A total of 30 veterinarians and animal health officers from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and KRG’s Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources (MoAWR), were trained in a 5 days’ workshop “Clinical Diagnosis and Disease Recognition” in Baghdad from December 19 to 23, 2021, in the context of the  US Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) funded project “Improving Delivery of Animal Health Services and Disease Surveillance in Iraq”, implemented by FAO in collaboration with the MoA with MoAWR.   The Dean of the Veterinary Medicine college, D. Hameed Ali accompanied by a 5 lecturers along with a number of veterinarians and animal health officers in the sector from Kurdistan region and Iraqi governorates, attended the training sessions, that became increasingly collaborative and interactive, continuously enriched with topics including, Brucellosis, Avian Influenza, Sheep pox and goat pox, Lumpy Skin Disease, Rabies, Peste Des Petitis Ruminants, Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis, Bovine Viral Diarrhea, Foot and Mouth Disease, Bluetongue, Rift Valley Fever, Anthrax and Q Fever.   In the opening remarks, FAOR in Iraq, D. Salah El Hajj Hassan welcomed the attendees and indicated to the project interventions in the field of animal diseases “The training is to strengthen the capability of the veterinarians and animal health service workers in the areas of investigation, sample collection, examination, testing as well as laboratory diagnosis through sharing information and exchange of expertise to contribute positively in the harmonization of the animal disease identification system across Iraq. He added, ”We work with partners to eradicate threats related to animal diseases and to limit the risk of animal disease outbreaks through improving capacity in assessing veterinary services and disease reporting systems”. D. Hameed Ali, the Dean of the Veterinary Medicine College in Baghdad, praised the importance of the scientific cooperation between the Veterinary Medicine College and Food and Agriculture Organization through adapting effective model in training future trainers. Also he expressed his admiration towards the training, describing it “The workshop was well organized and the approach was very informative, held with the help of qualified professors in the field of veterinary medicine and animal diseases, who have carried out many researches”. Participants have given a certificate of completion at the conclusion of the training.  

Thanks to the generous support of the Japanese Government, UNIDO has organized Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) trainings at the Shariya and Kabarto IDP Camps, aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and upscaling a workforce. The ten-day, 65-hour entrepreneurship training programme collaborates with 43 existing micro businesses located within the Camps and strives to make these businesses more sustainable and resilient, especially in light of the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The training, which includes sessions such as marketing, management and budgeting, is designed to help the IDPs leverage their past career experiences, improve upon existing management skills and acquire new knowledge in order to sustain and improve their micro businesses.  Participants and collaborating entrepreneurs receive asset support in the form of equipment, tools and supplies to strengthen their enterprises towards success. Khalaf Murad Ilyas, originally from a village near Sinjar town, Nineveh Governorate, participated in the programme as a means of expanding the barber business he has established in the Camp. Back home in his village, Khalaf was involved in his family’s small barbershop and worked alongside his father and uncle. Having only finished primary school, Khalaf says that, prior to the programme, he had not been exposed to skills like developing a business plan, and setting goals for business expansion. “I learned how to manage my time and how to formulate a vision for the future, “Khalaf says of his experiences in the programme. “I plan to develop my business to have a good income to improve the situation of my family.” Nada Yusif Kalo, another programme participant, operates a small sewing shop in Kabarto IDP Camp. A divorcee with 4 children to support, Nada has been displaced since 2014. Nada worked as a seamstress at a clothing factory in Mosul for five years, before deciding to go into business for herself. Nada opened a small workshop at her home in Mosul after making an agreement with the factory who had employed her—taking in outsourced work from the factory, in addition to growing her own customer base. Using credits and loans, Nada had made significant investments in her home-based business until Mosul fell into the hands of ISIS, forcing her with her family to flee and losing all her equipment to looting. After being in the camp, she had to start work again to secure income for her children. She opened a small shop with simple equipment. The skill and experience she had could secure her some income. “There are many skills that I lacked and did not have any idea on those I learned from the training such as, managing your business, advertising and promoting of your products, and also how to calculate profit and loss.  These are crucial to the development of one’s business,” Nada says. Nada says that her business felt the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, as fewer social gatherings equated to less need for new clothing. Despite this, she is beginning to see her business return, thanks to vaccines and bettering mitigation efforts. Thanks to the support of UNIDO, she intends to expand her business, and serve as a training vehicle for other women in need of skills training to gain independence and escape poverty. “If you do not think of others you cannot think of yourself,” Nada says.      

At the United Nations, there are two worlds: Headquarters and the field. United Nations Headquarters in New York is our mothership. In iconic rooms such as the General Assembly Hall and the Security Council Chamber, our Member States make decisions that affect people across the globe. Meanwhile, the field is where those decisions are felt most acutely. It’s where you find our peacekeeping missions, our vital humanitarian operations, our mediators engaging in shuttle diplomacy. In the summer of 2021, I was deeply enmeshed in the world of Headquarters. As Director of Communications and Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly, it was my job to tell the press and public what was going on in the Organization’s most democratic body. My focus was on resolutions, declarations and high-level meetings. I was surrounded by words—but not seeing firsthand if or how those words were actually improving people’s lives.     Around that time, I happened to stumble across a movie about Sérgio Vieira de Mello, a United Nations hero who lost his life following a shocking attack in Iraq in 2003. I had joined the Organization shortly before that attack and never forgot the impact that it had on my colleagues and me. The United Nations was suddenly a target. The field seemed like a much scarier place at the time. But nearly two decades later, I didn’t feel fear when I watched the film; I was inspired. Sérgio could have spent his United Nations career in glass skyscrapers and air-conditioned conference rooms. But he chose to go to the field—to be closer to the people the United Nations is meant to serve. It had been years since my last field posting, and I wanted to go back. What I didn’t know at the time (since my focus was on the General Assembly) was that the Security Council had just adopted a new resolution concerning Iraq. Resolution 2576 (2021) of 27 May 2021 welcomed the request of the Government of Iraq for support for its 10 October 2021 elections—and called for a United Nations strategic messaging campaign to educate and inform Iraqi voters on election preparations, as well as related United Nations activities. With less than five months between the passage of that resolution and the elections, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) needed to get a communications team on the ground immediately. That’s when I was asked to deploy to Baghdad. Of course, it’s one thing to feel inspired after watching a film and another to actually move to a place that the United Nations classifies as a dangerous hardship duty station. But it didn’t take me long to decide. After discussing it with my family, I said yes to UNAMI. From a professional standpoint, I felt ready, but I soon learned how hard it was to work on a country file without actually being on the ground. For example, while still in New York, one of my first tasks was to come up with a hashtag for our new electoral communications campaign. I chose #Vote4Iraq to encourage Iraqi voters to put their country above any other affiliation. But the Kurdish-speaking national staff in UNAMI advised me to consider other options as well. They told me that invoking the name of the country would alienate Kurds. It wasn’t until I visited the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) three months later that I truly understood what they meant. In and around Erbil, the regional capital, I frequently saw the Kurdish flag flying—but not always the Iraqi flag. I realized that not all Iraqi citizens saw themselves as Iraqi, and our communications would need to take that into account. At the United Nations, people often refer to “mission life”, as if all missions were pretty much the same. But that’s not the case. When I worked in Jerusalem and Pristina, I had my own apartment in town. I could meet my new local friends in restaurants and parks. On the other hand, in Mogadishu in 2013, I was confined to the United Nations compound. I slept in a tiny, thin-walled container with no private bathroom. Food was only available in the bare-boned mess hall. Inadequate Wi-Fi service made it tough to keep in touch with family back home. It was normal to hear gunfire at night. And while we had access to a beach, swimming was discouraged due to sharks, riptides and pirates. My Baghdad experience was somewhere between that of Jerusalem/Pristina and Mogadishu. All United Nations personnel—whether they worked for UNAMI or the agencies—had to live on the compound. Leaving the secured Green Zone wasn’t possible without a security escort. While the collective accommodations were great for intra-United Nations camaraderie, the atmosphere could often feel claustrophobic. Time outdoors had to be limited due to the intense daily temperatures of 115 °F (46 °C). I understood why staff were entitled to one week of rest and recreation (R&R) after every four weeks of service. But I couldn’t complain about my living conditions in Baghdad. My apartment had a modern bathroom, kitchen and television, and the compound had a gym, pizzeria and barbershop. There were even facilities where staff could play tennis, football and ping-pong. Before arriving in Baghdad, I had drafted a communications strategy focused on one of the priority areas of the Department of Global Communications (DGC): “human-centred storytelling”. UNAMI leadership wanted our campaign to focus in part on convincing Iraqis to participate in the elections. So, with a team of videographers, I set out to amplify the voices of Iraqi citizens who planned to vote. Iraqis may or may not listen to the United Nations, I thought, but surely they would be inspired by each other. I imagined a video in which a woman walks past a rundown hospital in her neighbourhood and says, “I’m going to vote because I want better healthcare.” But again, my Headquarters assumptions were confronted by realities on the ground. First, there was fear. Given the security constraints, it was already tough to find ordinary Iraqis to talk to, and when we did, many were reluctant to have their faces shown on camera. They feared repercussions if the wrong people saw them speaking out on what could be perceived as a political topic. There was also a general distrust of the authorities. Many Iraqis felt that there was no point in voting because fraud and a flawed system would just return the same old politicians to power. Our message was that, although these elections were Iraqi-owned and Iraqi-led, the United Nations was standing with Iraq every step of the way. In the end, we did manage to tell some Iraqis’ stories, but the skepticism I sensed among the people made me focus on another DGC priority area as well: sharing accurate information to combat fake news. We started producing videos and holding dialogues that took the rumours we were hearing and countered them with facts. We explained how the upcoming elections would be different from past ones—and how technical support from the United Nations would help ensure a credible process. For the first time, UNAMI started livestreaming press conferences by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Iraq. We enlisted local artists to paint pro-voting murals throughout the country. We also worked with Iraqi social media influencers to reach the country’s youth, since 60 per cent of the population was 25 years of age or younger. As the elections drew nearer, additional United Nations personnel started arriving to monitor the polls, and our main goal became to increase their visibility. All United Nations monitors, many UNAMI staff and even the SRSG started regularly wearing United Nations caps and vests as we moved around the country so that Iraqis would see us and feel reassured that the United Nations was on the ground and assisting. Our message was that, although these elections were Iraqi-owned and Iraqi-led, the United Nations was standing with Iraq every step of the way. In the end, election day came and went. The voter turnout wasn’t particularly high or low. But in a country where a significant number of voters I spoke to told me they would prefer having a monarch, it was crucial to remember that, as the United Nations, our role was a supporting one. Ultimately, it was for the Iraqi people to decide what kind of system they preferred and whether they wanted to participate in it. On the bright side, we were happy to see that the elections had proceeded smoothly, had featured significant technical and procedural improvements, and could serve as an important stepping stone for the future. While in Iraq, aside from my work, I started a purely personal project. I decided to use my own Instagram account to show my followers what the country really looked like. Because most people could not go as tourists to many of the places I was visiting, their knowledge of Iraq was probably based on what they saw on the news, which was largely destruction and despair. The Iraq I was experiencing didn’t match up with that perception. I saw bohemian cafés in Baghdad, trendy rooftop restaurants in Duhok and Erbil, and beautiful river views in Basra. I met young Iraqi artists, filmmakers, musicians and entrepreneurs. I bought streetwear from local designers and smiled when I saw Iraqi hipsters who looked like they had been plucked off the streets of Brooklyn. The United Nations had sent me to Baghdad to advise on electoral communications, but it had also given me the chance to get to know a country that remains mysterious to much of the world. I knew that I was lucky. Lucky to grow and learn. Lucky to be a part of something bigger than myself. And lucky to serve in the field.   The UN Chronicle is not an official record. It is privileged to host senior United Nations officials as well as distinguished contributors from outside the United Nations system whose views are not necessarily those of the United Nations. Similarly, the boundaries and names shown, and the designations used, in maps or articles do not necessarily imply endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.           

