Support To Reconstruction And Peacebuilding Of Liberated Cities In Iraq – Phase Ii

UN-Habitat is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities. It is the focal point for all urbanization and human settlement matters within the UN system. Globally, UN-Habitat promotes community-based reconstruction in crisisaffected countries, implementing projects in places such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Iraq. Engaging community members themselves in reconstruction activities, this community-based approach will empower them socially and economically, enabling them to plan and manage their own activities for more peaceful and stable community. In Iraq, as soon as the liberated areas were declared safe, UN-Habitat has been promoting urban recovery and supporting returnees through community-based housing rehabilitation. UN-Habitat ensures that community members are capacitated and employed to undertake the rehabilitation of wardamaged houses, thereby creating job opportunities and supporting their livelihoods, as well as encouraging them to engage in the rebuilding of their community. UN-Habitat engineers are constantly engaged on site, conducting the field assessments and selecting the contractors, supervising the rehabilitation activities and running the final inspection before the hand-over of the rehabilitated houses. Their constant presence ensures the high quality of the work conducted. Throughout the process, the community members were provided by necessary construction and rehabilitation skills through tailored capacity building sessions. This approach will thereby empower the community members both socially Page 7 of 16 and economically, increase community ownership, and encourage targeted communities to solve their problems independently, which is the key to peaceful recovery and resilience. UN-Habitat’s substantive experience on working closely with government counterparts and community members to support reconstruction and rehabilitation of housing and infrastructure in areas that are liberated as well as hosting refugees and IDPs gives UN-Habitat a comparative advantage and technical expertise to plan and implement this project.