May 2004
A YEAR IN
U.S. Agency for International Development
Restoring
Services
Reopening
Schools
Building
Democracy
Vaccinating
Children

“
Today, as Iraqis join the free
people of the world, we mark
a turning point for the Middle
East and a crucial time for
human liberty... Whatever
their past views, every nation
now has an interest in a
free, successful, stable Iraq.”
President George W. Bush
March 19, 2004
This brochure provides a summary of reconstruction and humanitarian activities undertaken within Iraq by the U.S. Agency for International Development
and its partners including the Coalition Provisional Authority from March, 2003 through March, 2004. Other reconstruction activities were also undertaken
by the Coalition Provisional Authority, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Defense, and bilateral and multilateral organizations.

Thomas Hartwell
A Ye a r i n I r a q
I n f r a s t r u c t u r e
Powering Up
Iraqi workers repair
a boiler at Baghdad’s
Al-Doura power
plant. Neglected for
years, like most of
Iraq’s power plants,
factories, hospitals
and water systems,
Al-Doura finally
get badly-needed
maintenance. Skilled
Iraqi workers across
the country jerry-
rigged obsolete
equipment to coax
plants back to life.
Page 5
Relief and Reconstruction: The biggest
U.S. foreign aid program since the Marshall
Plan after World War II challenged USAID
Iraq teams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Quick Action: Disaster Assistance
Response Team brought in food, water,
shelter and medicine to avert a
humanitarian crisis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Small Grants: Transition teams quickly
repaired schools and clinics; and funded
human rights teams to prevent ethnic and
land conflicts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
S o c i e t y
E s s e n t i a l S e r v i c e s
H u m a n R i g h t s
Rebuilding Iraq’s Health System:
After years of neglect, Iraqi contractors are
hired to fix clinics and hospitals. . . . . . 14
Opening Schools:
Despite conflict, final
exams for 2003 are
held and new school
year begins on
schedule in October
—with millions of
new textbooks. . . 16
Ec o n o my
American Islamic Congress
Building Democracy: Iraqi councils are
beginning to run local projects and learn
how to govern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Community Action: U.S. funded NGOs
helped local groups organize to tackle
projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Front Cover: An Iraqi girl waits
to receive food and water at a
humanitarian aid distribution site.
Photo: Photographer’s Mate 1st Class
Arlo K. Abrahamson, U.S. Navy
Financial Reform: Soviet model economy
begins to reform with new currency, training,
private markets and micro loans. . . . . . .18
Canals and Date Palms: Agricultural
assistance cleans silt from canals and
improves date palm stock . . . . . . . . . . 19
Reviving Marshes:
Life returns as dams
open and thousands
of acres of marshlands
are covered by water.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Mass Graves:
Grieving Iraqis unearth hundreds of
thousands of victims in mass graves and
U.S. helps them to record and manage the
grave sites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Negroponte Pledges: Named by
President Bush as ambassador to Iraq, John
Negroponte vows U.S. help in Iraq’s
reconstruction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Map of Iraq Projects: U.S.-supported
reconstruction and other aid projects have
taken place all across Iraq. . . . . . . . . . 24
Top Ten: The 10 principal reconstruction
tasks completed with U.S. assistance in the
year since the old regime ended Back Cover

2
T h e C h a l l e n g e
One Year of Relief and Reconstruction
$3.3 billion in U.S. aid fixed
schools, vaccinated millions
of children, restored
electricity and created Iraq’s
first democratic councils.
Caitlin Hayden/Dept. of State
aid delivered to Iraq during the 12
months since the fall of Saddam Hus-
The emergency relief and reconstruction
sein in April, 2003, was the biggest
U.S. foreign aid program since the
Marshall Plan, delivering $3.3 billion in help
to Iraq’s people.
This text explains how the U.S. Agency
for International Development (USAID) and
the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)
have supported Iraq’s recovery from three
decades of tyranny and mass murder.
Advance members of USAID’s disaster
teams reached Iraq in the spring of 2003 even
before fighting died down. They found much
less war damage than feared. The 62-member
Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART),
one of the largest ever fielded, found little
damage to housing or roads, limited civilian
casualties and no widespread hunger or dis-
ease. The rapid collapse of Saddam Hussein’s
army and modern precision-guided weapons
limited most war damage to military, police
and Ba’ath Party targets.
Within a few weeks after the fighting end-
ed, life began returning to its normal patterns.
But another pattern soon became evident: the
neglect that characterized Saddam Hussein’s
rule had permeated every aspect of Iraqi life.
Although Iraqis had among the highest levels
of education and medical care in the Arab
world before Saddam Hussein began his wars,
Iraq’s oil wealth had been diverted to palaces
and to the huge military he used to attack his
neighbors and intimidate his people.
Meanwhile, the country’s 1,000-year-old
canals filled with silt, and sunken ships
choked the country’s only deep water port at
Umm Qasr. Sewage plants poured raw filth
into rivers, schools crumbled, foul water
spread disease, women’s literacy fell, and
child mortality approached levels seen only in
sub-Saharan Africa, especially in southern ar-
eas populated by Shiite Muslims.
Reconstruction after conflict or natural
disasters is one of USAID’s principal jobs. We
helped rebuild Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo,
Afghanistan, East Timor and Mozambique.
After Hurricane Mitch in 1998, we helped re-
build Honduras and El Salvador. In Sudan,
Colombia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Nepal
and the West Bank/Gaza, we supply aid even
as conflict remains a problem.
Secretary of State Colin Powell
consoles mourners at a mass grave
site in Halabja in September, 2003.
“Real progress is being made on the
ground that gives Iraqis hope that
life will get steadily better. Electrical
generation capacity already exceeds
pre-war levels. Working with our
Iraqi partners and other volunteers
from the international community,
we have repaired more than 1,700
critical breaks in Iraq’s aging water
network... We have renovated
more than 1,500 schools. We have
distributed 22 million vaccines to
Iraqi children and pregnant women.”
Secretary of State Colin Powell
November 4, 2003
it was mainly people under 30 who accepted
democracy. That’s why mass media and edu-
cation are vital and why one of our first pri-
orities in Iraq was to repair more than 2,000
schools, help students complete annual ex-
ams and reopen schools on time for the 2003-
2004 school year.
All our efforts also aimed at bridging the
ethnic division that has been used to divide
the Iraqis. The Kurds, Marsh Arabs and Shi-
ites—about three-quarters of the country’s 25
million people—had been cut off from politi-
cal power and from much of the country’s
economic and social benefits. Our goal was to
help bring all the peoples of Iraq together, in-
cluding the Sunnis and the ancient Christian
community, and create a new national identi-
ty. We also began to end government abuse
and corruption.
As we worked to rebuild power plants,
schools, health clinics and water plants, a
complex insurgency made delivery of aid dif-
ficult, costly and dangerous. But many coura-
geous, skilled staff, NGO partners, and con-
tractors worked with equally courageous and
Need for democracy
Under Saddam, Iraqis had no experience with
democracy, no control over public services
and saw the government as a predator. They
lived in fear of the knock on the door at night,
prison, torture, and mass murder.
As Saddam’s forces fled, Iraqis dug up
mass graves in search of their loved ones who
had vanished in the terror. Between 300,000
and 400,000 are said to lie in those graves—
rivaling the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and
the killing fields of Cambodia under Pol Pot.
USAID grants helped Iraqi human rights
groups record the names of the victims and
the circumstances in which they were slain.
Coming to grips with the mass graves will
help people recover from their trauma.
A February 2004 poll by Oxford Research
International reported that 70 percent of Iraqis
say their lives are now “good” while only 19
percent say their lives are “bad.” Seventy one
percent also said they expect things to im-
prove in the future while only seven percent
said things would get worse.
In Germany and Japan after World War II,
The Free Atlas, carrying
food for 2.3 million people,
unloads in Aqaba, Jordan.
It was the first shipment of
U.S. emergency food for Iraq.

capable Iraqis in rebuilding the country.
In Fallujah and the Sadr City area of
Baghdad, for example, we hired thousands of
Iraqis and worked with moderate clerics to
clean up garbage and to fix water, education,
power and other services. All over Iraq we
helped Iraqis form local councils to decide for
themselves which projects to support—
schools, roads, markets or other programs.
In Al-Hillah, Karbala and Baghdad, our
staff and contractors opened women’s centers
providing literacy training, business skills and
a place to organize against violence directed
at women. Two former USAID contract work-
ers working for the CPA, Fern Holland and her
Iraqi translator Salwa Ali Oumashi, paid the
ultimate price when they were slain as they
drove from one of the women’s centers they
had helped set up in Karbala.
In the giant marsh areas of southeastern
Iraq, Saddam deliberately drained the water
and destroyed a way of life 5,000 years old,
driving out hundreds of thousands of people
to punish them for suspected disloyalty. We
worked with Iraqi engineers, scientists and
3
other donor governments to begin restoring
the water, rising inches per day to cover the
desert wasteland and thorny plants Saddam
had left behind. Driving along the roads in the
marshlands, one could soon see the return of
the water buffaloes, aquatic birds, and the
proud fishermen in their slim wooden boats.
It is ironic that in the very cradle of civi-
lization—the place where Hammurabi’s Code
in 1,780 BC gave some of the earliest official
rights to individuals—we have come to help
our Iraqi colleagues restore some of those an-
cient rights. And we are committed to remain
in Iraq in the coming year as sovereignty is
transferred to a new Iraqi government, to as-
sist the capable and willing people of that
country as they endeavor to create an open,
accountable system of government.
“Thanks to early,prudent,and
thorough contingency planning,the
pre-positioning of emergency
supplies,and careful coordination
with U.S.and international
humanitarian organizations,the
humanitarian crisis in Iraq that many
had predicted was avoided.”
USAID Administrator Andrew S.Natsios,
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, June 4, 2004
USAID Administrator Andrew
S.Natsios greets Iraqi children
during his June, 2003 visit.
Basil Shahin/Dept.of State
Marsh Arab boatmen
A mosque in
Sulaymaniyah in
northern Iraq
Ben Barber/USAID

