At 10:30 a.m. on a Thursday, Eric and his staff huddled with me and the CIPE team around a table in the lobby of the Chawarchera Hotel in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq. We were trying to find a solution to an unexpected challenge. Eric, managing director of the company arranging the logistics for two major CIPE events in this sprawling city, informed us that we did not have airline reservations for 35 of the delegates that needed to return to Anbar province the next day. The challenge hung like a cloud over the table.
Stemming from a variety of concerns, Iraqiya Airlines, a state-owned enterprise, has a convoluted method for purchasing round-trip tickets. You purchase a one-way ticket in Baghdad, and only once in Erbil can you purchase the return portion. Unfortunately for us, once in Erbil, there were not enough return tickets available for all of the delegates attending the CIPE events. Efforts to extend their stay in Erbil also failed; the “Erbil International Fair 2010” had drained the city of its hotel rooms, already stressing the city’s infrastructure.
Seated behind us in the conference room were all 85 delegates representing the Anbar private and public sectors, including the Deputy Governor, the Deputy Chairman of the Provincial Council, the Deputy Chairman of the Provincial Investment Commission, chairmen of the main municipalities in the province, and influential business leaders in the agricultural, industrial, transportation, and other sectors. We agreed that I should go back to chairing the roundtable meeting while Eric and his staff brainstormed a solution.
CIPE had been working with Anbar private sector leaders for several months to develop a provincial business agenda that identified the main legislative and regulatory challenges inhibiting business in the province and particularly the ability to generate jobs for the restless youth of this volatile region. The roundtable was a resounding success. For the first time, private sector leaders were able to conduct a peer-to-peer dialogue with government representatives, who welcomed the business agenda.
Both sides agreed to form a public-private partnership committee to follow-up on implementing the agenda’s recommendations. The Deputy Chairman of the Anbar Provincial Council announced to everyone: “We are your elected representatives and we are tasked to legislate on your behalf. The private sector’s voice is an integral part of the legislative process, and the agenda is a crucial element of this voice.”
At the end of the day, everyone agreed that despite Iraq’s difficulties, with the recent elections and forming a national government, the exercise they had participated in represented real democracy and institution building, and provided citizens with a voice in governance. One could not help but feel that the delegates were making history that day.
Meanwhile across the street, CIPE was also conducting the third day of programs for the Iraqi Business Council (IBC). The IBC is a CIPE-sponsored umbrella organization that includes the major voluntary-based, membership organizations such as the Federation of the Iraqi Chambers of Commerce, the Iraqi Federation of Industries, and the Iraqi Businessmen Union, as well as smaller industry or sector-based organizations including the Association of Stock Exchange Brokers and the Association of Hotel and Restaurant Owners. Until this point, the IBC had been operating as an ad-hoc organization under the auspices of CIPE, but members had expressed their desire to establish an independent organization registered within the Iraqi NGO law.
We set aside two days to work toward an agreement on the new institution’s by-laws and to elect its board of directors. Based on CIPE’s experience, building coalitions is never an easy task, and we expected this to be a major challenge given the complexity of Iraq and its private sector.
After two full days of CIPE-moderated deliberations — at times reaching the pitch of heated discussions — IBC delegates agreed to a nine-member, temporary board tasked with finalizing the by-laws and registering the organization, and to permanent board elections to be held within six months. There were moments when I felt that the IBC was close to disintegration and that the gaps among the members were irreconcilable. But with a lot of perseverance and experience in the unique, Iraqi way of negotiating — coming dangerously close to the brink and then pulling back — everyone hugged and smiled at the conclusion.
The public-private partnership to implement the Anbar provincial business agenda, and the re-organization of the IBC, presented the kinds of unconventional challenges that I had anticipated and prepared for. But the lingering obstacle that stood in the way of transporting or accommodating the Anbar delegates was even more unconventional.
At 3:30 p.m. on that Thursday, Eric walked into the Chawarchera Hotel conference room with a wide smile on his face. Taking me aside, he informed me that two of his staff members had solved the problem. Seif, an Arab from Baghdad, and Aras, a Kurd from Dohuk, had collaborated to convince Iraqiya Airlines to send a wider-body jet that could accommodate the extra 35 passengers. Unconventional challenges required unconventional solutions. Instead of squeezing 35 more bodies in the same plane, expand the plane itself. Think outside of the box. Why didn’t I come up with that?
Published Date: October 20, 2010