USAID Opens Shawakeh Fish Market to Attract Businesses, Restore Stability

*note - this story is also posted on USAID's web site and is available here.

Baghdad, Iraq — February 20, 2009 — The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in partnership with IRD, the Karkh District Council, neighborhood councils, and the U.S. military, opened the Al Shawakeh Fish Market today to stimulate employment and business opportunities in the community.

In his remarks at the opening, USAID Deputy Mission Director Thomas R. Delaney said, "The revival of this market shows how committed the Iraqis are in seeing their economy-and people-recover and grow." He also said he hoped that the market will be seen as a center of community pride and prosperity

IRD met with vendors, the local community and the district and neighborhood councilmen to seek their input on the layout and design of the market. Twelve local construction workers fixed the inner-yard of the market, constructed new stalls, and upgraded the water, sewer and electrical networks. The new market has a cold-storage facility, trash dumpsters, and more space for loading and unloading of produce, fish, and meats. The market comprises 40 small, family-owned restaurants, fish and vegetable markets, book kiosks and shops.

The USAID-funded Community Stabilization Program (CSP) began rebuilding the fish market in early 2008 through after repeated insurgent-lead attacks. The goal of CSP is to help create an environment for stability and establish the necessary conditions for long-term development to take hold in violence-affected areas.

To date, CSP has funded 870 high-visibility, high-impact community infrastructure and essential service projects, providing immediate short-term employment for some 16,000 workers daily; awarded $60.4 million in CSP grants to almost 10,000 Iraqis looking to start, expand, or rebuild their businesses, and; placed more than 22,000 Iraqis in long-term jobs through grants, vocational training and apprenticeships and other CSP-sponsored initiatives.