New ILO-EU-UNESCO Collaboration Focuses on Jobs and Cultural Heritage in Iraq

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The International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the European Union (EU) have launched a new program that will use employment-intensive approaches to create jobs for internally displaced persons, Syrian refugees, and host community members. The program will also try to preserve and rehabilitate cultural heritage sites at the same time. 

The collaboration will help generate around one thousand job opportunities for skilled and unskilled workers who will be employed to safeguard and rehabilitate cultural heritage sites, including the Erbil Citadel – a World Heritage site. Some of the jobs include cleaning and maintaining sites, including clearing away vegetation and rubble, installing shaded areas, and rehabilitating access roads and parking areas. 

The program will help provide short-term jobs that are associated with labor rights according to the international and local standards but also create jobs that contribute to tourism and promote local culture. 

The ILO in Iraq has also joined forces with local authorities in the Governorate of Dohuk to implement integrated employment-intensive investment program (EIIP) interventions aimed at creating more than 180 decent jobs. 

Some of the targets of the program with EIIP include: 

  • Creating 184 short-term jobs equivalent to around 10,000 worker days.

  • About 50% of those employed will be women.

  • EIIP interventions will help improve 50 KM of irrigation channels and support the sorting of 240 tons of solid waste per day for 6 months.

  • The projects will engage the local community in different areas, such as recruitment processes, prioritizing needs, and adopting sustainable practices (such as sorting from source).

  • The EIIP team is working on other sectors as well to create decent jobs for forcibly displaced persons and host community members. Sectors include transportation, municipal services, and public maintenance, linking these works with skills development opportunities and empowering private sector contractors.