materials, or other provisions.
- Throughout the process, the CAGs oversee project implementation and must certify that all projects have been successfully completed before final payment is authorized.
CAP directly engages Iraqis in reconstructing their own communities, while building a nationwide grassroots constituency for democracy. Since June 2003, USAID has committed over $271 million to 6,000 CAP projects while Iraqi communities have contributed more than $74 million. Through this funding, 1,457 CAGs have been mobilized in all 18 governorates. The CAP program created more than 2.7 million days of employment and 34,000 long-term jobs (43 percent of these jobs have gone to women).
Beneficiaries spanned virtually all religions and ethnicities, with many projects specifically targeted to groups like youth, civilian war victims, the disabled, and women - all regardless of religious, ethnic, or other affiliation.
The program ensures that all community stakeholders-particularly women, children, youth, the elderly and those with special needs-are active participants in the process from start to finish. To date, USAID has provided nearly $258 million to achieve the following goals:
- Democracy Building at the Grassroots Level
- Restoration of Basic Services
- Economic Stabilization & Youth Employment
- Conflict Resolution & Reconciliation
The CAP projects encourage communities to organize and elect inclusive and representative neighborhood councils. The councils then lead their members through a transparent and democratic process:
- prioritizing community needs;
- identifying projects to be undertaken; and
- making transparent decisions on the completion and monitoring of the projects.
1. Democracy Building at the Grassroots Level
The program's process gives Iraqi citizens-from religious and tribal leaders, to members of the business community, to ordinary community members-the opportunity to practice first hand the fundamentals of democracy by planning and implementing their own projects.
Sample Success: In addition to the large number of CAGs that have been created, there are other signs that democracy is taking hold and in some cases spreading beyond the community level:
- Community groups created under CAP have been responsible for supporting the formation of new nongovernmental organizations that serve all of Iraq.
- In Baghdad, a community group set up the first NGO that serves people with disabilities nationwide.
- Many former CAG members have gone on to become elected officials in the government.
2. Restoration of Basic Services
The CAP program has restored basic services to communities throughout Iraq by mobilizing them to identify and manage reconstruction works needed in their neighborhood.
Sample Success: Women and newborns were dying during childbirth at an alarming rate in Nahia Al-Abassiya. Due to poor security and the lack of proper roads, most women were unable to travel to the closest hospital 15 kilometers away. The Community Association Group decided to convert a dilapidated building into a birthing clinic, generating US$6,500 in matching contributions while creating a clean, safe, and permanent clinic for pregnant women that will save the lives of thousands of mothers and babies.
3. Economic Stabilization and Youth Employment
The CAP program is making a significant contribution towards creating a lasting peace by stabilizing local economies through:
- temporary employment generated by the construction works
- permanent employment generated by the new development projects
- contracting exclusively with local Iraqi firms, an investment in expanding the local economy
- creating an active local construction industry and related economic opportunities.
Sample Success: In an effort to create economic opportunities for young people, CAP has launched a partnership with the Junior Achievement program, which:
- identifies local Iraqi business volunteers to train youth aged 16-22 in organizing and operating an actual business enterprise.
- engages youth in productive activities in the emerging economy.
4. Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation
The CAP program is assisting communities to learn several methodologies which resolve long-standing conflicts which have historically existed in many communities due to divisions among tribal and ethnic lines and the competition for scarce resources. The CAP program has trained community groups and their members in methods of peacefully bringing the parties together and finding solutions that are mutually beneficial to all concerned parties.
The CAP program has invested in training several different layers of democratic stakeholders in community organizing and project development skills, while senior provincial and local community leaders have received internationally recognized training in conflict management and essential negotiation skills.
Marla Ruzicka Iraq War Victims Fund CAP partners received additional funding to assist civilian victims of armed conflict. The Marla Ruzicka Iraq War Victims Fund ensures that victims of conflict are specifically highlighted for funds to provide relief from severe suffering caused by conflict.
The level of funding for the Victims Assistance Fund varies across Iraq as civilians in some areas of Iraq have been more affected by military operations than populations in other parts of the country (ACDI/VOCA $5.8 million; CHF $6.175 million, Save the Children $3.3 million, Mercy Corps $6.375 million and IRD $8.3 million). The Victims Assistance Fund:
- Uses CAGs to determine the most appropriate means to best meet victims' needs in their communities. The CAGs understand how to meet victims' needs, and whether projects to address these needs should be at the individual level, the family level, and/or to provide assistance to victims as members of a broader community.
- Establishes small businesses for victims or their families. These businesses provide much-needed family income, one or two full-time jobs, and give families a small economic base to help them overcome their loss.
- Funded 1,311 projects (to date), directly assisting nearly 2 million war victims and their family members.
More Information:
Success Story: Literacy Campaign Empowers Iraqi Women, Engages Local Communities - 04/07
Success Story: Radio Gives Women a Voice - 03/06
Success Story: Making Jobs for the Jobless - 03/06
Success Story: Sewing Shop Provides Jobs and Hope - 03/06
Success Story: Entrepreneur Tastes Sweet Success - 03/06
Success Story: War Victim Becomes Entrepreneur - 03/06
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