USAID pledges $17 million to develop private sector in Iraq's Nineveh
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - In a meeting held at the US Consulate in Erbil on Thursday, a US official pledged $17 million of assistance to Iraq's northern Ninewa province to develop the private sector, including in the largely-destroyed town of Sinjar (Shingal).
"We will grant small business loans to the people to help them start their own business," said Max Primorac, Special Representative for Minority Assistance Programs Minority Assistance Programs for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), while speaking to reporters.
"We have had many opportunities to meet with our local partners and fund important projects in Qaraqush, Karamles, Sheikhan, Telsquf, Lalish, Alqush, Shingal, Mosul and other locations," he said, as reported by KirkukNow.
The Islamic State took over large portions of Nineveh in 2014, notably the capital of Mosul and also the town of Shingal, formerly home to large numbers of the Yezidi (Ezidi) religious minority which suffered heavily under the group's brutal rule. In mid-May, an Ezidi lawmaker in the Kurdistan Region Parliament announced the introduction of a draft bill that calls on the Iraqi government to establish an annual day that recognizes the events as a genocide.
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Since the military defeat of the extremist group in December 2017, reconstruction efforts have often stalled for a variety of reasons. A large percentage of the province's former population, including many members of Iraq's minority communities, remain displaced in the Kurdistan Region, elsewhere in Iraq, or abroad.
Aside from mass destruction, lack of essential services, and security concerns, one of the key roadblocks to their return is that local economies remain utterly decimated.
Primorac added, "The United States remains firmly committed to working with all religious minority groups in Iraq, including in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and will continue to coordinate and work closely with our local partners and community leaders to implement and monitor current and new U.S.-funded programs throughout the country."
USAID is an independent agency of the United States federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 billion, it is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world and accounts for more than half of all US foreign assistance.
