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Iraqi Returns Home to Help Fellow Oil Engineers
FrontLines - September 2009
Hussain Aziz (left) greets new generations of engineers at Daura.
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Baghdad—More than 50 years ago, Iraq began sending its top engineering graduates to study abroad with the idea they would return home and lead the oil industry. Hussain Aziz was one of these students.
After attending Huddersfield University in Yorkshire, England, he returned to Iraq and began his career at the Daura refinery in 1969. It was his first job in Iraq’s storied oil industry. He left Iraq in 1981 as a result of the Iran-Iraq War and worked in the United
Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. In November 2008, after 27 years out of the country, Aziz returned to the refinery—again with a unique mission.
As an advisor for USAID’s Tatweer assistance program, he paired Daura’s top engineers with mentors who taught project management and the latest international
practices.
“Daura has a prestigious location in the capital,” Aziz said. “It supplies fuels to all of Baghdad’s gasoline stations and provides a specific fuel line from Daura to Baghdad Airport. The insurgents tried to isolate Daura because they knew its strategic importance. Being in Baghdad, a lot of industries were built around Daura. In this way it represents the stability of the country.”
But the retirement age for many of Daura’s top engineers is fast approaching. “The people with experience are due for retirement, and if we lose them, they will be very difficult to replace,” Aziz said.
In response, Daura’s director general asked Tatweer to help create a training program at the refinery that focused on mentoring
and improving key systems.
In November 2008, 13 new and five experienced engineers selected by the refinery’s training department participated in the first of a series of workshops at the program’s compound in the Baghdad district of Karada.
The engineers shared their concerns and insights on how to improve project management at Daura. Two more groups of engineers participated in subsequent
workshops.
“We need to get in touch with the best international companies,” said Ahmed, a young engineering participant. “We want to be in touch with the world.”
As for Aziz’s perspective on returning to help his countrymen: “I’m only repaying [Iraq] for the opportunity it gave me.”
★
Tatweer Program Re-Trains Iraqi Officials
Government reform in Iraq—creating a transparent, functioning bureaucracy—is the goal of Iraq’s National Capacity Development program, called Tatweer, Arabic for “development.”
Iraq was once the gold standard for public administration
in the Middle East, but years of war and violence decimated its workforce and practices.
Since 2006, USAID’s Tatweer project has worked with 20 ministries, executive offices, and agencies to improve their abilities to deliver services to the Iraqi people.
Teams provide advice to ministries to improve public management skills in procurement, and project and budget management.
Then, training is provided
to Iraqi civil servants on everything from finance to strategic planning. A train-the-trainer approach is used to ensure sustainability. As of June, the program has trained more than 70,000 civil servants and 700 trainers.
Tatweer has been essential
to a smooth transition to sovereignty.★ |
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