Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.
KOICA offers helping hand to Iraqi women
Jong Jun-young, third from left in back row, a deputy country director of the KOICA office in Iraq, poses with staffers and others at the Al-Atta Community Center for Women in Iraq, Wednesday. Courtesy of KOICA
By Kang Seung-woo
By Kang Seung-woo
The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has stepped up efforts to provide support for Iraqi women victimized by its war against the Islamic State (IS).
The state-run overseas aid agency agreed, Aug. 5, to provide $2.99 million (3.52 billion won) by 2023 to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to implement a project to support gender-based violence and sexual violence victims amid the conflict in northern Iraq.
It aims to establish two One-Stop Support Centers for Women Victimized by War Violence, which will provide legal support and adaptation assistance to women affected by war violence, as well as treatment and psychological counseling.
“Some 93,000 Iraqi women are expected to benefit from the services,” a KOICA official said.
In addition, the project will provide a capacity-building program for Iraqi government officials, offering consulting services to improve systemic deficiencies while launching a wide-ranging campaign to overcome deep-seated discrimination against women in the local community, KOICA added.
It is not the first time KOICA has reached out to war-torn Iraq.
It has provided a total of $360 million in grant aid for Iraq's economic and social development over 17 years since 2003. Recently, KOICA has been working closely with Iraq's government ministries and various international organizations to support socio-economic recovery in the war-affected areas of northern Iraq.
As Iraqi women have limited access to education, jobs, land ownership and financial resources, the rate of their social participation is low, with only 13 percent of women currently participating in economic activities and only 29 percent attending university.
“The IS (Islamic State) war is still ongoing, in that it continues to cause great suffering to the Iraqi people and especially women,” said Jang Kyung-wook, the Korean ambassador to Iraq, who also said he hoped the project will provide an opportunity to heal the wounds of Iraqi women, who have been victims of war violence, and to empower them to recover their lives.