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According to Ayman Mansour, Salahaddins HR and corporate governance director, implementing new and better corporate governance policies and procedures with IFCs help has transformed the company, bringing more internal discipline and control to management and decision making, clarifying responsibility, authority and roles, and improving the caliber of leaders.

We started implementing changes to improve our corporate governance procedures about three years ago, Mansour says. Our first task was to ensure transparency. We started from the beginning by creating the right internal structure for the company, starting with the right structure and composition of our Board. Our end goal is to win and secure the trust of investors and our community.

Companies operating in conflict-affected environments, like Iraq, face unique corporate governance challenges. For such businesses, strong corporate governance can be a key to sustainability. Mansour says the main problem initially was the general lack of awareness about corporate governance and limited opportunities available to learn about it.

The challenge was how to acquire the knowledge to make the right changes, where to start, how to implement the changes, and find the right experts to help us to take the next steps, he says.

IFC stepped in. Corporate governance in FCS plays a pivotal role as improved practices are key to attract direct investments and ultimately to stimulate social welfare and economic growth. Effective governance means communication channels between shareholders and managers are clear and well-established, strategic directions are well thought of, risk management measures are in place. For family-owned businesses, attention must be given to succession planning to facilitate non-controlling shareholder involvement in these companies.

As well as partnering with local institutions, IFC recently launched the first independent institute of directors in Iraqthe Kurdistani Institute of Directors (KIoD)alongside the Erbil Chamber of Commerce and Trade. It will provide corporate governance advisory services to help strengthen the role of independent directors and boards in Iraq, and raise awareness of best practices.

The initiative is another step in IFCs strategy to spur private sector growth in Iraq by improving smaller and medium businesses management skills, business performance and competitiveness. It is also part of IFCs aim to scale up support for fragile and conflict-affected states, where private sector investment is key to create jobs and spur growth.

With IFCs support, KIoD has already graduated the first patch of board development program, providing training for 20 entrepreneurs in Erbil in March. In total, IFC has provided corporate governance services to six Iraqi companies, including Salahaddin, and conducted nine educational events, reaching about 447 participants and helping to build the capacity of 16 Iraqi trainers.

IFC also partnered with the Women Empowerment Organization to conduct corporate governance training for current and potential female directors and businesswomen to equip them with the needed skills to effectively succeed in their roles. Thus far 51 women participated in the different trainings, and 35 women participated in a training of trainers workshop.

Last but not least, we supported the completion of a corporate governance banking code and the completion of banking guidelines by the Iraqi Central Bank. Yet, more work is envisioned to support local IFC clients and partners to expand and deepen the impact of corporate governance.

Corporate governance is a very important part of our work in Iraq. It makes companies stronger and helps them to withstand crises, says Amira El Saeed Agag, IFC corporate governance officer in MENA. Our aim is to give companies various tools to strengthen their resilience. The very survival of the company may depend on a strong board and its ability to make the right decisions quickly.

IFCs corporate governance efforts in Iraq and FCS countries will not only create lasting impact for private sector development, by helping them to attract investments and south-south knowledge dissemination and cooperation, but also yield important lessons for IFC as a whole on how to operate in fragile and conflict-affected environments.

IFC is implementing its corporate governance program in Iraq through a trust fund supported by the governments of Japan and Spain.

Topic page: Corporate Governance in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations

Fact Sheet: Corporate Governance in FCS, November 2017

Video: Strengthening Corporate Governance in FCS

Article: Strengthening Governance During Crisis, Winter 2018

Feature Story: In Sierra Leone, Focus on Corporate Governance Helps Rebuild Economy, December 2017

August 2017

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Supporting Corporate Governance in Iraq

Anti-government protesters set fires and close a street during a demonstration in Baghdad on Sunday after nearly a week of unrest throughout Iraq. Khalid Mohammed/AP hide caption

Anti-government protesters set fires and close a street during a demonstration in Baghdad on Sunday after nearly a week of unrest throughout Iraq.

Iraqi authorities say at least seven more people were killed in clashes between protesters and police in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, bringing the death toll from nearly a week of anti-government rallies throughout Iraq to more than 100 with thousands of others injured.

Protesters, who took to the streets on Tuesday frustrated over joblessness and corruption, have been met with live ammunition from security forces attempting to break up the mass demonstrations that have convulsed Baghdad and parts of southern Iraq for days.

So far, 104 people have been killed and 6,107 have been wounded in the unrest, according to figures released by Iraqi security officials. More than 1,200 security members are among the injured.

