RT: US Allocates $25 Million to “Support Civil Society” in Iraq

By Al Ahed Staff, Agencies

The United States Agency for International Development [USAID] announced plans to allocate up to $25 million to "support civil society" in Iraq. As specified in the description of the relevant grant, the work of future contractors will be funded by the US side for five years. RT has read the document.

“The USAID-sponsored Civil Society Activities in Iraq will increase citizen participation in the public sphere, especially women and youth, while supporting civil society organizations [CSOs] to reach out to citizens and other CSOs and empower them,” the statement reads. text.

According to the forecasts of American experts, the result of the efforts made, among other things, should be the formation of an active and stable sector of civil society in Iraq. 

At the same time, according to the USAID scenario, the initiative under consideration can increase the involvement of Iraqis in various areas, including, for example, climate change. 

The program will also help strengthen the sustainability and viability of civil society organizations in the country.

“USAID is working with Iraq in its transition to becoming a more stable, democratic state.

Problems along the way to this transition have been ongoing conflicts, entrenched elites, a culture of corruption, and difficulties experienced by civil society organizations in fulfilling their mediating role between the Iraqi people and the government,” the agency explains the motives for the US work in Iraq.

The amount of the budget that USAID is ready to allocate for the implementation of its plans in Iraq is $25 million.

The US has been funding civil society initiatives, including in Iraq, for many years.

This was recalled in an interview with RT by the leading researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences Boris Dolgov.

“I think, first of all, it should be recalled here that in 2003 the US actually committed an act of aggression against Iraq, a sovereign state," Dolgov said.

He went on to say, "This aggression was supported by a number of American allies, as a result of which the Iraqi state was destroyed, there were numerous victims, many of them members of the civilian population."

"By the way, another very significant fact: in Iraq, the Americans used charges with low-enriched uranium – they used the same ones in Yugoslavia," he said, noting that, "Today, the United States intends to engage in the development of civil society in Iraq."

"It looks somewhat cynical," the expert added.

Earlier it was reported about the intentions of the US Department of State to allocate up to $12 million to “ensure stability” in northeastern Syria, as well as in some areas in northern Aleppo.