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| Iraqi youth democracy protesters serve fish and rice to the poor in Baghdad 's Liberation Square |
In addition to the Climate Emergency, Iraq is facing several other key problems. One of the most serious is the extensive unemployment which bedevils the country, especially high among youth, both uneducated and educated alike. Iraq's youth population represents the next generation of Iraqis, in all sectors of society. How can unemployed youth help Iraq address what could be an existential threat to society?
Another problem is the ongoing attacks by cells of the Islamic State which seeks to reestablish itself in Iraq. While these attacks do not threaten to destabilize the government, both the Federal Government in Baghdad and the KRG in Erbil, IS attacks are having an impact on Iraq’s infrastructure and agriculture. Oil pipelines have been attacked, power lines toppled, crops have been burned, and local officials in towns and villages have been assassinated.
Recently, Iraq’s Minister of Infrastructure, Jasim al-Falahi, proposed that the state engage in multiple infrastructure projects, especially in electricity and agriculture. He also suggested that the state employ large numbers of Iraqi youth to reduce waste by promoting recycling. The Minister argued that, by dramatically expanding the recycling sector, Iraq could enhance economic growth and improve health conditions. Of course, by providing jobs, Iraq would address the discontent of many youth who can’t find employment, even those who are university graduates with advanced degrees.
As the October Revolution (Thawrat Tishreen) which began in October 2019 has demonstrated, many Iraqi youth are imbued with a strong civic consciousness and spirit. During their peaceful protests which demanded the elimination of widespread state corruption and democratic reforms, demonstrators invariably engaged in cleaning refuse in the city and town centers where their protests were held. Food was often served to the poor and makeshift health clinics provided medical care and advice to those in need of treatment and medicine.
What these developments suggest is the possibility to address two of Iraq’s most serious problems: the Climate Emergency and youth unemployment. Currently, Iraq is enjoying increased revenues due to higher oil prices. Using these increased funds, Iraq could establish its own CCC, comprised primarily of youth. What is suggested here is the creation of an Iraq Youth Corps (IYC) which would employ youth to tackle problems created by Iraq’s Climate Emergency.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Employing Americans who had lost their jobs because of the Depression, the CCC was funded by the government to build important projects throughout the United States. One of these projects was to plant trees and cull undergrowth to increase the size and quality of American forests. Another was building infrastructure projects in more remote and poorer areas of the United States to stimulate the local economy.
An Iraqi Youth Corps could create groups of Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen Iraqis, as well as other ethnic and confessional groups, to participate together in these planting and infrastructural development projects in both Arab Iraq and the KRG. Thus, the CCC could become a vehicle for bringing youth from different ethnic and confessional heritages to get to know one another better, thereby contributing to a greater sense of federal unity.
As the October Revolution (Thawrat Tishreen) which began in October 2019 has demonstrated, many Iraqi youth are imbued with a civic consciousness and spirit. During their peaceful protests demanding the elimination of widespread state corruption and democratic reforms, demonstrators invariably engaged in cleaning refuse in the city and town centers where protests were held. Food was often served to the poor and makeshift health clinics provide medical care and advice to those needing treatment and medicine.
What these developments suggest is the possibility of confronting two of Iraq’s most serious problems: the Climate Emergency and youth unemployment. Currently, Iraq is enjoying increased revenues due to higher oil prices. Using these additional funds, Iraq could establish its own CCC, comprised primarily of youth. What is suggested here is the creation of an Iraq Youth Corps (IYC) which would employ youth to tackle problems created by Iraq’s Climate Emergency.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Employing Americans who had lost their jobs because of the Depression, the CCC was funded by the government to build important projects throughout the United States. One of these projects was to plant trees and cull undergrowth to increase the size and quality of American forests. Another was building infrastructure projects in more remote and poorer areas of the United States to stimulate the local economy.
An Iraqi Youth Corps, modelled on the CCC, could create groups of Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen Iraqis, as well as other ethnic and confessional groups, to participate together in these planting and infrastructural development projects in both Arab Iraq and the KRG. Thus, the CCC could become a vehicle for bringing youth from different ethnic and confessional heritages to get to know one another better, thereby contributing to a greater sense of federal unity.
One of the critical areas confronting Iraq is addressing is its shortage of electricity. Since the ousting of Saddam Husayn in 2003, whose Bacthist regime had distributed electricity to Baghdad to the detriment of southern Iraq, electric power remains in short supply throughout the country. The lack of electricity has forced many Iraqis to purchase generators which run on highly polluting diesel fuel. Not only is this costly, but it has dramatically increased air pollution in many Iraqi cities and towns. Serious negative health consequences have been caused by the resultant air pollution.
To improve national electric production, Iraq is currently building large solar farms, especially in the south of the country, with the help of Chinese and German firms. However, these solar farms won’t meet the immediate needs of Iraqis in the south of the country, where temperatures rise to above 50 degrees Celsius (125 F), during the summer months.
Through installing affordable solar panels, either placed on roof of houses, or in small solar farms near residential areas, Iraq could address the lack of air conditioning which has led to the death of the elderly, ill and very young. Given the abundance of sunlight, solar energy is a natural step in developing Iraq’s energy infrastructure.
Training youth to install solar energy panels would address several problems at once. Most importantly, Iraqis wouldn’t have to wait until large electricity generators are built to gain access to electricity. Instead, they could benefit immediately from the installation of solar panels. Second, the installation process would offer employment to Iraqi youth. Offering jobs and a steady income would reducing discontent among youth who constitute Iraq's largest demographic, comprising 70% of the population under the age of 30.
One way to promote solar energy would be to recruit local notables, clerics, tribal leaders and merchants to support these projects, thereby lending them greater legitimacy. In return, these notables could take partial credit for the solar panels having been installed and assume added responsibility for their security. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken credit for solar energy provided to farmers in the village of Palli in Indian controlled Kashmir. This has delighted village residents who heretofore had to burn wood and lacked a continuous source of energy.
By developing a solar energy industry in Iraq, youth would engage in training which could teach them critical skills which, to those who sought to remain in the industry, would be useful for a lifetime. The use of solar panels would allow many Iraqi families to dispense with diesel fueled generators which are often the only sources of electricity. Air pollution would be reduced in the process of transitioning to solar energy.
Further, providing electricity, the lack of which has led to consistent protests during the extremely hot summer months, would quell much of the anger directed at the government in Baghdad which is considered remote and uninterested in the difficulties ordinary Iraqis face in their everyday lives. Lack of electricity has sparked violent protests in southern Iraq over the past several summers and show no sign of abating if the issue isn’t addressed.
As temperatures rise, and its drought continues, Iraq faces increasing desertification. This process has led to the development of dust storms, in part due to reduced vegetation. Recent dust storms not only halted flights into and out of Iraq as airports were forced to close, but also led to increased attacks by the Islamic State terrorist group which benefited from the poor visibility caused by the storms.
Dozens hospitalised as Iraq engulfed by dust storm
By planting more vegetation, Iraq can offset the desertification process, while once again giving large numbers of youth work at the same time. To frame this work as confronting Iraq’s climate emergency, the Federal and KRG governments can make youth proud of their civic contribution to Iraq. While planting trees is possible in the cooler climates of the hilly areas of the KRG, perennial grasses, shrubs and herbs need to be planted extensively throughout the hotter areas of the south.
Members of the Iraqi Youth Corps could also be trained to help farmers in water management. Making irrigation more efficient, planting crops in shady areas where possible, using “drip” agriculture, and teaching water conservation measures could contribute to improving the quality of Iraq’s agrarian sector and the lives of ots farmers.
In the KRG, many government employees, who receive sporadic salary payments, have moved to the countryside to engage in farming for supplemental income. Saddam’s brutal ANFAL campaign of the 1980s destroyed much of Iraqi Kurdistan’s agrarian sector. Here Kurdish and Arab youth, who were members of the Iraqi Youth Corps, could help increase the size of the KRG’s agriculture, thereby contributing to Iraq’s food security.
In many areas of Iraq, potable water is unavailable or, if available, polluted and unhealthy to drink. This problem has seriously affected the Marshes of southern Iraq (al-Ahwar), which once enjoyed the benefit of large amounts of water, purified by the extensive papyrus and other plants which grew in the region, but which have now been seriously reduced by Iraq’s persistent drought.
The Iraqi Youth Corps could work with appropriate ministries and regional agencies to engage in two important activities. First, they could help identify areas where potable water is unavailable and report this data to government officials. Second, they could actually deliver water to the areas where it is unavailable, thereby improving the health conditions of the local residents. Already, we have seen in southern Iraq that lack of access to potable water has depressed birth rates and contributed to ill health among the inhabitants and their children.
Finally, there are ongoing efforts to empower youth social entrepreneurs. Baghdad’s Kapita Business Hub, for example, incubates 20 start-ups per month. To return to Minister Jasim al-Fallahi’s proposed initiative on recycling mentioned earlier, the Iraqi Youth Corps could become a source of skilled Iraqis who could move beyond government employment to develop their own start-ups.
KAPITA Start-up SME Incubator - Baghdad
One set of start-ups could be establishing recycling companies throughout Iraq. Because there are already such companies in Erbil, Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, these new firms could help create a string recycling sector in Iraq’s economy.