Demanding better basic public services like electricity and water and renouncing corruption, a small group of protesters assembled seemingly spontaneously last week before being dispersed by security forces.

Then the protesters put out a call to re-converge on social media and the response took observers and government officials aback: Thousands of mostly young adults in their 20s, outraged over inadequate services and poor job prospects in the oil-rich country, came out to push for more opportunity and an end to corruption.

The Iraqi army and police have responded by firing live rounds, tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds. As protests spread to other parts of the country, the bloody clashes continued.

The six days of street demonstrations mark the most serious challenge Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has faced since he assumed office last October. He has committed to meeting with protesters without armed forces to have a dialogue about their demands.

"I will go and meet them without weapons and sit with them for hours to listen to their demands," Abdul-Mahdi said on Saturday in remarks on state television.

Anti-government protesters run for cover while Iraqi security forces fire live ammunition in the air during a demonstration in Baghdad on Sunday. Khalid Mohammed/AP hide caption

Anti-government protesters run for cover while Iraqi security forces fire live ammunition in the air during a demonstration in Baghdad on Sunday.

Abdul-Mahdi announced a plan to pay out unemployment assistance and provide government-backed housing for low-income residents in an attempt to satisfy the demonstrators who have set buildings aflame and sparred with authorities.

The United Nations envoy for Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, took to Twitter on Saturday to denounce the violence, saying: "This must stop."

"I call on all parties to pause and reflect. Those responsible for violence should be held to account. Let the spirit of unity prevail across Iraq," wrote Hennis-Plasschaert.

Protesters called for top government officials to step down, as authorities cut of Internet service in Baghdad and across much of the country.

Demonstrators on Sunday also called for Iran to stop meddling in Iraqi politics.

Amid growing unrest, Marta Hurtado, a spokeswoman for the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, urged the Iraqi government to allow citizens to peacefully assembly and exercise their rights to freedom of expression without fear of a violent crackdown.

"The use of force should be exceptional, and assemblies should ordinarily be managed without resort to force," Hurtado said in a statement.

All incidents in which security forces killed or injured protesters should be promptly and transparently investigated by the government, Hurtado said.

Hurtado also said reports that three journalists covering the protests were detained and the government cutting off Internet service were alarming and should be examined.

"Blanket internet shutdowns are likely to contravene freedom of expression, unduly restricting the right to receive and impart information and may exacerbate tensions," she said.

NPR's Daniel Estrin contributed to this report.

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More Than 100 Killed And Thousands Injured In Anti-Government ...

The death toll from anti-government protests in Iraq rose to nearly 100 on Saturday, the fifth day of protests, the country's parliamentary human rights commission said. Additionally, Saudi-owned television station Al-Arabiya said masked gunmen stormed their Baghdad offices, injuring several employees and smashing their equipment.

Security agencies fatally shot 19 protesters and wounded more than three dozen. Authorities have been trying to control the protests through curfews and a near-total internet blackout, according to BBC News.

The semiofficial Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights put the death toll at 94 and said nearly 4,000 people have been wounded since Tuesday, when mostly young demonstrators spontaneously initiated the rallies to demand jobs, improvements to electricity, water and other services, and an end to corruption in the oil-rich nation.

The violent deadlock presented the conflict-scarred nation with its most serious challenge since the defeat of ISIS two years ago and deepened the political crisis of a country still struggling with the legacy of multiple, unfinished wars since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

"It has been 16 years of corruption and injustice," said Abbas Najm, a 43-year-old unemployed engineer who was part of a rally Saturday in the square. "We are not afraid of bullets or the death of martyrs. We will keep going and we won't back down."

Scrambling to contain the demonstrations, Iraqi leaders called an emergency session of parliament Saturday to discuss the protesters' demands. But they lacked a quorum due to a boycott called by influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of parliament's largest bloc. On Friday, al-Sadr called on Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi's government to resign and hold early elections, saying the shedding of blood of Iraqis "cannot be ignored."

Abdul-Mahdi said in an address to the nation that the protesters' "legitimate demands" had been heard, but he defended the deadly response of security forces as a "bitter medicine" that was necessary for the country to swallow.

In a desperate attempt to curb the growing rallies, authorities blocked the internet Wednesday and imposed a round-the-clock curfew on Thursday. The curfew, ignored by protesters, was lifted at 5 a.m. Saturday, allowing shops to open and traffic to flow in most of Baghdad before the new demonstrations began.