4
E m e r g e n c y R e s p o n s e
DART Took Quick Action
The Disaster Assistance
Response Team made sure
food, water and medicine
were available and helped
avert a humanitarian crisis.
planning for possible operations in Iraq.
President Bush asked USAID to take re-
In late 2002, the U.S. Government began
sponsibility for humanitarian affairs and
created an inter-Agency Disaster Assis-
tance Response Team to assess the humani-
tarian situation and coordinate relief. USAID
technical staff and USAID technical staff went
to Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Cyprus to pre-
pare for post-conflict reconstruction.
To ensure basic food supplies for Iraq’s 25
million people, the Agency’s Food for Peace
office made a grant to the U.N. World Food
Program for the largest humanitarian relief
project in WFP history. But first that meant
fixing ports and airports so that supplies and
humanitarian assistance could be landed.
The DART got the first look at Iraq’s neg-
lected hospitals and basic infrastructure and
the damage caused by the looting that fol-
lowed Saddam’s collapse. They found high
child and maternal death rates, especially in
the south, where untreated water appears to
be one of Saddam’s punishments for suspect-
ed disloyalty. Responding quickly, USAID
chose five NGOs to distribute supplies and
emergency medical kits, among other tasks:
International Rescue Committee, International
Medical Corps, Mercy Corps, and CARE.
These grants put Iraqi doctors and engi-
neers back to work and began the process of
restoring essential services, even if much of it
was jerry-rigged by enterprising Iraqis. Begin-
ning April 3, five shiploads of American grain
left Galveston Harbor to ensure that the food
chain remained intact. Some ships would
land in Jordan and the food was trucked into
Iraq. More food was later offloaded at Umm
Qasr, Iraq’s deepwater port, as it was dredged
and cleared.
To assure urgent supplies and services for
public health, the Agency turned quickly to
the WHO and UNICEF. Vaccination cam-
paigns began immediately reaching millions
of children. No major outbreaks of disease
took place.
The DART also focused on human rights,
adding abuse prevention officers to the team
to look for early signs of reprisals, ethnic vio-
lence or other abuse. (For a discussion of
what they found, see page 21.)
DART chief Michael
Marx said the NGOs
“
were exceptionally
creative” in
delivering aid.“The
NGOs have been
courageous,”
added Lewis Lucke,
USAID’s first
mission director in
Baghdad.“They’ve
operated in less
security than the
contractors, and
they have not
withdrawn. I think
they are unsung
heroes.”
Results
● The U.S. sent 62 experts
to prepare for rapid hu-
manitarian relief and
set up DART offices in
Arbil, Baghdad, Al
Hillah, and Basra.
● Before the fighting
began, DART teams
moved to the Middle
East to begin stockpiling
emergency food, water,
medicine and shelter.
● The speed of the mili-
tary campaign and the
accuracy of US weapons
meant that few Iraqis
fled their homes and no
humanitarian emer-
gency ensued.
● The DART focused on
supplying food, restor-
ing services and helping
local towns set up dem-
ocratic councils.
● Several quick DART
grants helped Iraqis re-
store medical care, set
up human rights groups,
and begin resolving eth-
nic and land conflicts.
Thomas Hartwell
Thomas Hartwell
US food aid arrives at WFP
warehouse in Umm Qasr.
(Top) Millions of Iraqi
children were immunized
in USAID programs.
An Iraqi doctor receives
emergency health kits from
the DART.
March ‘03
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
▲ Iraq begins destroying
illegal missiles
▲ UN Security Council debates Iraq
▲ Ground war begins
resolution, France threatens veto ▲ WFP prepositions emergency food
▲ Coalition
secures
coastline

5
Fixing Iraq’s
Infrastructure
U.S. contractors restored power
and bridges while repairing
neglected water and sewage
systems vital to Iraqi’s health.
Courtesy of Bechtel National, Inc.
A massive dredge hired by
USAID contractor Bechtel
removes silt from the coun-
try’s only deepwater port at
Umm Qasr. This paved the way
for large-scale deliveries of
U.S. food and the return of
commercial shipping.
April ‘03
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
▲ Emergency food grant to WFP
▲ Statue
▲ Education contract,
▲ Infrastructure contract, Bechtel
▲ Free Atlas leaves US
of Saddam
Creative Associates
▲ WFP trucks arrive in Iraq
Free Atlas unloads ▲
food for 2.3 million
with 28,000 tons of food
toppled ▲ Local governance contract, RTI
▲ Coalition forces take Baghdad airport
▲ DART arrives Baghdad
Health contract, ▲
Abt Associates

6
I n f r a s t r u c t u r e
U.S. assistance began recon-
struction of Iraq’s electricity
plants, bridges, water systems
and other infrastructure
within a few weeks of the
collapse of the regime.
Congress passed the Supplemental Appropria-
tion bill in April, 2003, and within a few
weeks the Agency began work in several sec-
tors. The biggest contract, worth $600 million,
went to Bechtel for rebuilding infrastructure.
Some criticism was reported in the press
of the decision to limit bidding on the infra-
structure contract to seven major firms capa-
ble of such large projects overseas. However,
the process was entirely legal and necessary if
delays were to be avoided. Bechtel ended up
performing exceptionally well under extreme-
ly difficult circumstances. When the second
infrastructure contract, worth $1.8 billion,
was opened up to all bidders in 2004, fewer
than seven companies applied. Bechtel won
that one, as well, in a joint offer with Parsons
of California.
Bechtel entered Iraq in late April 2003,
within days of signing the contract. It began
with a country-wide assessment of the critical
economic infrastructure. Prioritizing easier re-
pairs first, the company began ordering equip-
ment for longer term projects and bringing in
technical experts from around the world. The
harbor at Umm Qasr was dredged; chemicals
were bought for water treatment facilities,
and work began on power stations, electric
transmission lines and diesel generating sets
throughout Iraq.
Thomas Hartwell
Courtesy of Bechtel National, Inc.
Water and Sanitation
An Iraqi engineer (near
right) checks water flow-
ing from a new treatment
plant built with U.S. and
CPA aid. It provides
40,000 people in south-
east Iraq clean drinking
water. The city’s only
source had been contami-
nated water from a branch of the Tigris River.
“I used to get sick from the river water,” said
the engineer.
Untreated sewage flows directly into the Tigris
and Euphrates.Many wastewater treatment facilities
are inoperative due to vandalism,deliberate neglect,
and a lack of parts, electricity and chemicals. To end
this, the U.S. is spending $217 million repairing wa-
ter systems throughout Iraq, directly benefitting
14.5 million people. Contractors have already re-
paired hundreds of breaks in the water network, sig-
nificantly increasing water flow.
In Baghdad, one water plant is being expanded
and three sewage plants are being repaired, improv-
ing daily water flows to hundreds of thousands of
people. We are installing back-up electrical genera-
tors at 41 Baghdad water facilities and pumping sta-
tions to ensure continuous water supply. Repairs to
Baghdad’s sewage treatment plants—Rustimiyah
North, Rustimiyah South, and Kerkh—will benefit
3.8 million people by October 2004.
Other rehabilitation projects include two water
plants and four sewage plants in Najaf, Karbala and
Hillah; the entire Sweet Water Canal system near
Basra; the Safwan water system; and water and
sewage plants in Kirkuk and Mosul.
Since the early 1990s, Iraqi children died in very
high numbers. Much of this is directly attributable to
the deliberate neglect of the country’s waste water
facilities and the draining of the southern marsh-
lands. The death rate has been so high—hundreds
of thousands over the past 12 years—that in parts
of the South it may be tantamount to infanticide.
Ben Barber/USAID
Electricity
Restoring and improving Iraq’s electricity supply has
been the biggest and most costly challenge. Power
plants had not been properly maintained for many
years and, except for Baghdad, most of the country got
power only a few hours a day. In addition, saboteurs
and thieves have frequently destroyed pylons and
stolen copper wiring from the power transmission lines
that link Baghdad with the north and south of the
country.
Nevertheless, repairs helped boost electricity out-
put above the pre-war 4,000 megawatt level by Octo-
ber, 2003, and dependable power was distributed to
many parts of the country for the first time in years.
After all the repairs are made, USAID, the CPA and
Bechtel expect electricity production to reach 6,000
MW by the summer of 2004.
In an effort to block the restoration of power, at-
A damaged electric power py-
lon (above), one of hundreds
attacked by vandals who often
sold the copper wiring.
Iraqi engineers (left) monitor
controls at a power plant re-
paired with USAID funding.
tackers had tried to cut the pipelines supplying fuel to
some power plants as well as the electric power cables
sending power to the cities. Coalition forces have been
able to train Iraqis to provide security for those vital
fuel and power conduits.
While total electric power output continued to
climb, it was distributed in a new way. Under the old
regime, the outlying regions were required to send
power to Baghdad which enjoyed electricity nearly 24
hours per day. But the smaller cities such as Basra had
power only a couple of hours each day. Now power is
more evenly shared, even if Baghdadis may feel they
have less hours of power than they enjoyed in the
past.
Power is also growing at a time when demand is
spiking due to booming sales of electric appliances
from refrigerators to air conditioners to satellite televi-
sions since Iraq’s central controls and trade isolation
has ended.
Results
● Generated 4,518 MW on
October 6, 2003-surpass-
ing the pre-war level of
4,400 MW.
● Installing power at
Baghdad International
Airport and Umm Qasr
seaport.
● Repair thermal units,
replace and repair tur-
bines, rehabilitate the
transmission network,
and install and restore
generators—expected to
add 2,152 MW.
● Another 827 MW be-
ing added through
maintenance, rehabili-
tation, and new gener-
ation projects.
● Rehabilitating units
at Doura and Bayji
power plants.
● Reconstruction of
400-kv transmission
network
● Installing new gen-
erating capacity at
power plants in the
north and center.
May ‘03
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
▲ End of major
combat operations ▲ J. Paul Bremer named head of CPA
▲ US lifts sanctions on Iraq
▲ Airport contract to SkyLink
▲ Umm Qasr transferred
to civilian authority
▲ Community project
grants to five NGOs

7
Thomas Hartwell
Results
Iraqi workmen cleaning a
waste water plant, part of
a massive USAID effort to
provide clean water and
improve health throughout
the country.
● Repaired and rehabil-
itated water systems
throughout Iraq.
● Repaired hundreds of
breaks in Iraq’s neglect-
ed water network, sig-
nificantly increasing
water flow.
● Baghdad: Expanding
one water plant and reha-
bilitating three sewage
plants.
● South Central: Reha-
bilitating An Najaf and
Karbala’ water treatment
plants.
● Basra: Work began on
Basra’s 14 water treatment
plants in January. By sum-
mer 2004, water quality
and volume will surpass
prewar levels.
● North: Rehabilitating
water plants in Kirkuk, Mo-
sul and Al Dujayl, and the
Al Dujayl sewage plant.
Captain Stuart Bage, STRE
Iraqi girl getting water
from makeshift system
Removing caked silt from
Sweet Water Canal reser-
voirs. The Canal system
supplies water to 1.75 mil-
lion people in Basrah gov-
ernate.
Telecommunications
USAID contractors million in projects to have carried out repair Baghdad’s some $55
switch-
ing network.
In 2002, approximately 1.2 subscribed to landline Parts of the network’s were damaged during was disrupted. Since restoring the national repairing the telephone Baghdad and restoring million Iraqis
telephone service.
switching component
the war and service
then, USAID has been
telecom fiber network,
switching system in
international tele-
phone service.
Results
Courtesy of Bechtel National, Inc.
● International calling
service to Iraq was re-
stored on December 30.
● The Al Mamoun
Telecommunications site
was handed over to the
Ministry of Communica-
tions on February 26.
● New phone switches
and an international
satellite gateway were
integrated with Iraqi
Telephone and Postal
Company switches.
● Tools, equipment, and
parts were purchased to
enable Iraqi engineers
to restore the network.
● The national fiber op-
tic network from Mosul
to Umm Qasr was re-
paired, connecting 20
cities to Baghdad.
● Baghdad area phone
service was reconstitut-
ed by installing new
switches.
Iraqi Telephone Company workers and Postal
connect
subscribers telephone in a Baghdad exchange.
area
June ‘03
1 2 3 4 ▲ USAID/ ▲ $425 5 6 7 8 UNICEF million 9 10 11 begin vaccinating emergency food 3 million children
grant to WFP
12 13 14 15 16 ▲ Team 17 18 19 20 21 22 assesses ▲ Umm southern Qasr port marshes
reopens
23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
▲ Army picked as Corps of Engineers
advisor

8
I n f r a s t r u c t u r e
Ports
Umm Qasr, on the border with Kuwait, is the
country’s only deepwater ocean port and the
first Iraqi city liberated from Saddam Hus-
sein’s forces. Work by USAID contractors be-
gan immediately to remove sunken ships left
since the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War as well as
munitions and silt. With Bechtel and Steve-
doring Services of America, the U.S. complet-
ed a $45 million program to restore the port’s
ability to process food and handle commeri-
cial shipments.
Results
Results
Courtesy of Bechtel National, Inc.
● Reopening commercial 17, 2003.
the traffic port to
June
● Offloading per month.
40 ships
● Dredging age depth ters.
to of an 12.5 aver-
me-
● Rehabilitating ships to help harbor.
Iraqi
maintain
● Renovating grain cility to process 600
metric tons an hour.
fa-
● Providing revenue for
port operations by col-
lecting new port tariffs.
● Installing and security the old and and grain generators
fencing at
new ports
facility.
● Renovating adminis-
tration, passenger ter-
minal and customs hall
buildings.
● Employing 500 Iraqi
staff, mostly in the Ma-
rine Department of the
Port Authority.
Bridges
USAID work bridge and Bechtel on bridges, projects are are roads, shown doing $34 million in
and railways. Major
below.
Khazir River Bridge
Al Mat Bridge
Tikrit Al Bridge
Kut Bridge
USAID and Bechtel paired bridges in locations in Iraq.
have several re-
key
● Al Mat Bridge: A key
link on Highway 10 that
carries 3,000 trucks daily
between Baghdad and
Jordan. The four-lane
bridge reopened to two-
way traffic March 3, 2004.
● Khazir Bridge: Critical
to the flow of fuel and
agricultural products.
South span repaired—two
of the four lanes—and re-
opened for two-way traffic
May 5, 2004.
● Tikrit Bridge: Impor-
tant link for passengers
and commerce over the
Tigris River between
Tikrit and Tuz Khurmatu.
Work expected to finish in
May 2004.
● Repaired a floating
bridge on the Tigris Riv-
er in Al Kut. This improves
traffic for approximately
50,000 travelers a day.
Wreckage from is removed from Iran-Iraq War
Umm Qasr
Airports
USAID and partners SkyLink and Bechtel
have spent $47 million rehabilitating Baghdad
and Basra airports, improving the transport of
humanitarian, reconstruction, and commer-
cial goods. About 20 non-military flights are
processed daily at Baghdad International Air-
port. It has been prepared to accept commer-
cial flights when they resume.
Projects at Basra International Airport in-
clude repairing the runway, taxiway, and
apron striping, installing two baggage x-ray
units, repairing passenger support facilities
and installing communications systems. Other
projects include installing the security fence
and repairing airport water and sewage treat-
ment plants.
Courtesy of Bechtel National, Inc.
Reconstructed at Baghdad Airport
terminal
International
Railroads
The Iraqi Republic Railways (IRR) system—al-
though run down and badly in need of re-
pair—had 2,200 km of track, repair shops,
stations, and over 10,000 wagons.
“Our first task in the railway sector was to
assess the capability of the railway to trans-
port humanitarian aid arriving at the Port of
Umm Qasr to cities throughout the country,”
said David White, Bechtel’s IRR manager.
The U.S. team soon established a long-
lasting working relationship with the senior
IRR management in
Basra and Baghdad
and jointly inspected
1100 km of the railway.
They are constructing
72 km of new track.
IRR contributes equip-
ment and labor, while
USAID contributes
project management,
material, and parts.
Workers perform a damage
assessment at railroad
bridge prior to preparing a
repair plan.
Results
● Repairing 16 km of
track at Umm Qasr and
56 km of track between
the port and Shuiaba
Junction near Basra to
move cargo, including
food, from the seaport
to mills.
● Removed explosive dinance at the rail project near Shuiaba
Junction.
or-
line
Courtesy of Bechtel National, Inc.
July ‘03
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 ▲ First meeting,
Iraqi Governing
Council
17 18 19 20 21 ▲ Bechtel Al Mat bypass
completes
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
▲ Uday and Hussein killed
▲ Vaccination Qusay
▲ USAID opens in Mission
Baghdad
Day
▲ Financial contract, BearingPoint

