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BAGHDAD, Iraq (January 29, 2008) - To many Americans, convenient
shopping means easy, safe parking at clean, wholesome supermarkets.
In Iraq, where shoppers often risk their lives buying groceries and
vendors watch produce rot for lack of electricity or transport,
marketing has different requirements.
SThe New Baghdad Market, also known as 9 Nissan, soon will be
able to meet these special needs.
The "Baghdad 2" embedded provincial reconstruction team and the
3rd Infantry Division's 2-69th Armor Battalion have been working
with the Baghdad Provincial Council, local district and
neighborhood councils and the U.S. Agency for International
Development's "Inma" agribusiness program to rekindle plans for a
modern community-based retail food market. "Inma" is an Arabic word
that means "growth."
The high-profile New Baghdad Market is perfectly located beside
a highway, adjacent to bus transport and surrounded by a large
residential community. It was designed for secure shopping,
sanitary food handling and safe food storage. Built with USAID
funding in 2004, the market remained unoccupied as violence and
ethnic tension drove many residents away.
Local police continuously ran squatters out of the stalls, and
coalition forces often found weapons caches there. As stability
took hold and local residents returned to their neighborhood,
hundreds of vendors commandeered nearby streets, building makeshift
stalls from scrap wood and plastic sheeting to sell vegetables,
chicken and meat.
"The area developed so fast economically that it attracted
people even from outside the area," said Army Capt. Alexis
Perez-Cruz, who has worked for 10 months with Iraqi police and
soldiers in the area of the market. "Neighborhood council meetings
have now shifted focus from security to economic issues."
Looking at the unoccupied New Baghdad Market, the council saw
economic opportunity ready to be developed. The Iraqi police saw a
way to clear a major thoroughfare, and coalition forces saw an
opportunity to work with the Iraqi government to improve a
community and the lives of its residents.
Late last year, 2-69th Armor and the Baghdad 2 team asked Inma
to help make the market viable. Inma's value chain strategy for
improving Iraq's private sector agribusiness recognizes that
increasing the supply of farm produce without enabling markets to
accommodate the demand cannot lead to sustainable development.
"A clean, safe market offers Iraqi shoppers one small semblance
of normalcy in their lives," said Inma Chief of Party Herschel
Weeks. "The facility will ultimately impact farmers by becoming an
introductory step toward modern marketing and packaging."
When Inma engineers visited the New Baghdad Market, they found
street lighting in place, but no electricity; sewers and toilets
were in need of cleaning and repair, but had no running water.
Strengthening Iraq's agribusiness value chain requires water and
electricity for cleaning, packing and refrigerating produce to
prolong its shelf life.
Soldiers from 2-69th Armor designed the security for the market,
including T-wall concrete barriers, "drop-arm" vehicle entry gates
and pedestrian checkpoints. Their noncommissioned officer for
projects, Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Rogers, has been instrumental in
bringing together the many stakeholders. The battalion will
coordinate crews for clearing parking lots and cleaning the sewer
system.
Representatives of the Iraqi government and local councils
documented land ownership at New Baghdad Market and will secure an
agreement that allows market vendors to hold official leases for
their stalls.
USAID contractors will complete display stands and install
roller shutters on the stalls. They also will manage construction
repairs and upgrades, including electrical and plumbing
installation, flooring, roofing, doors and shutters for market
booths.
Taking the lead on market completion, Inma will install the
security elements and will provide generators and cold storage
units. Inma helped the 9 Nissan Market Agricultural Association,
which will manage the facility, legally register as a
nongovernmental organization and will train association members in
facility operations and food safety management.
Opening New Baghdad Market will ease traffic congestion by
ending street-selling. Many vendors say they prefer renting one of
the 730 new stalls to improve their safety and comfort. New tenants
will be prime candidates for micro loans and grants, funds that
could help them purchase coolers and other store fixtures.
"It's a tremendous opportunity for stability," said Capt. Joseph
Peppers, 2-69th Armor effects coordinator. "These stalls mean
steady jobs - a chance to have a regular business."
Community buy-in is vital not only for market viability, but
also to make New Baghdad Market a respected, protected, permanent
fixture in the neighborhood and to further increase the number of
people who benefit from its operations.
"This will be the best market, and everyone will want to say
they're in the best place," Peppers said. "It's going to act as a
model market - a mini mall."
While each of the stalls will provide sales employment for
tenant vendors, the market itself will generate hundreds of other
job opportunities for transporters, cleaners and other service
providers. A higher standard of cleanliness and safer, more secure
facilities will enable restaurants and cafes to grow up around it -
many of which will employ women.
"If you walk through New Baghdad Market, it doesn't exactly
match its name," said Neighborhood Council Chairman Haitham Ali,
while touring the current vending area. "We are working together to
make New Baghdad, really New Baghdad."
Rebuilding the New Baghdad Market demonstrates the U.S.
government's three-track strategy - security, coupled with economic
and political stability - through the cooperation of the U.S.
military, USAID and Department of State and through collaboration
with their Iraqi counterparts in government, police, nongovernment
organizations and the private sector.
"New Baghdad Market also shows the Iraqi people that this
market, started by Americans, was finished by Americans - with the
help of their Iraqi colleagues," Weeks said.
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