Navigating through Fragility

Abstract

While the Iraqi education system was widely regarded as one of the best in the Middle East and enjoyed near-universal primary enrollment until the 1980s, the next decade marked a serious downturn in results. The sector witnessed low primary and secondary enrollment and attendance, outdated curriculum content, and deteriorating learning outcomes. In order to get children back to school, the government needed large, fast, and quality investments in the education system. 100 million dollars was allocated to the education sector under the World Bank Iraq Trust (ITF), set up jointly by the World Bank Group (WBG) and the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) to administer donor funding for Iraqi reconstruction. This quick note summarizes how innovative approaches to procurement led to exemplary service delivery results in Iraq’s education sector. The focus is on two breakthrough achievements: large-scale textbook printing and delivery, under the emergency textbook provision project and school construction in the newly rehabilitated marshlands of Southern Iraq under the marshlands school construction project.