Al Dair district used to be an industrial area hosting paper factories. The district is also at the main highway connecting Baghdad with Basra governorate. Post the war, factories are out of order impacting unemployment. Exploration of oil in Majnoon field was accelerated influencing community lands and habitats, decreasing environmental safety and offered job opportunities that don’t match the existing supply competencies and skillsets. The project team led by Dr. Rana ElAkhal implemented a thorough field survey segmented by age group, gender and residence area.
Combined with KIIs and focus groups with community leaders and influencers to identify priority needs. The list of needs was them assessed based on weighed criteria prioritization model to identify top ranked interventions. This process was followed by cost/benefit analysis and presented to Oil Steering Committee represented by Shell company who in their turn adopted the implementation of identified top priority interventions.