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BAGHDAD, Iraq (February 12, 2008) - In the late-morning
sunlight, the crowd paid close attention to the speaker. He was one
of them -- a home-grown leader.
They heard this meeting would offer them benefits, and Fikrat
Kareem, the neighborhood advisory council leader for Tunnis, was
introducing the day's topic: their neighborhood economies.
An estimated 200 Iraqi residents from the Qahira, Suleikh and
Tunnis neighborhoods in Baghdad's Adhamiya district began planning
for the economic future of their areas by attending a Feb. 9 market
fair in Suleikh.
Along with seminars providing business-management coaching, the
event, coordinated through the combined efforts of Iraqi and
coalition forces leaders in the area, also introduced these Iraqis
to the concept of a market action committee. Such committees have
proven successful in nearby neighborhoods within Adhamiya.
Army Col. Jeffery Bonner, a Fayetteville, Tenn., native who
serves as an agricultural and commercial business-development
officer with the local embedded provincial reconstruction team, is
helping to implement the market action committee idea in
neighborhoods throughout Adhamiya.
The idea behind the market action committee is "to get leaders
(within) these specific areas to come together to form a council
under the government of Iraq as a not-for-profit organization,"
Bonner explained.
As a nonprofit organization, the groups will be able to work
with representatives from organizations such as the U.S. Agency for
International Development, the colonel added.
Robert C. Dose, an agricultural market specialist with the
USAID-sponsored Agribusiness Program, was present at the event.
"This area is on the edge of an agricultural production area and
an urban area," Dose said. "We're here to provide new technology in
areas such as food processing and packaging."
The ability of civilian representatives from such organizations
to come to the area to work with Iraqi citizens is largely due to
the improved level of security provided by the Iraqi security
forces, citizen volunteers and Multinational Division Baghdad
forces, he noted.
"This whole area has become permissive for us to work with the
local leaders," Dose said. "Six months ago, we wouldn't have come
here."
The market fair not only was a result, in large part, of better
security, but also is a way to help ensure the area stays safe.
"In order to maintain the positive security momentum," Bonner
said, "we have to have some vehicles to start bringing life back
into the community and allow people the means of creating some
personal revenue."
In addition to enabling USAID and representatives of other
groups to work with the neighborhood business leaders, the market
action committees also act as advocates from the business community
to local governments.
Having an organization that can communicate with the local
government about the forecast of different capitalization projects
in the area is important when attempting to rebuild a neighborhood
fixture such as the local marketplace, Bonner said.
It is important not to rebuild an entire market, he said, "only
to find out that four months later, the local government is going
to come and tear up the street and sidewalks to go put in water
lines or gas lines."
Iraqis who attended the fair walked away with a sense of
hope.
Muthier Salah Abidilkhalik, of Suleihk, said he attended the
fair because he heard there would be projects to help his
neighborhood people. The idea of the people working together to
better the neighborhood economies will benefit the area now and
also in the future, he said.
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