Meaningful in-service training for civil servants and technical assistance must be accessible beyond the borders of Baghdad, as roughly two-thirds of the civil servants work in provincial directorates or in national facilities located in the other provinces. USAID/Tatweer is establishing regional offices in Hilla, Ramadi, and Kirkuk, and assisting National Center for Consultation and Management Development (NCCMD) and Al Quds School for Computers establishing satellite training centers in Mosul and Basrah. These regional centers will deliver significant training to the ministry staff in the provinces of Ninawa in the north and Basrah, Dhi Qar, Muthanna, and Maysan in the south. The regional training center in Erbil is effectively serving the Kurdistan Regional Government ministries as well as training a significant number of civil servants stationed in Kirkuk, Ninawa, and Diyala, and supporting special multi-province workshops on a variety of topics.

An important example of USAID/Tatweer’s work in the provinces can be found in its support of the Ministry of Planning’s Provincial Planning Units (PPU), including the rollout of standardizing software that will assist line ministries in project execution.In 2009, the Ministry of Planning’s (MoP) work plan focused on building the capacity and skills of Line Ministry staff in Provincial Planning Units (PPU). To further this aim, USAID/Tatweer helped to finalize the Knowledge Base (Hammurabi software), which outlines all the regulations and requirements for requesting budgets and implementing capital investment projects. The Knowledge Base includes a budget execution manual and guidelines for project planning and execution, containing the most recent Iraqi laws and regulations critical for the effective functioning of the provincial directorates.

• USAID/Tatweer advisors provided technical assistance and a series of trainings to the provincial planning units (PPU) and other rollout staff on the Knowledge Base system.
• USAID/Tatweer provided and assisted Ministry of Health (MoH) to revise its strategic plan in all provinces; worked with provincial directors to improve communication among various provincial offices. In addition, software and GPS training were delivered and strategic planning and budget workshops were conducted in key provinces to comply with the five-year strategic framework.
• USAID/Tatweer assisted the Ministry of Municipalities and Pubic Works (MMPW) with comprehensive project management of large projects in five provinces; worked with provincial offices to establish human resource work groups in five provincial offices.
• USAID/Tatweer assisted the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) provincial offices to develop and implement standard operating procedures for irrigation systems inventory management program.
• USAID/Tatweer assisted the Ministry of Agriculture’s (MoA) provincial offices to design and implement Performance Appraisal and HRMS systems in 5 provinces and GIS training and mentoring in agriculture.
• USAID/Tatweer provided technical assistance on tracking the capital investment projects of 15 PPUs.
• USAID/Tatweer offered PPUs technical assistance on project management, communication and monitoring and evaluation, including assisting the Planning Units to better monitor and evaluate ministries’ provincial projects. These actions have already helped PPUs to effectively input relevant data into the Government Assistance Database (GAD).
• USAID/Tatweer is assisting the development and implementation of the capital Contractor’s Classification System (CCP), currently being installed in Baghdad MoP HQ and PPUs. The newly developed CCP facilitates the listing of registered and “black listed” contractors by integrating an anti-corruption filter into the database.
• USAID/Tatweer provided technical assistance on IT communication, supplying PPUs with laptops, printers, scanners, photocopiers, networks and software packages. Additionally, USAID/Tatweer provided technical assistance on IT communication in the form of VTC units and software supplied to the two main provinces of Basrah and Mosul.

• Assisted MoP to establish human resource work groups in all provincial offices.
• Assisted MoH and MMPW to conduct preliminary project feasibility studies and Project Management workshops using specialized software.
• Conducted workshops in HR, Project Management, Budgets and Public Management Cycle.
• Assisted MoP to document communications and reporting methods, towards developing standard operating procedures (SOPs), action plans and self-assessment surveys.