Jordan Times
Monday, July 18, 2005
Iraq meets donor community in Jordan with hopes of new momentum in aid
AMMAN (AFP) — Iraq and donor countries meet in Jordan next week in hope of creating new momentum to rebuild the violence-ravaged country, which some say faces a make-or-break situation to guarantee its political transition.
“The case for aiding Iraq in its reconstruction is strong, not only in development terms but in geo-strategic terms,” said Canadian diplomat Michael Bell, who will co-chair the meeting with Iraqi Planning Minister Barham Saleh.
“Iraq is going through a very serious and profound transition ... If it does not succeed, we will have to look at the consequences in regional terms and in terms of security worldwide,” Bell told AFP in an interview.
For UN deputy special representative to Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, the next six months are crucial for Iraq, which is drawing up a constitution that will be put to a national referendum in October ahead of elections.
“The next six months are crucial to make it or break it,” de Mistura told AFP, comparing Iraq to a patient who needs stabilisation through external aid as well as internal efforts crowned by a constitution.
“We can do all sort of water projects, education projects, but if we don't have the constitution... we may have a disruption of the social, economic and political stability of Iraq by far worse than what we have seen in the past,” he said.
Representatives of more than 60 countries and international bodies, including the United Nations and World Bank, will gather on the shores of the Dead Sea to attend the two-day meeting of the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq and the Donors Committee (IRFI), starting Monday.
International donors set up IRFFI at an October 2003 conference in Madrid, six months after major combat ended in the US-led war on Iraq. At that meeting countries pledged $33 billion in aid to Iraq for 2004-2007.
One billion dollars has been committed and divided evenly in two trust funds, administered separately by the World Bank and the United Nations.
The meeting hosted by Jordan comes hot on the heels of last month's conference in Brussels, which urged donors to be more generous.
Canada, the United Nations and the World Bank hope Iraq will submit to the meeting a few short-term projects that address the immediate needs of the Iraqi people, in a bid to attract attention to their plight.
“One of our major goals is to develop strategies to increase commitments to the trust funds. We also want to have worthwhile projects,” Bell indicated.
Bell, UN and World Bank officials will go on a world tour in the fall to convince countries that have made good their contributions and those who have not “of the merits” of helping Iraq back on its feet.
The UN has spent $154 million from the trust fund it manages while the World Bank has $365 million worth of projects being implemented in Iraq. Both rely on a network of local staff and Iraqi institutions.
“Our job is not only to spend the dollar but to make sure that as we spend this dollar we put in place the right financial pipes in the country that could absorb $10 or $20,” said Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank head of mission for Iraq.
“The World Bank does not implement projects in Iraq. We finance projects and we focus a great deal on building on the capacity of the Iraqi ministries to implement projects,” he explained.
Iraq needs the meeting to consolidate credibility and legitimacy for its nascent transitional government, formed in April, three months after the country's first free legislative elections in more than 50 years.
Baghdad's message to the international community is simple: “We need your help more than ever now because we have started to help ourselves,” said Ahmed Salman, a senior aide to the Iraqi planning minister who will lead a large delegation.
At the Brussels meeting, Iraqi officials complained that aid had been slow coming partly because of fears over security — an issue that Bell, UN and World Bank officials insist should not determine the pace of reconstruction.