9
Tr a n s i t i o n
Small Grants Meet Needs
After the conflict, the
transition team moved to
prevent ethnic clashes
and get people started on
fixing things.
puter center at Mosul University
in northern Iraq, the Agency’s
When looters destroyed the com-
quick-response team from the Of-
fice of Transition Initiatives (OTI)
jumped in and provided 48 computers and in-
ternet access to serve the 32,000 students.
“If there were three times as many com-
puters here at school,” said an assistant pro-
fessor, “they would be used. It was a good
achievement for the Americans to set it up.”
OTI was one of the first USAID offices on
the ground in April 2003, quickly giving out
small grants in places where security allowed
relief and reconstruction to begin. Staff and
contractors worked with farmers, business-
men, human rights groups, educators and
others to create visible projects that gave
Iraqis hope they were seeing their society be-
gin to change.
Some 670 small grants worth $45 million
were launched to provide jobs, basic services,
access to information, communications, and
protection of human rights.
The region around Halabja was attacked
by Saddam Hussein’s forces with poison gas
in 1988, killing more than 100,000 Kurds.
Many survivors still suffer aftereffects. One
small grant helped an Iraqi doctor travel to
mountain villages to offer treatment for phys-
ical and mental problems.
“U.S. aid is paying our salaries, the cost of
our vehicle and for basic medicines such as
antibiotics, analgesics and anti-parasitics,”
said an Iraqi physician, as about 30 women
and children crowded into a village house to
meet with her medical team.
Some of her patients suffer from lung and
nerve damage from the “cocktail” of various
nerve and mustard gases dropped on the re-
gion in 1988 by Iraqi forces, she said.
“If we didn’t have the U.S. funds we could
not do as much as we do,” she said.
Transition grants now focus on prepara-
tion for a new Iraqi government, working at
the national level on civic education, civil so-
ciety, media development, women’s participa-
tion, conflict mitigation, and transitional jus-
tice. For example, they are funding public in-
formation on the new constitution, election
plans, and the transition to Iraqi sovereignty.
To avoid conflict between ethnic or other
groups, USAID gave 62 grants as of March
2004, worth $4.3 million, working closely
with the U.S. military civil affairs teams in
the Sunni regions of central Iraq, the Shi’ite
regions in the south and various ethnically
mixed locations in the north.
Some 79 small grants worth $5 million
helped created a national network of new
Iraqi human rights groups and supported the
new Ministry of Human Rights. Other grants
help marginalized and vulnerable groups in-
cluding women, youth, minorities, and the
disabled.
U.S. grants have also helped Iraqis ac-
count for and move beyond the atrocities
committed by the Saddam Hussein regime.
Work includes protecting and unearthing
mass graves, supporting the Iraqi Special Tri-
bunal and other forums to address past
crimes; providing services for victims of past
crimes; and backing the Iraqi commission set
up to handle property disputes.
Another critical transitional job was to
provide more than 130 Iraqi national min-
istries, schools, clinics and other municipal
buildings with start-up kits called “Ministries
in a Box” which included desks, chairs, com-
puters and office equipment. Despite the
looting and destruction immediately after the
collapse of the Iraqi regime, these enabled
people to get back to work in a hurry.
Transition activities also focused on help-
ing Iraqi women, who have long had only
limited participation in political and civil so-
ciety. More than half of Iraq’s women are il-
literate, making it difficult for them to partic-
ipate in political life and to defend their
rights in cases of inheritance, marriage and
abuse issues.
Iraq’s fertility rate of 5.4 children per
woman is one of the highest in the region
contributing to low infant birth weight.
U.S. transition teams helped Iraqis set up
women’s organizations aimed at providing
educational programs, vocational training
and income generating projects.
Community development groups funded
by U.S. teams were created to encourage
women to engage in community decisions,
empowering women at the grassroots levels.
And parent-teacher associations also gave
women both a voice in school issues as well
a taste of participation in community affairs.
Results
● In order to have the
quickest impact after
fighting ended, the
Agency’s transition
teams gave out many
small grants.
● Mosul University’s
computer lab had been
looted so one grant set
up about 30 computers
and internet service to
help stundets and
teachers continue their
work.
● To reach out to Iraqi-
Kurdish villagers whose
village was taken over
by Al Ansar terrorists,
transition grants spon-
sored literacy classes for
women.
● The “Ministry in a
Box” grants paid for
Iraqis to replace chairs,
desks and some comput-
ers so government could
resume its functions
quickly.
Thomas Hartwell
Former prisoners sort
through some of the millions
of files that the Ba’ath Party
kept on its victims.
Debbi Morello/USAID
Most government offices
were stripped bare in the
looting that followed Sad-
dam’s fall. Here replacement
desks are delivered to a gov-
ernment ministry as part of
USAID’s “Ministry in a Box”
program.
August ‘03
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
▲ Jordanian embassy bombed ▲ Oil pipeline in
▲ UN headquarters in Baghdad bombed north sabotaged
▲ “Chemical Ali” captured
▲ Ayatollah
Mohammed
Baqer al-Hakim
killed in Najaf

10
D e m o c r at i c Tr a n s i t i o n
Building
Democracy
Under Saddam, the Iraqi
people had no say in their
government. Now the U.S.
is helping them take charge
of their own affairs.
help Iraqis learn to make decisions at
the grass roots level, rather than de-
Akey element of U.S. assistance is to
pend on the central government to
make them. The devolution of power
from the capital down to the smaller cities,
towns, villages and neighborhoods is giving
Iraqis a sense of responsibility for their own
affairs, something they have not had for many
decades.
New local councils, parent teacher associ-
ations, NGOs, human rights organizations,
and environmental societies are giving people
a voice in their own affairs and a say in how
they are governed.
Iraqis have shown they support these
projects, often matching funds and providing
services. Because they are directly involved in
process, they are more able to protect them
from corruption or co-option by traditional,
non-democratic forces.
Karkh District Council
A man in a sport shirt energetically shouted
his opinions while a turbaned cleric, three
women, and other members of a district
council listened as Iraqis met in Baghdad for
the first time in their lives to explore democ-
racy last September.
One council member, who worked in a
bank before the downfall of the regime in
April, said that USAID made it possible for the
new councils to form and begin to take a role
in running the city’s affairs.
“I saw that Americans are here to help us
and take us from the pits,” she said. “Saddam
the criminal did nothing for us. The Ameri-
cans gave us food and gave us elections in the
neighborhood. The people chose me to be on
the council.”
Among the topics they debated were how
to hire an administrator, how much to pay as
salary, and how the group could apply for a
Sept. ‘03
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
▲ Iraqis win subcontracts
▲ Nationwide school desk distribution begins for Al Mat Bridge
▲ Min. of Transportation and Communications reopens
▲ Umm Qasr dredging complete
▲ Women’s
Center opens
in Hillah

11
Thomas Hartwell
More than 80%
of Iraq’s adult
population has
been engaged—
either directly
or indirectly—
in democracy or
governance at
the local level
because of U.S.
programs.
Mokhtars (municipal regis-
trars) from a governate pre-
pare for elections to a new
district council.
October ‘03
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
▲ 3 million
▲Schools
▲ School supplies convoy attacked
▲ Currency exchange begins
kids vaccinated
open ▲Pre-war level of electricity passed
▲ School supplies for 3.3 million delivered
▲ Agricultural program begins
▲ Rockets hit Al-Rasheed Hotel
▲ Iraqi Fulbright program restarted
▲ Global Donor Conference pledges $32.2 billion
▲ 1,600 schools rehabilitated
▲ 235 CAP projects completed

12
Democratic Transition
Ben Barber/USAID
Results
A council member stands in
front of an animated meet-
ing of a district council as it
debated hiring an adminis-
trator and buying a comput-
er. At first scorned as a
woman by some members,
the council later elected her
computer from the city government.
U.S. Army Civil Affairs teams and US-
AID’s contractor Research Triangle Institute,
working with the CPA, organized meetings of
local citizens in 88 Baghdad neighborhoods
and hundreds more around Iraq. The mem-
bers were selected from neighborhood lead-
ers, businessmen, clerics, teachers and others
seen by their neighbors as leaders or people
of good character. The local councils in turn
elected representatives to district councils and
those in turn elected representatives to the
city councils in Baghdad and elsewhere.
Under Saddam Hussein, the Ba’ath Party
ruled by fear. There was little chance for in-
dependent local government or civil society.
Now, new council and groups are being
formed and new laws and institutions are un-
der way.
For democracy to take root, the local
councils must be seen as representative and
able to provide for the community’s basic
needs. USAID worked with the councils to re-
store basic services and create jobs. It taught
citizen leaders and government officials to re-
spond to community needs and promoted
to represent the district on
the city council.
● Local advisory councils
formed in 16 governates, 78
districts, 192 city and sub-
districts and 392 neighbor-
hoods.
● Provided the local
councils with small budg-
ets to spend on projects
such as fixing schools, traffic
controls or public health.
Councils also advise the CPA
about the area’s needs.
● Local councils select a
few of their members to
represent the neighbor-
hood in district councils
with responsibility for larger
portions of cities and towns.
● The district councils in
turn appoint one or two
members to represent
the districts on the city
council.
● The advisory councils
provide Iraqis with their
first chance to experience
grassroots democracy and
learn how to debate and
compromise in order to
achieve results.
● Councils require all ele-
ments of Iraq’s diverse
society to work together
for the common good:
men, women, Shiites, Sunnis,
Kurds and other groups.
wide participation in public decisions about
the use of public funds and provision of serv-
ices. Nearly 700 local, city and state councils
have been established, and more than 2,000
community projects have been completed or
are underway throughout the country.
As a result, more than three-quarters of
the population, either directly or indirectly,
have been engaged in democracy at the local
level. Now Iraqis are beginning to devise so-
lutions to problems in their communities,
building skills in community decision-mak-
ing, and learning how to resolve or lessen
conflicts peacefully.
To help explain how democratic meetings
work, a former official from Colorado was
asked to write a guide to running local gov-
ernment. It was translated into Arabic and
distributed to all members of local councils,
explaining how to run a meeting, encourage
people to speak and contribute, resolve dis-
agreements and reach decisions through com-
promise—all vitally needed skills.
The local councils are producing a new
group of leaders able to participate in higher
levels of government. For example, after one
Iraqi was selected to join her local or neigh-
borhood council in Baghdad, the group’s
members voted to send her as their represen-
tative to the district council—the next higher
level of government. This body—at first hos-
tile to a woman achieving such high rank—
later recognized her leadership qualities and
voted to send her to the Baghdad City Coun-
cil. Indeed, many of the new leaders chosen
by the local council process can be expected
to be elected to higher office when national
elections are held in 2005.
At the district council meeting, the Iraqi
experiment in democracy seemed to be run-
ning off the tracks when a couple of council
members began shouting their opinions
around the table, appearing to be angry
enough to come to blows. However, one
council member explained that this was only
theatrics and would not disrupt the process.
“Don’t worry—that is the Iraqi way,” she
said with a knowing smile.
In fact, the shouting soon gave way to
constructive debate; the council agreed on
some issues and deferred others before it ad-
journed peacefully.
Nov. ‘03
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
▲ New currency
arrives at banks
▲ Mosul’s
100,000 jobs
project begins
▲ First bulk cargo ship
▲ CPA takes over UN Oil for Food program
arrives at Umm Qasr.
▲ US/Iraqi Education
▲ Accelerated Learning
Cooperative Agreements
Program funded

