Iraq Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Fund (I3RF): Trust Fund Annual Progress Report to Development Partners 2021

May 1, 20220

The Iraq Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Fund (I3RF) was founded in partnership with the Government of Iraq in 2018 and is funded by Canada, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The Trust Fund provides a platform for financing and strategic dialogue for reconstruction and development in Iraq, with a focus on promoting targeted national reform efforts and improving the effectiveness of public and private investments in socio-economic recovery and reconstruction. The I3RF also aspires to support gender equality, the climate change agenda, peacebuilding, and citizen engagement in Iraq.

Since its inception in November 2018, the I3RF has worked closely with the GoI to support its recovery and reconstruction plans as well as inform its reform agenda adopted in October 2020. Since the official adoption of the White Paper, sector teams continue to work closely with over 28 line ministries and other government entities to develop concrete action plans to implement the White Paper through technical assistance, advisory, analytical work and Recipient- Executed (RE) pilot projects. In 2021, the I3RF produced 32 multi-sectoral analytical works related to the White Paper of Iraq. I3RF projects have informed policy and programming in reconstruction, agriculture, water, environment, energy, social protection, education, health, public financial management, the financial sector, the private sector, poverty programming and peacebuilding. Technical assistance and capacity building efforts, financed through the I3RF, have significantly contributed to (i) Delisting Iraq from the European Union’s list of high-risk countries for money laundering under the leadership of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Office and; (ii). Delisting Iraq from the World Bank list of non-compliant countries for reporting on external public debt. This will support Iraq to access increased financial resources from multilateral institutions and improve the credit rating of the country.

This I3RF 2021 annual report places a strong focus on results achieved from a range of multi-sectoral projects supported by the Fund. The report starts with a focus on the progress in the economic and education areas. This is followed by Section 4 – Results and Highlights – which covers the achievements of active projects of the Fund throughout the last year. The next section presents an overview of the I3RF portfolio before sharing operational updates from 2021. The final sections provide a financial overview and convey the Fund’s ambitions for 2022. The annexes detail results and progress of all projects under the I3RF, tabulate results achieved up to 2021, and show I3RF collaboration with the GoI per project.