Iraq – Community Action Program II (CAP II)

Supporting Community Action Groups, Expanding Conflict Resolution Training

Building on ACDI/VOCA’s successes under the three-year, $50 million USAID-funded Community Action Program, ACDI/VOCA will partner with CHF International under the Community Action Program II (CAP II). CHF International will act as the prime for the two-year project, which will support 32 selected community action groups and expand training on practical tools for conflict resolution. The program will focus on youth for such issues as youth gang prevention, business ethics, basic accounting, microfinance/small and medium-sized enterprise finance, market assessment and civil society interaction with local government.

ACDI/VOCA's portion, worth $15 million, will support the building of a stable, democratic and prosperous Iraq by strengthening community-level mechanisms and capacity for citizen participation in local decision-making and development. To achieve this, ACDI/VOCA will meet the following objectives:

• enhanced stability and social capital through stakeholder cooperation in implementing tangible projects that directly improve their socioeconomic circumstances
• strengthened community-level participation in support of a more effective, transparent and democratic subnational government
• increased opportunities for local economic development at the community level
• increased CAP II technical excellence through training, education and cross-learning
• assistance to civilian victims of conflict

During a June 21st hearing on the original CAP’s work, Congressman Christopher Shays (R-CT) highlighted project achievements saying, "CAP has successfully managed more than 6,000 reconstruction and development projects and created more than 2.7 million days of employment and 34,000 long-term jobs with 43 percent of those jobs going to women, Iraqi women."

Shays went on to say, "This is the one program that is in fact working in Iraq. No one disputes it. We can dispute everything else, but not this."

For more information contact Daniel Wortman at dwortman@acdivoca.org.

Updated: 7/07

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