Improving Sewerage Services and Management for Baghdad Citizens using the Rapid Results Approach

INTRODUCTION With about 7 million residents and a high population growth rate, Baghdad is the second biggest and most crowded city in the Arab world after Cairo as well as in Western Asia after Tehran. The growing population has put considerable pressure on the Mayoralty of Baghdad to improve its public services, the sewerage system in particular. In 2013, the Deputy Mayor for Technical Affairs launched a process of change to improve sewerage services by mobilizing people, ideas and resources with the support of the World Bank’s Leadership for Results (L4R) program. The intervention would contribute to the government’s goal to serve all citizens of Baghdad with reliable sewerage services by 2017 (National Development Plan 2013–2017). Due to the efforts of the intervention, which took place from January to June 2013, progress has been made in several areas: high-level commitment to improved sewerage management through a formal steering committee; a new, multi-stakeholder approach to reform piloted with an implementation team comprised of members from the Mayoralty, the PART OF THE LEADERSHIP FOR RESULTS PROGRAM