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It's a long way from Hyde Park to
Kurdistan
9.8.2007
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August 9, 2007
Cincinnati native Jess Baily knows his facts and
figures:
Number of Americans killed in the Kurdistan region
of Iraq since U.S. forces invaded the country - 0.
Amount of U.S. funding invested in reconstruction
efforts in that region since 2003 - $750 million.
Score of Tuesday's Reds' win over the Los Angeles
Dodgers - 4-0.
The mountainous of Kurdistan region in northern Iraq
where Baily began working as the U.S. Department of
State's provincial reconstruction team leader in
July is quite a distance from where he grew up in
Hyde Park and the home in which his wife, Capie, and
11-year-old son, Noah, live in Washington, D.C.
But Baily remains connected to his family and roots
while he works out of Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, for
the next year helping reconstruct an area that has
been an exception to the violence that has dogged
much of the rest of Iraq since Coalition forces
toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003. |
Jess Baily, working as a provincial reconstruction
team leader in Iraq, spoke recently at the opening
of a water project in Soran, Erbil Province, the
capital of Kurdistan region Iraq |
"We are here to build the government's capacity to
use the resources it has and develop mechanisms that
will help the region prosper," Baily said in an
interview from Iraq Wednesday. "There is a very
ambitious regional government here."
Kurdistan began developing its own government in
1991, Baily said, and now has "considerable
autonomy." Its two main political parties, the
Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, have put aside their differences that led
to civil warfare in the mid-1990s and are working
together in developing political and economic
institutions that will move the region forward, he
said.
"The region has dealt with its own issues of
corruption and transparency in government," he said.
"It's not a region without problems, but it is a
region where we can see progress."
Baily, who has a bachelor's degree from Yale and a
graduate degree in European history from Columbia,
speaks four languages - French, Turkish and Thai, in
addition to his native English. He has lived in
Washington D.C. on and off since he joined the State
Department in 1985 and worked in press and cultural
affairs in Bangladesh, Senegal, Thailand and Turkey.
He also served as the Counselor for Public Affairs
at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands. Prior
to his current assignment, Baily directed the State
Department's Washington Foreign Press Center,
helping resident foreign correspondents and visiting
journalists cover the U.S.
Assignments that pull Baily away from his wife and
child are challenging when he only gets to hear or
read about what is happening with his family, such
as his son's 12th birthday on Friday.
"I can still talk with my family on the phone and
through the Internet," he said. "But it's just not
the same as being at home with them."
Baily will work for the next year helping the Kurds
lay the groundwork for better times.
"In the end, prosperity is going to come from
developing the capacity to help their own region
succeed," he said.
Reconstruction is not just about training and
overseeing progress, Baily said, it's about
developing relationships of trust with leaders,
businesses and civil society organizations.
The Kurdistan Regional Government allocated $5
billion in reconstruction funding this year, he
said. That coupled with about $50 million in U.S.
funding is enough to begin moving the region
forward.
Projects such as a new $200 million water treatment
facility that supplies 400,000 residents with clean
water and an institute that trained more than 700
officials in public affairs are necessary steps
toward creating a more attractive climate for
developers, entrepreneurs and international
businesses, all important components in the quest to
create a thriving region, Baily said.
Reconstruction efforts have also helped establish
micro-finance institutions from which farmers and
small businesses can get assistance with their
ventures, he said. "You see cranes all over the
area. Real estate and housing developments are
growing."
Civil affairs teams are on hand working with the
Kurdish government in building vocational centers,
he said. And an International Trade Fair will show
businessmen and women from all across the world the
opportunities that exist in Kurdistan (northern
Iraq).
The list of investment and progress in the region is
growing, "but this is still Iraq," Baily said.
Important infrastructures such as banking systems
and electric distribution systems are lacking.
"Kurdish leadership is very invested in seeing
success in Iraq," Baily said. "I know they worry
about the situation down south. They want to see the
rest of Iraq succeed.
cincypost com
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