13
C i v i l S o c i e t y
Iraqis Involved in Community Action
Five NGOs work with Iraqi
communities to build roads,
schools, markets and other
public services.
Results
repression, USAID provided about $70
million to create a Community Action
To help Iraqis emerge from decades of
Program (CAP) that helped citizens
form civic organizations and select re-
construction projects in their communities.
The CAP drew on five of USAID’s tradi-
tional allies in development and relief to car-
ry out the reconstruction effort in Iraq: Mercy
Corps, International Relief and Development
(IRD), Agricultural Cooperative Development
International and Volunteers in Overseas Co-
operative Assistance (ACDI/VOCA), Coopera-
tive Housing Foundation (CHF) and Save the
Children.
One NGO funded a quick, tarred road
across a seven-kilometer region of central Iraq
where isolated villages had spent months of
the rainy season unable to reach markets,
clinics, schools and other services.
“People are grateful to me and they stop
to thank me,” said one Iraqi contractor who
built the road under a CAP grant. As he stood
under a blue sky on the freshly tarred road,
local drivers and passengers stopped their
pickup trucks and crowded vans to thank him
with effusive Arabic greetings.
The CAP’s aim is for communities to de-
cide for themselves on the projects and con-
tribute resources to both the work and the
oversight.
Mercy Corps
● Set up 650 Community
Action Groups to back
grassroots democracy.
● Committed $48.4 mil-
lion for 1,364 projects.
● Iraqi communities
gave $15.3 million in la-
bor, land, and buildings
to joint projects.
● ACDI/VOCA focuses on
Mosul, Kirkuk and the
Iran-Iraq border, com-
pleting 146 projects.
● CHF works in south
central Iraq setting up
community associations.
Projects include access
roads, sewage, water,
school repairs, and swamp
clean-up as well as commu-
nity centers and sports
clubs. They have completed
105 projects.
● IRD has completed
234 projects in Bagh-
dad; 73 are focused on
income and jobs.
● Mercy Corps complet-
ed 89 water, sewage,
clean-up, and school
projects.
● Save the Children
completed 271 projects
in the south. Focus on
sewage, water, public
health, and girls’ education.
A CAP project built safety
railings on the stairwells in
the buildings behind these
children. Other projects
remove sewage from the
streets in many towns.
Ben Barber/USAID
Thomas Hartwell
An Iraqi manager of the
company which built a sev-
en-mile road under a U.S.
contract outside Hillah,
stands as cars begin to use
the route.
Children at a kindergarten in
Basrah. The school was refur-
bished through a USAID
grant to Save the Children.
Young Iraqis practice their
computer skills at a women’s
center south of Baghdad. The
center also offers nutrition
and health classes and plans
to open an Internet cafe.
Dec. ‘03
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
▲ Program creates 50,000th job
▲ Work on Umm Qasr railroad begins
▲ 350th small education grant
▲ Baghdad telecommunications exchange reopens
▲ Saddam Hussein captured
International phone service restored ▲
Locals councils ▲
created throughout Iraq
Thomas Hartwell

14
E s s e n t i a l S e r v i c e s
Rebuilding Iraq’s Health System
From vaccines and
medicines to refurbishing
health clinics and repairing
sewage systems, American
aid is reviving Iraq’s run-
down health system.
and mortar to complete a new water
and sewage system for his hospital,
As workmen hauled buckets of earth
an Iraqi doctor described how the-
buildings in the southeastern town
had been neglected for years before U.S. aid
arrived.
“The hospital was run down—we had no
toilets to use because they were always
blocked up,” said the surgeon and director of
the hospital just 10 miles from the border with
Iran.
“The patients suffered from the bad odor
and it was hard to prevent infections after
surgery.”
But one of several U.S.-backed contrac-
tors, running projects to improve health facil-
ities and services in Iraq, discovered the need
and offered to hire Iraqi contractors to fix the
hospital.
By September, 2003, new toilets were al-
ready lined with smooth, easily-cleaned tiles.
The water system worked well and there were
no bad odors.
The yard outside the clinic was still torn
up as workmen finished the new septic tank
to contain wastes.
In April 2003, USAID set aside $150 mil-
lion for health programs to reverse the disas-
trous drop in Iraqi citizens’ health over the
previous decade. The Hussein government
had cut spending on health by 90 percent in
that period but built many luxurious palaces
and maintained its huge army.
Health services favored specific political,
ethnic and geographic groups. Maternal mor-
tality grew close to three-fold in that period. It
is estimated that 30% of women gave birth
without a qualified health worker.
Iraqi hospitals and clinics—once the envy
of the Middle East—fell into disrepair. Many
lacked medicines or equipment while doctors’
and other staff salaries shrank to as little as $20
per month.
Iraq Life Expectancy
Age
66
65
64
63
62
61
60
59
58
57
1980
Iraq
invades
Iran
1979
Saddam
assumes
power
1987
Age 65
1990
Iraq
invades
Kuwait
1996
UN oil-
for-food
program
2002
Age 63
1975
Age 60
begins
1995
Age 59
U.S. assistance aimed at improving mater-
nal and child health, health infrastructure,
health policy and management. The task
would take forms as varied as massive immu-
nization programs for millions of children to
hiring backhoes and tile-cutters to create sep-
tic tanks and clean toilets in clinics.
In Basra, for example, looters had sacked
the administrative offices where one Iraqi
doctor runs 11 clinics in an area serving
‘76 ‘78 ‘80 ‘82 ‘84 ‘86 ‘88 ‘90 ‘92 ‘94 ‘96 ‘98 ‘00 ‘02
Source:World Bank estimates
January ‘04
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
▲ Work begins on Sweet Water Canal plants
▲ Currency exchange completed
▲ Khazir Bridge reopens
▲ Master Teacher Trainers
program completed
▲ Train-the-trainers
health program Phase 2
▲ Grant for Civic Education

15
Thomas Hartwell
Results
Debbi Morello/USAID
USAID grants funded mobile
health clinics to serve thou-
sands of women in remote
villages in northern Iraq.
“Health care spending in Iraq has increased
to 60 times pre-liberation levels.Two
hundred and forty Iraqi hospitals and
more than 1,200 primary health centers
are operating and have been since last
summer.More than 30 million doses of
children’s vaccine have been distributed.”
CPA Administrator, L. Paul Bremer,
at the handover of the Ministry of Health,
Baghdad, March 27, 2004
● Procured more than
30 million doses of vac-
cines with the Ministry of
Health and UNICEF.
● Vaccinated three mil-
lion children under the
age of five, part of a cam-
paign to provide vaccines
for 4.2 million children and
700,000 pregnant women.
● Developed compre-
hensive strategy with
the Ministry of Health
and transferred authori-
ty on March 27. MOH
was first ministry to re-
vert to Iraqi control.
● Funded monthly im-
munization campaign
with UNICEF and the Min-
istry of Health.
● Awarded $1.8 million
in small grants to Iraqi
NGOs for healthcare.
● Renovated 52 primary
health care clinics and
re-equipped 600 others.
● Trained 340 master
trainers in acute respira-
tory infections and diar-
rheal diseases.
● Distributed high-pro-
tein supplementary
food rations to 240,000
pregnant and nursing
mothers and malnourished
children.
● Rehabilitated the Na-
tional Polio Laboratory.
● Trained 1,000 health
workers and volunteers
to work with acutely mal-
nourished children.
U.S. funding is restoring Iraq’s
neglected health sector.
350,000 people. “The electricity was dam-
aged, the windows shattered and all the fur-
niture were taken,” she said.
But USAID provided $18,000 to repair the
building. “They hired Iraqi contractors to fix
everything and provide water pipes, electrici-
ty, furniture, computers, a refrigerator, every-
thing.”
To deliver the $150 million in health aid,
U.S. officials gave contracts to three groups:
Abt Associates, the U.N. Children’s Fund and
the World Health Organization. They
launched programs aimed at reducing Iraq’s
alarming infant mortality rate and improving
overall life expectancy.
By 1990, the year Saddam invaded
Kuwait, Iraq’s health measures were among
the poorest in the region. This is particularly
true in the south.
Malnutrition was high, sanitation poor
and many diseases had re-emerged.
Within months of the arrival of U.S. assis-
tance, health service delivery in Iraq returned
to pre-war levels.
Health care spending has now reached 60
times pre-conflict levels. However, the hospi-
tals and healthcare system is still sub-stan-
dard due to years of neglect so U.S. assistance
will continue to be provided to the ministry in
the coming years.
February ‘04
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
▲ 32,000 teachers trained ▲ Agriculture grants total $394,000
▲ Agreement on
Marshlands restoration
▲ Free Women’s
Association opens
▲ Japanese troops arrive
▲ Center for Women’s
▲ Baghdad phone exchange
Rights in Karbala opens
handed over to Ministry
800 tons of high protein biscuits delivered ▲

