U.N. goes stealth to help rebuild ISIS-ravaged Iraq
U.S.-backed Iraqi forces are close to tearing the city of Mosul out of ISIS' stranglehold. Once they do, the sprawling city will join dozens of other towns and villages that need to be rebuilt virtually from the ground up. A vast swath of northern Iraq is reeling from violence and destruction that has forced almost […]Kylie Atwood writes for CBS News:
U.S.-backed Iraqi forces are close to tearing the city of Mosul out of ISIS' stranglehold. Once they do, the sprawling city will join dozens of other towns and villages that need to be rebuilt virtually from the ground up. A vast swath of northern Iraq is reeling from violence and destruction that has forced almost 900,000 people to flee their homes in the last year alone.
Efforts to bring those Iraqis back home are robust -- and unique; the United Nations has more than 800 stabilization efforts underway across the country -- work the U.N. has done in many countries following many conflicts. But this time, the work is aimed at building confidence in local governance as much as it is at rebuilding Iraq's shattered infrastructure.
U.N. equipment and supplies are not stamped with the instantly-recognizable blue globe insignia, and local Iraqi contractors are carrying out the work in the name of the Iraqi government, rather than foreign contractors. The U.N.'s new strategy is designed to minimize the promotion of its own work, and to instead quietly facilitate a "for the country, by the country" reconstruction.