As in previous days, protesters waited to gather until the afternoon, when temperatures were cooler and ensured greater participation, and security forces responded by opening fire.

Health and security officials said more than a dozen people were killed and about 40 wounded in the capital on Saturday when security forces opened fire during protests in various neighborhoods, including central Tahrir Square, which remained closed to cars, and around which special forces and army vehicles deployed in an operation that extended as far as 1.2 miles away. The forces also unleashed tear gas, said health, police and medical officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to brief reporters.

A protester who refused to be named for fear of repercussions said anti-riot police directly opened fire at the protesters. The military initially tried to stop the police but ultimately left the area, the protester said.

In a smaller, peaceful rally earlier Saturday in the capital, demonstrators raised banners demanding the resignation of Abdul-Mahdi and an investigation into the killings of protesters.

Thousands of protesters also took to the streets in the southern cities of Nasiriyah and Diwaniyah, defying a curfew still in place there. In Diwaniyah, at least one protester was killed as demonstrators marched toward local government offices, a medical official and human rights official said. They did not provide details.

In the restive city of Nasiriyah, demonstrators torched the offices of three political parties and a lawmaker whom they blame for their country's ills. Security forces responded with gunfire, but there was no immediate word on casualties, said the officials, who described the protest as "very large."

Abdul Mahdi's office and Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi have called on protest representatives to meet with them so they could hear their demands. In a televised meeting in parliament, al-Halbusi met with a group of Iraqis and tribal representatives, mostly in their 50s and older, to discuss the country's myriad problems. Al-Hablusi repeated promises to address unemployment and poverty.

But the promises did nothing to stop the unfolding street violence. The deadliest day was Friday, when 22 people were killed in Baghdad. Health officials said many of those victims were wounded in the head and chest.

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Iraq protests: Death toll climbs to nearly 100 as protests ...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - One of Iraqs most influential clerics called on Friday for the government to resign as the death toll rose to 65 in three days of violent national protests against official corruption.

Demonstrators gather at a protest during a curfew, three days after the nationwide anti-government protests turned violent, in Baghdad, Iraq October 4, 2019. REUTERS/Alaa al-Marjani

Moqtada al-Sadr, a populist political leader who has a huge following on the Iraqi street, said new elections should be held soon.

Respect the blood of Iraq through the resignation of the government and prepare for early elections overseen by international monitors, a statement from his office said.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi called for calm as more than 190 people were wounded in the capital on Friday, but protesters scorned his promises of political reform.

Sadrs intervention appeared likely to encourage them to continue their uprising until the government backs down.

On the streets of Baghdad, police appeared to be targeting individual protesters. Reuters reporters saw one fall to the ground after being shot in the head. He was pronounced dead in hospital.

Elsewhere, a Reuters television crew saw a man critically wounded by a gunshot to the neck after snipers on rooftops opened fire at a crowd. Sporadic shooting could be heard in Baghdad into the late evening.

Police shot dead three people trying to storm the provincial government headquarters in the southern city of Diwaniya, police and medics said.

The violence is the worst since Iraq put down an insurgency by Islamic State two years ago. The protests arose in the south, heartland of the Shiite majority, but quickly spread, with no formal leadership.

Security and medical sources gave a death toll on Friday of 65 killed and 192 wounded across Iraq in three days, the vast majority of the deaths in the last 24 hours as the violence accelerated.

It is sorrowful that there have been so many deaths, casualties and destruction, Iraqs most influential cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said in a letter read out by his representative during a sermon.

The government and political sides have not answered the demands of the people to fight corruption or achieved anything on the ground, said Sistani, who stays out of day-to-day politics but whose word is law for Iraqs Shiites. Parliament holds the biggest responsibility for what is happening.

Sadr, who leads the largest opposition bloc in parliament, ordered his lawmakers to suspend participation in the legislature until the government introduces a program that would serve all Iraqis.

The speaker of Iraqs parliament called the protests a revolution against corruption but urged calm and proposed reforms such as better state housing support for poor people and ensuring Iraqi graduates are included on lucrative foreign projects for energy sector development.

Many government officials and lawmakers are widely accused of siphoning off public money, unfairly awarding contracts in state institutions and other forms of corruption.

