US should revise Iraq reconstruction progammes, report says

1.00pm

WASHINGTON - The United States should revise its assistance programmes to Iraq so they more directly target Iraqis, according to a report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The "Progress or Peril? Measuring Iraq's Reconstruction Progress" report was based on research and 400 interviews with Iraqis in 15 cities between June 12 and 27, the Washington-based think-tank said on Wednesday.

CSIS researchers found that Iraqis were judging US actions by unmet needs and by what they assume US wealth and power should be able to achieve.

The report recommended that US reconstruction funds provide local and provincial councils with resources for local ownership and expand the mix of its programmes to include more smaller scale projects. It also said funding should target Iraq's unemployment.

"The US efforts have been largely divorced from the Iraqi voice and undermined by security problems and the lack of jobs, and they are not leading toward entrenched sustainability of Iraqi capacity," the report found.

It said Iraq's reconstruction was being undermined on all fronts by rampant Iraqi crime and Iraqi insurgent bombings, and the lack of jobs.

The lack of sufficient electricity and other services in major cities has undermined public confidence and fuelled unhappiness in cities like Falluja and Mosul, which were favoured under Saddam Hussein, the report said.

Washington has been accused of being slow to spend US$18.4 billion ($28.77 billion) in reconstruction funds, and US officials say the Iraqi insurgency and kidnappings of foreigners have made it harder to disburse aid funds.

A senior US official said on Wednesday she expects Iraq reconstruction spending to increase from the roughly US$300 million a month disbursed in July and August.

According to State Department figures, US reconstruction spending had risen to US$1.02 billion in early September from US$400 million at the end of June, implying spending of about US$300 million in July and August.

"We expect the level of disbursements to go up," Ambassador Robin Raphel, a senior State Department official who works on Iraq reconstruction, told a group of reporters, adding that a major deterioration in security could affect the numbers.

"I don't know what we're predicting for the end of the year, but you could base it on at least those numbers," she said when asked if the spending for the rest of the year would exceed the July and August pace.

US officials say the change in priorities reflects their realisation that big infrastructure projects are hard to carry out without better security in Iraq, where more than 1000 US military personnel have died since the US-led March 2003 invasion.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq