Greetings, my colleagues

Despite the New Year’s holiday, local government holidays and road closures for the pilgrimage, flooding, civil unrest, and many people taking vacation days – we still had a productive week. Our highlights:

This week, the Ishaqi District Council (DC) conducted a public meeting, with Taqadum assistance, to facilitate citizen participation in identifying priority projects. Taqadum is supporting the Tikrit DC in Salah ad Din and Al-Zubair DC in Basrah in their preparations to hold public meetings. Taqadum introduced this concept to the leaders of eight DCs in Maysan as well.

Muthanna PC and GO officials approved the establishment of an Essential Service Delivery Oversight (ESDO) unit, and Taqadum reviewed service delivery performance standards (SDPS) with the Wasit Water Department. The Governor of Basrah approved the bylaws for the Basrah Provincial Planning and Development Council (PPDC). Taqadum provided technical assistance to officials in Babil, Najaf, and Dhi Qar as they took steps this week towards establishing a PPDC.

Taqadum continued to build the capacity of the Diwaniyah and Wasit GO Audit Sections to address irregularities cited in their annual Supreme Audit Board (SAB) reports, and built the capacity of Basrah GO staff to replace their manual system for capital budget accounting. Taqadum staff also discussed legislative tracking and related issues with officials in Najaf and Basrah.

Have a nice weekend.

Best regards,


__________________________________________________ _________
Dear Gentlemen,

I am relying on your support in getting this Provincial Directory up and running. I thought it only appropriate to make each Provincial Coordinator responsible for the main contacts for their province but also to allow specialists to have access so they can enter their contacts as well.

I know the field staff are extremely busy, so if you have people in your hubs that can support the input of this information that would be great. This information is so useful to us and USAID asks for contact information often. Also, it will be much easier to invite officials and staff to events if we have all the contact information in one central place.

Thank you so much for all your support and cooperation,

__________________________________________________ _______

Hi, guys 

I just need to be sure that we have enough CDs/DVDs with cases and labels so we can prepare for distribution the report (translated in Arabic), materials presented, and selected photos from the Sulaymaniyah Workshop. I know we are behind on this, but the report is almost done and we will get it translated ASAP. The lovely gentlemen in Baghdad have agreed to help me with the photos. I am hoping we can make copies next week and send to the hubs for distribution.

We should plan for 2 copies for each of the 15 PCs and 15 GOs, so that is already 60. Plus we will need to give copies to MOP, SMOPA, and whoever else is appropriate. So at least 70, maybe more. If we don’t have enough, can you please procure ASAP? We can talk about it in the morning as well.

Thanks,
__________________________________________________ _______


Dear OSTP Team / Baghdad.
Kindly find the attached report.
Basra GO OSTP team visited our Basra Hub all detailed of this Urgent and important visit is in the report attached.
Mr. Kamel Albeder Taqadum PoC Suggest that Taqadum OSTP Team Should Starting implementing OSTP program Immediately after EID. Mr. Kamel Al bader inform Us that Basra GO evaluate the performance of Taqadum project
Each month. So based on that we have to inform OSTP- Baghdad Team to plan and scheduling for visiting Basra . So please Ali inform OSTP team in Baghdad to deal with this issue seriously and any delay from our side will lose our commitment toward implementing OSTP program in Basra.
I hope if you can contact Wameedh or AnneMarie for this purpose.

My best regards


__________________________________________________ _________


Hello ,

I’d like to introduce myself to you all. My name is Stacey Lobatos and I am newest Manager to join the GSP PMU. I have been transitioning slowly and am very excited to be joining such a dynamic team! To give you a little background, I have been with Chemonics for more than two years now, I’m transitioning from a Rule of Law project based in the West Bank, and prior to Chemonics I was in Peace Corps Mozambique. I look forward to working with you all and providing the necessary support.

In regards to the Quarterly, thank you very much for sharing the draft. We will review and get it back to you by COB tomorrow.

Kind regards,

__________________________________________________ _____

Acronym Definition
C1 Component 1: Institutional Strengthening
C2 Component 2: Executive Oversight
COMSEC Council of Minister Secretariat
CSD Citizen Service Desk
COP Chief of Party
COR Chamber of Representatives
CSI Citizen Satisfaction Index
CSO Civil Society Organization
CSS Citizen Satisfaction Survey
DAC District Advisory Council
DCOP Deputy Chief of Party
ESD Essential Service Delivery
ESDO Essential Service Delivery Oversight
F-HH Female-Headed Housewife
FO Field Office
FY Fiscal Year
GO Governor’s Office
GOI Government of Iraq
GSP Governance Strengthening Project
IDP Internally Displaced Person
IR Intermediate Result
M&E Monitoring & Evaluation
MOF Ministry of Finance
MOP Ministry of Planning
MSPA Ministry of State for Provincial Affairs
NAC Neighborhood Advisory Council
NDP National Development Plan
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
OSTP Organizational Self-assessment and Transformation Program
PC Provincial Council
PCI Provincial Capability Index
PDP Provincial Development Plan
PDS Provincial Development Strategy
PMP Performance Monitoring Plan
PPL Priority Project List
USAID United States Agency for International Development
USG United States Government