16
E s s e n t i a l S e r v i c e s
Schools and Education
U.S. funds paid for Iraqi
workmen to turn crumbling
schools into freshly painted
places to learn.
Iraq’s second largest city with some 2
million people was typical of the coun-
Sajad’s elementary school in Basra,
try’s run-down schools. As a workman
climbed a wooden ladder last Septem-
ber to repair the leaky roof with a mixture of
mud and mortar, Sajad’s mother explained
how both her nine-year-old son and her older
daughter had missed many weeks of school
last year when the rains came and water
flooded the classrooms.
She said she had tutored her children at
home so they scored at the top of the class
but was very glad that the repairs would
“make it easy for my son to go to school next
year—before it was too difficult.”
In addition to the roof, the workmen in-
stalled new tiles, paint, ceilings, toilets, bath-
rooms, water tanks, pipes, air conditioning
the office and fans for classrooms.
Twenty-five years ago, Iraq had one of the
best education systems in the Middle East. By
the time U.S. troops entered the country,
buildings were poorly maintained, teachers
poorly paid and trained, and basic equipment
and schoolbooks were lacking. Enrollment,
especially for girls, had declined greatly.
Girls at a Baghdad school
(above) carry boxes of school
supplies. Creative Associates
International delivered
school bags (right) contain-
ing calculators, notebooks,
pens and pencils to second-
ary schools throughout Iraq.
Thomas Hartwell
The repairs to
our school “make
it easy for my son
to go to school.
Before it was too
difficult,” one
mother said.
Ben Barber/USAID
Ben Barber/USAID
Ben Barber/USAID Thomas Hartwell
Sajad, 9, sits next to his older
sister Yasmine, 11, who is
holding their baby sister as
they tell how much a U.S.
contractor has improved their
rundown school in Basra.
Iraqi construction team
hauls buckets of mud and
mortar to the roof of Sajad’s
school in Basra which had
been leaking in the rains.
Iraqi workmen at Sajad’s school
take a lunch break. Wall was
notched for a new coat of plaster.
March ‘04
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
▲ Al Mat Bridge completed
▲ Delegation of Iraqi Women Visits US, UN.
▲ USAID, UNESCO deliver 8.7 million school textbooks
▲ 5,000th flight at Baghdad International Airport
▲ Baghdad Airport Firefighters complete training
Councils created ▲
in 16 governorates,
78 districts, 192 cities,
392 neighborhoods
▲ Transitional Administrative Law, Bill of Rights signed

Accelerated Learning
American Islamic Congress
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi students dropped
out of school in the last decade of Ba’ath Party rule,
because they could not afford to pay the fees and
bribes or because they had to help support their
families. As a result many young people, especially
girls, have received less formal education than their
parents. In response USAID launched an accelerated
learning program in the fall of 2003 to help particu-
larly motivated young people to make up for lost
time and do two years academic work in one.
American Islamic Congress
Within weeks of Saddam’s fall, Creative
Associates, which had the main U.S. contract
to improve education, along with Research
Triangle Institute, Bechtel, CHF and other
NGOs and contractors, fanned out across Iraq
to visit communities and respond to requests
that their schools be fixed. Some 2,500
schools had been repaired by March of 2004.
USAID also worked with and funded UN-
ESCO to print and distribute 8.7 million new
science and math textbooks for grades one
through 12, updatging them and removing
Ba’athist propaganda in the process.
At an elementary school in Baghdad,
while workmen plastered the walls and in-
stalled fans, the headmistress was meeting in
her office with the first parent-teacher associ-
ation in her school—one of 2,700 supported
by U.S. assistance.
For the first time, teachers, parents and
school administrators met to decide how to
improve education, to ensure students and
teachers show up, to spend budgets and get
the best books, materials and programs.
“This is the first time we have had this,”
Ben Barber/USAID
In an ethnic Kurdish village
along Iraq’s border with Iran,
an Iraqi woman reads from
her son’s literature book. A
U.S.-funded literacy team
taught her to read after the
Al Ansar terrorist group con-
trolling the village was driv-
en out by U.S. and Kurdish
forces.
17
Results
American Islamic Congress
The Acclerated Learning
Program is replacing old
chalkborads, such as the
one above.
Khamail (left) teaches math
and physics in a city in
southern Iraq.“They are so
enthusiastic that they over-
whelm me,” she says of her
students.
Some students in the Ac-
clerated Learning program
were so eager to continue
their studies that they vot-
ed to give up their mid-
year vacation.
● Renovated 2,300
schools on time for the
opening of the 2003-
2004 school year.
● Printed and distrib-
uted 8.7 million new
math and science text-
books throughout the
country.
● Set up 2,700 parent
teacher associations.
● Trained 32,632 teach-
ers.
● Distributed school
bags and school supplies
to 1.5 million students.
● Funded partnerships
between five U.S. and
five Iraqi universities.
● Distributed new
school desks throughout
Iraq.
● Encouraged girls to
attend school again and
helped push their regis-
tration up to 96 percent
at the beginning of the
school year. The figure
for boys was 92 percent.
she said. “The new PTA supervises the con-
struction project and is receiving the new fur-
niture, the refrigerator, the cooler.”
In addition, 32,632 teachers have been
trained through a USAID program which en-
courages interactive teaching, team work, and
critical thinking. And 1.5 million secondary
school students received book bags stuffed
with pencils, crayons, pens, paper and other
supplies.
Five grants worth $21 million were also
awarded to create partnerships between U.S.
and Iraqi universities. The State University of
New York at Stony Brook is working with
Baghdad University, Al Mustansiriyah Univer-
sity/Baghdad, Basra University, and Mosul
University on archeology and environmental
health. The University of Hawaii College of
Agriculture and Human Resources is working
with the University of Mosul Hamam Al-Alil
and University of Dahuk for strengthening ac-
ademic, research, and extension programs.
Other U.S. schools in the program are DePaul
University College of Law, Jackson State Uni-
versity, and the University of Oklahoma.

18
Ec o n o my
Reforms Pave the Way for Growth
Iraqi GNP peaked the year
Saddam Hussein came to
power. By the time he
invaded Kuwait, it had
dropped by over 80%.
my was shattered by war, corruption,
and heavy centralization. Over the
During Saddam’s reign, Iraq’s econo-
past year, U.S. assistance supported
reforms that stimulate international
trade and generate employment. Iraq is ap-
plying the economic reform lessons learned in
the early 1990s from the former Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe, including:
● Reactivating food production and markets;
● Involving the private sector early on;
● Linking economic development with demo-
cratic governance, and
● Ensuring transparency in government fi-
nance and procurements.
U.S. experts in economic management
helped Iraqi ministries examine and reform
laws, regulations, and institutions, and they
provided a framework for private sector trade,
commerce, and investment. These have
strengthened the Central Bank and the key
ministries of Finance, Trade, Commerce, and
Industry. Technical support from the U.S. con-
tractor BearingPoint has helped to start and
expand small and medium enterprises. Aid
also strengthened the regulatory framework
and economic governance of telecommunica-
tions, power, and other utilities.
To date, the CPA has made more than
1,800 loans available, with amounts up to
$5,000 for micro-enterprises and $25,000 for
small businesses. USAID technical assistance
helped ensure a repayment rate of nearly 100
percent. Fifteen percent of the clients are fe-
male.
These economic reforms are generating
jobs and can be expected to generate even
more in the future, both in cities and on
farms. As they take hold, they should attract
Results
● Launched new currency.
● Created more than
77,000 public works jobs
for Iraqis.
● Helped set up a new sys-
tem that allows 80 banks
to send and receive pay-
ment instructions.
● Worked with Iraqi Trea-
sury to finalize year-end
financial statements of
Iraq’s two largest banks-
the state-owned Rasheed
and Rafidain, so that they
met international ac-
counting standards.
● Helped train staff to
use a new accounting
and financial reporting
system. It will be used
by all Iraqi treasury of-
fices and ministries.
● Updated commercial
laws for private sector
and foreign investment;
helpd develop the new
company law.
● Worked with the CPA
and UK Customs Service
to design the recon-
struction levy which im-
poses a five percent tar-
iff on Iraqi imports.
donor and private investment as well as pro-
viding the conditions for a revived private
sector to flourish. Transformation of the Iraqi
economy will be one of the lasting benefits of
the post-war reconstruction.
Iraq Gross Domestic Product
Thomas Hartwell
per
person
$4,500
1980
Saddam
invades
Iran
$4,000
$3,500
$3,000
1990
Saddam
invades
Kuwait
$2,500
$2,000
1996
UN oil
for food
program
begins
$1,500
$1,000
$500
Iraq’s old currency was re-
placed January 15. The ex-
change put 4.62 trillion
new dinars into circulation
and destroyed the old cur-
rency with Saddam Hus-
sein’s photo on the bills. The
new dinar appreciated from
2,000 per U.S. dollar to 1,300
during the course of the con-
version.
$0 ‘80 ‘82 ‘84 ‘86 ‘88 ‘90 ‘92 ‘94 ‘96 ‘98 ‘00 ‘02
Source: Economist Intelligence Unit

