June 7, 2021
News
Since 2017 Caritas Czech Republic has been helping returnees, IDPs, host communities, and refugees to restart their lives shattered by ISIS and years of conflict. UNDP support elevated Caritas' commitment to helping the most vulnerable with the most significant project ever to rebuild the local infrastructure and provide young men and women with employment opportunities. To start the project, we organized a 2-day kick-off meeting with the participation of our colleagues from Prague.
Vulnerable families will have access to job opportunities
The Kick-off meeting of the Project "Sustainable livelihoods & economic recovery in Heet, Anbar, Iraq" took place in Erbil from 24-25th of May 2021.
Participants were from our Country Office in Iraq, Head Quarters' senior staff, and the project staff.
With this project, vulnerable families, where 40% are women, will have access to job opportunities, subsequently enhancing resilience and rebuilding their lives and communities.
The particular focus is on 2600 young people who will receive help with training, business support, start-up opportunities, and job placement.
The first day of the kick-off meeting
On the first day of the kick-off meeting, we discussed the project in general terms, project overview, introduction, finance, and compliance such as (project budget and financial reports), information about the UNDP HACT training, procurement manual, and other related topics to the project.
The second day of the kick-off meeting
During the second day, we organized the meeting into three working groups based on three major project components. Each group presented the findings and working tools; then, comments were collected from the participants. The team presented their findings and discussed the following topics: the detailed time plan of the first three months, the employment and HR-related subjects of the project, reporting timelines, visibility, and risk management.
We also presented the procurement plan, communication and visibility plan, and monitoring and evaluation plan.
Livelihood sector is a flagship of Caritas Czech Republic
All the Caritas Czech Republic staff are thrilled about the impact and contribution in this livelihood project that will help the vulnerable families in Anbar.
"I want to confirm how important this particular project is for the Iraqi country office as well as for the organization itself, as it is in the sector of livelihood which is a kind of flagship of our organization," said Jiří Škvor, Head of Humanitarian Aid and Development Cooperation Department in Caritas Czech Republic.
Over the years, we have strengthened our role and capacities in Livelihood for the community in Anbar.
"We are excited that we will be able to carry out this project with our colleagues from Iraq. Not only because of the size of the project but also because of the livelihood opportunities that it will bring to the people in Anbar," said Kateřina Velíšková, Desk Officer for the Middle East in Caritas Czech Republic.
The project manager, Joshua Zakary, emphasized the importance of Caritas to support these people in Anbar and help them stand on their own two feet to support their families.
The project is implemented by UNDP, in partnership with Caritas Czech Republic and with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), provided through KFW Development Bank.
See the video below from the kick-off meeting:
