Beginning in 2007, USAID/Tatweer sponsored 120 Master’s degree candidates to increase public administration skills among qualified Iraqi civil servants. Recipients are studying at universities in Cairo, Amman and Beirut and will return to Iraq with a two-year Master’s degree in public administration with a commitment to assist their GOI ministries and departments, according to the terms of their scholarship. The first class of graduates is now returning home to Iraq.

In January 2010, USAID/Tatweer started an Alumni Program to facilitate public sector graduates returning to their various GOI ministries, and to create a pairing initiative for private sector alumni to collaborate with USAID/Tatweer senior advisors in the six core areas of public administration.

The Scholarship Alumni Program also creates an internship program for the ministries’ alumni, and provides up-to-date expertise to the Iraqi public sector by incorporating alumni into advisory roles where they will work side by side with USAID/Tatweer senior advisors in key public administration areas over a six-to-ten month period.

The Program will have its own web page, monthly newsletter and appointed manager to keep all recipients informed of activities. To date, 39 alumni have returned from abroad, with the remaining scholarship recipients slated to graduate in the upcoming months.

The USAID/Tatweer alumni are the first Iraqis formally educated holding a Master’s degree in public administration, a discipline that is non-existent in Iraqi higher education. The alumni constitute a critical mass of Iraqi civil servants that would improve performance in the GOI for years to come.