Iraq Economic Inclusion Pilot

pipeline

The Economic Inclusion Pilot (EIP), financed with a grant from the Iraq Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Fund (I3RF), will provide a comprehensive package of services to 1,500 individuals in the southern governorate of ThiQar, which suffers from high levels of poverty, to help them initiate an income-generating activity. Beneficiaries from households benefiting from the national poverty-targeted Cash Transfer Program (CTP) will be selected. The services include the provision of foundational and technical training, transfer of in-kind assets (to be identified based on a local market assessment), coaching, and mentoring. The EIP will be implemented by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MOLSA) General Directorate of Labor and Vocational Training (GDLVT). An impact evaluation will be carried out to derive learning lessons for replication or scale-up. The pilot's design and implementation will consider Iraq's high vulnerability, particularly in the southern region, to climate risks – water scarcity, quality degradation, and heat waves - and will put the required measures for climate adaptation in place. The pilot will also directly target 45 percent of its beneficiaries to be females, be they heads of households or members of a household, and will cater to these beneficiaries through specific support in terms of training, coaching, and mentoring.