19
A g r i c u l t u r e
Restoring Date Palms and Open Markets
American aid is dredging
canals in the ancient Fertile
Crescent and improving its
farms and orchards.
© Getty Images
Results
where man first learned the art of cul-
tivating wheat and other foods. But
Ancient Mesopotamia was the place
the fertile lands between the Tigris
and Euphrates Rivers, where for
8,000 years crops and livestock were raised,
fell on hard times under Ba’ath Party neglect,
and Iraq’s farming system deteriorated, pro-
ducing some of the lowest crop yields in the
world.
Working with Development Alternatives
Inc. (DAI), the United States is addressing the
underlying causes of declining production.
Focusing on improving production of grains,
vegetables, fruits, livestock, dairy, and poul-
try, the program also emphasizes rural finan-
cial service, water management and soil recla-
mation. Beyond a series of quick-impact
projects, the U.S. goal is a productive, em-
ployment-generating, market-oriented agricul-
tural system over the next three to five years.
Agriculture is the second largest employer in
Iraq.
If the farms and pastures and date or-
chards of Iraq can be made to prosper once
more, it will keep thousands of young people
from migrating to the cities in search of jobs.
It is often in the slums of such cities that
youths are recruited into crime or radical ide-
ologies out of frustration at their inability to
find rewarding employment and training.
One program is supplying
offshoots like these to 13
Iraqi governates.
© Getty Images
Date Palm Rehabilitation
Iraq once had the largest date palm tree orchards in the world, with over
30 million trees. But the Iraq-Iran War and the catastrophic destruction of
the southern marshes cut that number in half, leaving many Iraqis without
homes or income. Now, the Ministry of Agriculture has made date palm re-
habilitation a priority.
Under an agreement signed February 7, 2004, USAID’s Agricultural Re-
construction Development Program for Iraq will purchase 40,000 date
palms for orchards and offshoot nurseries in 13 governorates, while the
Ministry will provide land, personnel, logistics, and maintenance for the or-
chards. The agreement is particularly significant because there are 621 va-
rieties of date palms in Iraq, but no existing orchards where certified date
palm varieties can be purchased. Initially, therefore, the mother orchards
will serve as a national register of varieties, and, future offshoots will be
available for planting.
● Winter Crop Technolo-
gy Demonstrations: On
334 hectares in 15 gover-
norates, 128 farm families
are establishing plots with
new crop varieties.
● Kirkuk Veterinary Hos-
pital Renovation: A grant
of $96,000 is renovating
this veterinary hospital.
● Taza and Rashad Vet-
erinary Clinic Rehabilita-
tion: A $50,000 USAID
grant will be matched by
supplies and equipment
from the Ministry of Agri-
culture. These rural veteri-
nary clinics are the two
principal sources of vac-
cines and medicines for ani-
mals in 125 communities.
● Internet Connectivity
and Repairs to a Student
Union Building: The
Baghdad University School
of Agriculture will receive a
$75,000 grant.
● Seven grants totaling
$394,000 were approved in
February 2004 to help re-
build veterinary programs
in North and Central Iraq.
● The Ministry of Agri-
culture is establishing
18 date palm nurseries
in an effort to re-establish
Iraq’s dominant position in
the international date mar-
ket.
Iraq once had more date
palm orchards than any
other country. Under an
argeement with the Min-
istry of Agriculture, the
U.S. is helping restore the
industry.
American agricultural assis-
tance is bringing new tech-
nology to Iraq’s neglected
agricultural sector, including
here at Ninawa.

20
E nv i r o n m e n t
Marshlands
A sheet of fresh water was
released, raising hope that
this vast ecosystem and the
unique culture it sustained
may some day be restored.
der from Nasiriyah, one suddenly
finds the land on either side of the
Driving east towards the Iranian bor-
road falls away to a flat, shimmering
plain of water—the reviving Marsh-
lands of Iraq.
Said by some to be the site of the Garden
of Eden, the 8,000 square-mile marshlands
were home to nearly one million Marsh Arabs
or Madan before Saddam Hussein drained the
marshes and slaughtered thousands after the
Shiite revolt of 1991. Instead of slowly seeping
through the marshes, nourishing the land, fil-
tering the water, and supporting its reeds, fish
and many Arab villages, Saddam’s new
drainage canals diverted the Tigris-Euphrates
River system directly into the sea.
The loss of the Middle East’s largest wet-
lands deprived millions of migrating birds of
critical habitat and has become an ecological
disaster on a scale similar to the drying up of
the Aral Sea. Now the fresh waters have be-
gun to return to the marshlands. As soon as
the regime fell last year, Iraqi engineers re-
opened the dikes and cut some berms and
dams that had been used to drain the lands
and drive out the Marsh Arabs. By early Oc-
tober, the waters were rising over the arid
Marsh Arabs collect reeds in
newly-re-flooded marshlands
after dams built by Saddam
to drain the region were cut
open to restore the water
flow and revive the ancient
desert flats, covering the thorny and useless
plants that sprouted over the past decade
where once fish, birds and animals thrived.
The United States has been helping to re-
vive the ancient waterways, traditional vil-
lages and aquatic agriculture which not only
served the Marsh Arabs but provided the
number one source for protein in all of Iraq:
water fowl, eggs, water buffalo, fish and milk.
Some Marsh Arabs have converted to dry
farming in reclaimed lands drained in the last
decade. They have found it profitable to raise
crops and can be seen driving their tractors in
tidy fields alongside the roads of Southern
Iraq. They may be reluctant to have those
fields reflooded and have made requests that
Reversing the Flow May Revive Abandoned Marsh Villages
Ben Barber/USAID
One expert from RTI dis-
covered a pumping station
that had lifted marsh wa-
ters over an earthen wall
into a river, part of a mas-
sive effort to drain the
marshes. RTI reverse-engi-
neered the system to reflood
that part of the marshes.
Nearby stand the ruins of a
village which was looted of
everything after the resi-
dents fled Saddam’s forces
and the retreating waters. If
enough water can be re-
stored, the marshlands may
one day be reoccupied.
Results
production of fish, birds,
and plants.
● Providing social and
economic assistance to
marsh dwellers.
● Funding soil and wa-
ter quality lab at the
new Center for Iraq
Marshlands Restoration.
● Launching pilot proj-
ects to improve treat-
ment of waste and
drinking water.
● Improving healthcare.
● Creating jobs in fish-
eries, aquaculture, live-
stock production, and
date-palm reproduction.
● Developing an inte-
grated marsh manage-
ment plan.
some of the dry areas remain as they have
been this past decade.
In June, 2003, USAID sent the first team of
water and soil scientists to the Marshes in
years to talk to local leaders and determine
what the Agency could do. In February, an
Iraqi and international team, supported by
USAID, convened in Basra and designed an
action plan for the marshlands. The program
created a long-term strategic plan for marsh
management and will begin to restore the
marshland ecosystem through improved man-
agement and strategic reflooding. It will also
provide social and economic assistance to
thousands of Marsh Arabs as they return to
their homes.
Ben Barber/USAID

21
H u m a n R i g h t s
Mass Graves of Hussein Regime
USAID officers were among
the first to visit Iraq’s mass
grave sites. More than 270
sites have been reported.
barefoot in the grave. There were many fami-
lies. Some were in mourning. Some were cu-
trace. Rumors of mass killings, shootings at
the edge of mass graves, now proved horribly
rious onlookers.”
Spread out across the desert floor of Iraq’s
largest military base was a scene of horror:
true.
What Mann found was one of the first of
Iraq’s mass graves. By January, 2004, 270
parents, wives, brothers weeping over the
white cloth bundles that contained all that
was left of their loved ones: bones, an identi-
suspected mass grave sites had been reported,
of which 53 were confirmed. Some graves
hold a few dozen bodies; others go on for
AID went down to Hillah to investigate
some sites suspected of concealing mass
In early in May, 2003, Sloan Mann of US-
graves. “I went there two days after the
mass grave was discovered,” Mann said.
“When I showed up, people were randomly
ty card or an occasional watch or piece of
jewelry.
Seized from their beds in the night at hun-
hundreds of meters, row after row of bodies.
No one knows how many dead these graves
hold. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said
dreds of Kurdish villages in the 1980s, or
rounded up in broad daylight by Saddam’s
troops in the Shiite cities of the south in the
the toll is 400,000, while Human Rights
Watch said 290,000.
Mann was one of the abuse prevention of-
digging through the site... Children walked
1990s, most victims had vanished without a
ficers USAID sent to Iraq in the spring of 2003
Iraqis and U.S. aid workers
Thomas Hartwell
Thomas Hartwell
dig up the first of hundreds
of thousands of bodies left in
mass graves by Saddam Hus-
sein’s regime.
Iraqis search for relatives
and friends among victims
found in a mass grave in
against the Iraqi govern-
ment. Wrapped in white
cloth, they lie in a nearby
Musayib, 75 kilometers
southwest of Baghdad. The
victims are thought to be
from the 1991 uprising
youth center as they are
identified by relatives on the
bases of identity documents,
clothing or jewelry found
with the bones.
Thomas Hartwell
An Iraqi woman grieves over
the remains of two family
members, found in a mass
grave site at Musayib.