In October 2021, the people and Government of Iraq successfully concluded the country’s latest parliamentary elections. The members of the United Nations Security Council commended Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) for "conducting a technically sound election." They further recognized the role of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) in providing "technical assistance and international monitoring" in support of the electoral process. The international experts with UNAMI's Office of Electoral Assistance (OEA) included 15 dedicated UN Volunteers. This group of UN Volunteers (six women and nine men) was part of a team comprising one thousand personnel during the peak period of the elections – described as "the biggest electoral assistance mission in the history of UN’s practice worldwide," according to Dr Aamir Arain Aamir, Director of UNAMI Electoral Assistance and UN Principal Electoral Advisor. However, these volunteers "were a significant part of this undertaking, serving in both substantive, technical and administrative aspects of the complex electoral assistance programme," adds Dr Arain. The UN Volunteers were distributed between Baghdad and five other regions of the country, supporting IHEC’s nineteen Governorate Elections Offices (GEOs). Their much-valued contributions were part of a broader commitment to election transparency, upon which Iraq's nascent peacebuilding endeavours depend. The elections process was also a unique experience – a long-awaited thread of hope for people with differences who found a common ground. UN Volunteers Lucie Mukarumashana and Zarina Isakova are esteemed for their prior electoral experience in Afghanistan, civic education acumen and expertise in outreach and communications.  As women, their presence among international teams further promotes gender equality in the public sphere and dovetails new election laws requiring women to comprise 25 per cent of the elected members for the Council of Representatives (parliament). Throughout the electoral process Lucie and Zarina engaged closely with their Iraqi counterparts at the International High Electoral Commission and Governorate Elections Office providing advisory support and injecting fresh ideas. Lucie served as a Regional Electoral Officer in Nineveh – which Dr Arain describes as a very challenging duty station, politically, in terms of operations. There, she helped establish and maintain communication channels between IHEC offices, supported recruitment and training of polling teams and reviewed logistical and security preparations. She also developed reports with lessons learned that ensured electoral actors could adapt, localize and improve electoral processes in real-time. These processes were further augmented by simulations, site visits and complaints mechanisms, which Lucie also followed up closely before the election was held. Her efforts helped ensure concerns and challenges were resolved with credibility and public trust in the elections process could flourish. Back in Baghdad, Zarina contributed to communication flow between institutions and supported UNAMI's Office of Electoral Assistance. Her progress reports, including daily and weekly election updates, made data accessible to senior mission management, diplomatic community and multinational teams, as electoral preparations and electoral assistance activities moved forward. In addition, UN Volunteer Dinesh Pathak further supported communication efforts, with a particular focus on IHEC field offices. As a Field Coordination Officer, based in Baghdad, Dinesh worked within a team that managed and coordinated 19 field offices’ activities. He conducted site visits, assessed the Governorate Election Office’s logistical and security readiness, while also observing and documenting electoral activities and participation, including women's participation. Like Lucie and Zarina, Dinesh had previously supported UN Missions in Afghanistan and other countries, bringing vital field experience contributing to the development of an electoral education and information center for all regional offices. Together, these UN Volunteers helped the IHEC to complete electoral preparations in a timely manner and to increase the awareness of and participation in a credible parliamentary election. Alongside the above-cited UN Volunteers, there were several others with legal, medical, COVID-19 mitigation and technology expertise, who supported the largest electoral assistance mission the United Nations has ever undertaken. That mission covered technical assistance, as well as election day monitoring, strategic communication, and coordination/support for third-party observers. Therefore, the value added to the work of UNAMI's Office of Electoral Assistance cannot be overstated. UN Volunteers performed key functions and have knowledge of elections processes acquired in several countries over many UN missions. They were eager to contribute and delivered their expertise and support to a challenging and complex undertaking by UNAMI OEA. They played a vital role to make these efforts a resounding success. --Dr Aamir Arain Aamir, Director of UN Integrated Electoral Assistance and UN Principal Electoral Advisor Indeed, as Iraq sought to prepare, operate and monitor a new election, UN Volunteers arrived with solidarity and camaraderie. Their support for Iraq’s election as part of international assistance helped the people of Iraq foster the hope of peace.