Mobile technology in Iraq helps to transfer cash to conflict-affected rural families
Tuesday, 2017/08/08 | 07:14:59
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FAO cash-for-work programme encourages displaced people to return home
Figure: Local farmers will be able to restart farming activities with rehabilitated irrigation and other infrastructure.
FAO 2 August 2017, Erbil - Many vulnerable rural families in Iraq can now benefit from a safer, more secure means of receiving income thanks to mobile money transfer technology adopted for the first time by FAO as part of a cash-for-work programme aimed at rehabilitating agricultural infrastructure and land.
The programme, which is funded by the Belgian Government, will support 12,000 conflict-affected people in 30 villages in Kirkuk, Anbar, Salah al-Din and Ninewa governorates. It will benefit local farmers, by enabling them to restart or expand farming activities with rehabilitated infrastructure, and provides agricultural livelihoods opportunities for displaced people returning home.
Participants, who are from households with no other income source, include women who are often the sole breadwinners for their families, and people with a disability. The workers and their families are people who either remained in their villages during conflict or returned home after being displaced by the fighting.
"The use of mobile technology will streamline the safe delivery of cash transfers to participants, who are some of the most vulnerable people in the country," said Fadel El-Zubi, FAO Representative in Iraq. "Providing income opportunities is critical in rural areas affected by conflict, where competition for employment is high, jobs are scarce and people are struggling to support their families."
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