The violence is an unprecedented test for Adel Abdul Mahdi, a mild-mannered veteran politician who came to power last year as a compromise candidate backed by powerful Shiite groups that have dominated Iraq since the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

In his overnight address, Abdul Mahdi pledged reforms but said there was no magic solution to Iraqs problems. He insisted politicians were aware of the suffering of the masses: We do not live in ivory towers - we walk among you in the streets of Baghdad, he said.

A young man in a crowd fleeing sniper shots at a central Baghdad square was scornful. The promises by Adel Abdul Mahdi are to fool the people, and today they are firing live gunshots at us, he said.

Today this was a peaceful protest. They set up these barricades, and the sniper is sitting right there since last night.

Police and medical sources told Reuters the death toll so far included 18 people killed in the southern city of Nassiriya, 16 in Baghdad, four in the southern city of Amara and four in Baquba as unrest spread north of the capital. Deaths were also reported in the southern cities of Hilla and Najaf.

Curfews were imposed in a number of cities. Authorities shut roads into the capital from the north and northeast and were sending reinforcements to Baghdads densely populated east. Military convoys were being sent to Nassiriya.

Abdul Mahdi said late on Friday that a curfew in Baghdad would be lifted from 5 a.m. local time on Saturday.

The unrest occurs on the eve of Arbaeen, a Shiite pilgrimage which in recent years has drawn 20 million worshippers, trekking for days on foot across southern Iraq in the worlds biggest annual gathering, 10 times the size of the Mecca Hajj.

Some pilgrims were already taking to the roads on Friday, although in smaller numbers than in recent years. Iran has closed one of the border crossings used by millions of pilgrims. Qatar has told its citizens to stay away.

A senior Iranian cleric blamed the unrest on the United States and Israel, saying they aimed to thwart the pilgrimage.

The protests could grow if they receive formal backing from Sadr, who has long denounced corruption and the political elite. Parliament was set to hold a session dedicated to finding a solution, but Sadrs faction was staying away.

Sadr has not called on his followers to join the protests, but his faction has expressed sympathy with their aims. One senior Sadrist politician, Awad Awadi, described the protests to Reuters as a revolution of hunger.

Reporting by John Davison, Ahmed Rasheed, Reuters Television staff in Baghdad, Aref Mohammed in Basra and Ali Hafthi in Hilla; Writing by Peter Graff and Giles Elgood; Editing by William Maclean, Howard Goller and Grant McCool

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Death toll surges to 46 as Iraq unrest accelerates; cleric ...

Amman Culture: Tea, Art und Markets

We start exploring Amman, City of the brotherly love, which was called "Philadelphia" by the ancient Greeks. With a knowledgeable local tour guide the enjoyment is accordingly high.Start with a photo stop at King Abdullah mosque. Then head to the citadel, called Jebel al-Qala'a, from which you can enjoy a fascinating panoramic view of the Former 7 Hills of Amman. On the highest terrace of the citadel hill are parts of the Omayyad palace, Al Qasr, and not far from it, rise the mighty columns of the former Hercules temple in the sky. On the circular route you will visit the archaeological museum, which presents finds from a period of over 50,000 years.As long as this place was interesting for people, they settled here already at the Stone Age, here they manufactured hand axes, here they created artifacts, which are still highly artistic today. 8,000-year-old figures from the Neolithic settlement of Ain Ghazal witnessing the artistic characteristics of the civilizations lived here.We visit Amman downtown, which is referred to as Wast Al Balad, which made up Amman until 50 years ago, before the construction boom broke out. Today, 4.4 million people live in the new neighborhoods, mainly immigrants from Palestine, Iraq and currently from Syria.2 hours walk from the Citadel through one of Amman's oldest neighborhoods is planned for beautiful snapshots, it highlights the top experiences of the old town. On the way visit Amman Panorama Art Gallery, in one of Amman's oldest houses where you can have a cup of Arabic coffee with Jordanian dates or enjoy tea with typical Jordanian flavors.The most significant in the old town is the astonishingly well-preserved Greco-Roman theater with its six thousand seats in the southeast of the city. You go past gold dealers, perfumeries offer original Jordanian fragrances with a special oriental touch, spice shops, the obligatory clothing stores for child, man, woman bring us closer to the city. Not far away is the Al-Husseini Mosque. Behind the big mosque the fruit and vegetable market lure us. Humus & falafel shops are to be discovered almost every corner. Not to mention the sweetshops famous for Knafa,a traditional Arab dessert made with thin noodle-like pastry, or alternatively fine semolina dough, soaked in sweet, sugar-based syrup, and typically layered with cheese.

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Iraq travel - Lonely Planet