22
Human Rights
to prevent revenge killings, attacks on vulner-
able people or other abuse in the wake of the
“Above all,if people in Iraq and
There are three cate-
● Humanitarian exhu-
conflict.
Within a month of his visit to Hillah—he
would later evaluate sites at Radwaniya
around the world hope to learn
from the crimes of the past,
the mass graves of Iraq must
be documented,reported and
gories of mass graves:
Prison, Musayib, and at three locations
around Mahaweel—the Agency was making
grants to help Iraqis preserve the sites and ex-
never forgotten or denied.”
hume the bodies for proper identification.
Agency grants were made to the Free Pris-
oners Association, the Lawyers Association
Andrew S. Natsios,
USAID Administrator
● Over-run sites: dis-
turbed by people seeking
the remains of their miss-
ing relatives and friends.
Since they are already dug
up and it would be hard to
stop people from complet-
ing their searches, USAID
trains Iraqis to help the
community emotionally
and to collect whatever in-
formation is possible.
mation sites: Profession-
als teach Iraqis how to put
the bones together, identi-
fy remains and determine
how victims died.
and human rights groups to buy computers
and compile lists of the missing, to track sus-
pected grave sites, link victims to their fami-
● Full criminal investi-
gation sites: Between
eight and 20 sites are to be
selected for use in the Iraqi
Special Tribunal established
by the Iraqi Governing
Council to try cases of
crimes against humanity,
war crimes, and genocide.
lies, and safeguard documents relating to the
torture, disappearance, and execution of hun-
dreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
Thomas Hartwell
DART abuse prevention of-
ficer Jean Geran inspects
mass grave near Basrah.
Human Rights Watch esti-
mates the site may contain
several hundred people.
Sally Hodgson/Dept.of State
Iraqis identify the remains of
a victim from a mass grave in
Musayib. Some 270 mass
grave sites have been report-
ed throughout the country.
Thomas Hartwell
A man holds out an ID card
found in a mass grave in
Musayib, 50 miles southwest
of Baghdad.

23
Q & A w i t h t h e n ew A m b a s s a d o r
Negroponte Discusses Iraq
John Negroponte was named by President Bush to be U.S.
Ambassador to Iraq and confirmed by the Senate May 6,
2004. In this interview, he describes the main mission of
the U.S. embassy as helping the Iraqi people take control
of their own affairs. The Embassy will play a supportive,
not commanding role.
Q: What is your Mission Statement as the
new U.S. Ambassador to Iraq?
A: I am honored to serve as the new U.S. Ambas-
sador to Iraq and am looking forward to working
with the dedicated men and women who will be
serving in our new Embassy.
Our mission will be to help the sovereign govern-
ment and people of Iraq take control of their own
affairs and rebuild their country. The new U.S. Em-
bassy will be a supportive rather than commanding
presence on the ground, providing policy direction
and coordination for all U.S. Government activities
in Iraq except for U.S. forces.
Q: What will be your new Embassy’s role in
Iraqi democratization and economic develop-
ment?
A: In partnership with the Iraqi people, the U.S.
Embassy will support democratization and rule of
law, promote economic development and support
efforts to restore security and eliminate terrorism.
The United States is also providing unprecedented
funding and reconstruction assistance to help Iraq
achieve a level of prosperity commensurate with its
natural and human resources and proud history.
Q: Looking ahead, what do you see as your
greatest challenges?
A: There are two primary challenges ahead of our
Embassy staff. One is supporting political stability.
We will help the Iraqi people establish a forward
momentum for their new democracy and political
development. Another challenge is security. In coor-
dination with the U.S. and coalition military, we will
seek to expand and improve the training of Iraqi
forces—including their civil defense, police and
military.
Q: What will be the role of the United States
in the upcoming elections?
A: We commend the hard work of the United Na-
tions elections team, headed by Carina Perelli, in
preparing the groundwork for the Iraqi elections.
The U.S. Embassy will work with the Iraqi people,
the independent Electoral Commission, and the UN
as Iraq prepares voter rolls, trains election workers,
designates polling stations and distributes ballots
for parliamentary elections to be held by January 31
of next year.
Q: What is your vision of Iraq in the future?
A: As President Bush has said, a prosperous, stable
and democratic Iraq is central to the peace and sta-
bility of the region. All of our efforts over the past
year have sought to support the Iraqi people
achieve this goal and ensure that the new, free Iraq
will be a constructive presence in the region, with a
government at peace with its neighbors and its own
citizens.
John Negroponte
John Negroponte was named by President Bush
to take over as U.S. ambassador to Iraq at the
new embassy to be set up in Baghdad in July.
Currently chief U.S. envoy to the United Nations,
he was sworn in to that post on September 18,
2001, just after the terrorist attacks on Washing-
ton and New York.
Negroponte has served for 37 years in the
Department of State as a career diplomat. He had
eight different assignments abroad including
membership in the U.S. delegation to the Paris
Peace Talks on Vietnam in 1968 through 1969.
He served as ambassador to Honduras, 1981-
1985; ambassador to Mexico, 1989-1993; and am-
bassador to the Philippines, 1993-1996. From
1996 to 1997 he was special negotiator for the
post-1999 U.S. presence in Panama.
He also served as deputy assistant secretary
of state for oceans and fisheries affairs from 1976
through 1979 and was deputy assistant secretary
of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs in 1980.
President Reagan named Negroponte deputy
assistant to the president for national security
affairs under General Colin Powell when the fu-
ture secretary of state was the national security
advisor.
From 1997 until he was called back to
national service by President Bush in 2001,
Negroponte was executive vice president for
global markets of the McGraw-Hill Companies.

24
U S A I D i n I r a q
Projects Dahuk
Water/Sanitation
Health
Public Buildings
Community Action
Local Governance
Tall ‘Afar
Community Action
Transition Initiatives
tional and Iraqi partners, USAID
spent approximately $3.3 billion
Working with dozens of interna-
dollars in the 12 months that fol-
lowed the fall of Saddam Hus-
sein’s regime. Some short-term projects have
already been completed, while others may
take years before they are finished. This map
shows the principal locations where major
projects are under way. Large areas in the
south and west of the country are desert and
are sparsely populated.
Bayji
Power
Kirkuk
Water/Sanitation
Health
Public Buildings
Quick Impact Projects
Power
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Tikrit
Bridge
Community Action
Transition Initiatives
Balad
Public Buildings
Transition Initiatives
Rutbah
Zakhu
Transition Initiatives
Zakhu
Tall 'Afar
Samarra
Community Action
Local Governance
Hit
Water/Sanitation
Ramadi
Community Action
Local Governance Fallujah
Water/Sanitation
Health
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Ramadi
Fallujah
Rutbah
Bridge
Musayyib
Power
Karbala
Water/Sanitation
Education
Health
Public Buildings
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Hillah
Water/Sanitation
Education
Health
Public Buildings
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Najaf
Water/Sanitation
Education
Health
Public Buildings
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Al Kufah
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Rumaythah
Community Action
Samawah
Water/Sanita
Community A
Local Governa

Mosul
Water/Sanitation
Health
Education
Public Buildings
Nutrition
Quick Impact Projects
Reconstruction
Local Governance
Airport
Arbil
Water/Sanitation
Health
Public Buildings
Quick Impact Projects
Reconstruction
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Chamchamal
Bayji
Tikrit
Halabjah
Kifri
Balad
h
Musayyib
Hayy
Kufah
Rumaythah
ation
Action
ance
Nasiriyah
Water/Sanitation
Health
Public Buildings
Power
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Zubayr
Health
Community Action
Chamchamal
Community Action
Sulaymaniyah
Health
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Kirfi
Community Action
Transition Initiatives
Baghdad
Water/Sanitation
Education
Health
Public Buildings
Nutrition
Quick Impact Projects
Reconstruction
Power
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Airport
Zubayr
Safwan
Water/Sanitation
Health
Reconstruction
Halabjah
Community Action
Transition Initiatives
Khanaqin
Water/Sanitation
Quick Impact Projects
Community Action
Ba’qubah
Water/Sanitation
Health
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Hayy
Community Action
Transition Initiatives
Diwaniyah
Water/Sanitation
Education
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Muqdadiyah
Water/Sanitation
Community Action
Transition Initiatives
Kut
Water/Sanitation
Education
Public Buildings
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Amarah
Water/Sanitation
Health
Quick Impact Projects
Reconstruction
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Faw
Faw
Health
Umm Qasr
Education
Health
Public Buildings
Quick Impact Projects
Reconstruction
Power
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Seaport, Railroad
Basra
Water/Sanitation
Education
Health
Public Buildings
Shelter
Quick Impact Projects
Reconstruction
Power
Community Action
Local Governance
Transition Initiatives
Media
Airport, Railroad

Ten Major Achievements
USAID in Iraq, April 2003–March 2004
1 Prevented humanitarian emergency
delivered 575,000 metric tons of wheat, reforming
public distribution system. Page 4
2 Created local and city governments
at more than 600 communities. Page 10
3 Restarted schools
FIxed 2,500 schools; textbooks to 8.7 million students,
supplies to 3.3 million; trained 33,000 teachers. Page 16
4 Vaccinated 3 million children
Equipping 600 primary care health clinics and
rehabilitated more than 60 others. Page 14
5 Providing safe water
Expanding Baghdad water purification plant and
rehabilitating 27 water and sewage plants. Page 6
6 Re-opened deep water port
Dredged Umm Qasr, repaired equipment. Today
it handles 140,000 tons of cargo a month. Page 5
7 Restoring electric service
Repaired eight major power plants with CPA,
adding 2,100 megawatts by summer 2004. Page 6
8 Helped CPA launch new currency
and re-establish Central Bank. Page 18
9 Reviving the Marshlands
Reflooding revives ancient way of life. Page 20
10 Established Good Governance
Budgeting, accounting systems add
transparency, accountability to
ministries. Pages 10, 18
Thomas Hartwell
U. S. Agency for
International Development
www.usaid.gov