August, 2010
Obama to Address U.S. on Iraq Aid

President Obama is scheduled to deliver his second prime-time Oval Office speech Tuesday, Aug. 31, to mark the United States' transition to a role of assisting the Iraqi government.

MSI has trained more than 100,000 Iraqi government officials and specialists in the Ministries of Health, Electricity, Education, Water, Agriculture, Planning and Development, Oil, and Public Works. With USAID funding, MSI's project, Tatweer, or development in Arabic has been working on the ground in Iraq for four and a half years.

The project has assisted Iraqi government staff in establishing management procedures, planning and evaluation, and training to ensure that Iraqis conduct future trainings for others. As many specialists left Iraq for security reasons, Tatweer’s training and scholarship programs to international universities are helping to re-establish highly educated experts in each field.

White House officials said that Obama's speech would acknowledge the sacrifices of those who had served in Iraq since the start of the war 2003, as well as call on Iraqis to take responsibility for their country's security.

The estimated 20-minute speech is scheduled to start at 8 p.m.

August, 2010
U.S. Government Hosts Conference on Improving Southern Sudan’s Agriculture

USAID and the Office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan partnered with the autonomous Southern Sudan government to host a conference Aug. 24-25 in Nairobi, Kenya, on challenges and priorities for revitalizing Southern Sudan’s agriculture. MSI was instrumental in organizing the event and bringing together various officials to participate.

The conference, coordinated by MSI for USAID and its co-sponsors, honored the late Southern Sudan Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Samson Lokare Kwaje. It brought together government and private sector stakeholders to discuss agriculture economic and policy solutions, and prior to an independence referendum season for the country.

“You can’t move forward when you don’t know what the future is. [The issue of] land ownership will be critical. Agricultural investment is inhibited by land ownership issues across the region,” said investor and conferee Howard G. Buffet. Farmers need “an enabling environment for entrepreneurship. How many days does it take to set up a business?”

Continuing his legacy, conference participants examined short- and long-term objectives to significantly increase agricultural production in Southern Sudan, which was devastated by Sudan’s 22-year civil war that ended in 2005.

Poor transport, limited storage capacity and processing facilities, and a poor investment climate have hindered agricultural development despite enormous potential. Most farmers produce for subsistence rather than profit as a result, while consumers suffer from high prices, many of which are imported from neighboring countries.

USAID and Southern Sudan launched a new five-year Food, Agribusiness and Rural Markets (FARM) program in May. This conference encouraged stakeholders to increase investment and partnerships to support agriculture in Southern Sudan.

August, 2010
TATWEER Trains 100,000 Iraqi Professionals

MSI’s four-year Iraq project, TATWEER, “development” in Arabic, passed a milestone with 100,000 Iraqi training enrollments completed on Aug. 16, more than 30 percent of whom were women in health care.

One woman, a doctor trained under TATWEER, said the training project meets an Iraqi need to reform the existing teaching methods.

“Development is like a heart. TATWEER project is like the arteries which supplied this heart with power and energy,” said Dr. Raghdaa Dhiaa, the Iraq Ministry of Health’s primary health care training department director. “TATWEER developed the capacities of [ministry] employees. There is a need to continue the work with such projects to improve and invest all the capabilities and reform our systems.”

The project’s model is demand-driven training, meeting local Iraqi needs and adapting as it progresses. The goal has been to create permanent Iraqi capability to assess, develop and implement training.

They trained in large numbers “because Iraq needs it. We rely on local staff – because they can do it. We train to international standards – because Iraq deserves it.” said Andy Griminger, MSI’s technical director on TATWEER. “Where we needed to, we improvised but without sacrificing quality. Where ministries accepted us, we rushed in, and were patient with those that did not. It is the environment in which we created ways to achieve this success that marks TATWEER as a historic project.”

Iraqi staff and American expatriates involved in the establishment of the project in its initial stages said they recall the challenges in developing a training program for health officials. Training rooms were being bombed, no one could cross checkpoints and it took two hours by taxi to cross Baghdad.

Another challenge was making an impact with the training while media reports worldwide said the Iraqi government suffered a catastrophic loss of highly skilled and educated employees as they fled to neighboring Amman, Jordan, and Damascus, Syria.

The response was hard work, commitment and unrelenting drive, trainers said.

“The 100,000 number is by itself a very impressive accomplishment,” Griminger said. “Few USAID projects can claim to have reached such a mark. However, I am fairly sure none of them have done so in the way we have. That is the real inspiration that we can draw from this success, and that we can offer to other projects around the world.”

August, 2010
Morocco: Training 200 Organizations to Aid Minorities

In a recent Le Soir article appearing in Morocco, MSI’s Strengthening Advocacy and Networking to Advance Democracy (SANAD) project was featured. The project supports civil society organizations to promote public dialogue, more effective communication and advocacy.

SANAD intervenes in five main areas, according to Chief of Party Vincent Carbonneau. The project strengthens public dialogue by encouraging target organizations to identify problems and develop programs. It also brings web-based communications technology to organizations and works on youth, local governance and educational issues.

In its first year, SANAD supported 200 organizations through trainings and grants. The project also created a youth platform that brought together 400 organizations and supported a local governance partnership. Local staff also worked with the Ministry of Education, parents associations, school officials and student tutors on education initiatives.

For the coming year on the project, SANAD team members will help 60 educational organizations develop capacity in advocacy and dialogue. In the cities of Fès and Salé, 200 students will produce podcasts on educational issues and hold a forum to share ideas on these issues.

Visit MSI Morocco for additional information on SANAD.