WHAT WE DO
Livelihoods
Aid Gate Organization (AGO) implements diverse livelihood projects in both urban and rural areas to help vulnerable families earn sustainable living. Our approach is centered on inclusion and empowerment, particularly for women and other marginalized groups. The livelihood interventions provided by AGO encompass income generation assistance, vocational skills training, support for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), apprenticeships, cash-for-work programs, and multi-purpose cash assistance.
Income Generation Assistance:
Our income generation assistance enhances the capacity of individuals or groups to generate income by providing vocational skills training, capital, or commodities. We work closely with government vocational training centers to ensure beneficiaries develop the specific skill sets needed for long-term economic stability.
Vocational Skills Training:
AGO’s vocational skills training programs are conducted in collaboration with government vocational training centers. These programs are designed to develop the specific skill sets of beneficiaries, increasing their future economic stability and enhancing their ability to secure employment or start their own businesses.
Business Support:
We support the establishment and improvement of businesses and services within communities based on thorough assessments and consultations with community leaders and government institutions. Our goal is to address community needs and create economic opportunities.
Apprenticeships:
AGO provides apprenticeships to offer professional experience in areas with limited economic opportunities. These apprenticeships help individuals gain practical skills and improve their employability.
Cash-for-Work Programs:
Our cash-for-work programs offer temporary employment to the most vulnerable segments of the population. Participants work on public projects such as repairing roads, clearing debris, or rebuilding infrastructure, providing them with immediate income while contributing to community development.
Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance:
AGO provides multi-purpose cash assistance to vulnerable families, addressing their immediate needs and supporting their economic resilience.
Enterprise and Innovation Programme (EIP):
AGO introduces a new approach to livelihood interventions in Iraq through the Enterprise and Innovation Programme (EIP). This program aims to stimulate sustainable growth by supporting the development of startups and MSMEs. The EIP focuses on improving the business advisory services infrastructure, leading to successful startup support, resilient and growing MSMEs, job creation, and increased capacity of local business advisory service providers.
Agriculture And Climate Changes
Aid Gate Organization (AGO) recognizes the critical importance of sustainable resource use and the impact of climate change on poverty reduction. We work with communities on the front lines of the climate crisis to find sustainable solutions. Extreme weather events and environmental impacts disproportionately affect the most vulnerable people, including farmers and entrepreneurs.
Addressing Climate Change
AGO focuses on addressing climate change, water security, natural resource management, and access to energy to help people in fragile settings adapt to new risks. We prioritize practical and meaningful change at the local level and seek opportunities for expansion and iteration globally.
Enhancing Resilience
AGO’s programs aim to enhance resilience to climate change by sharing knowledge on climate-adapted cultivation and harvesting methods. Our Market-Based Approaches enable communities to earn a living from their agricultural products sustainably.
Agriculture and Food Security
In terms of agriculture and food security, AGO acknowledges that hunger is prevalent in remote regions heavily dependent on the natural environment. Climate change further exacerbates these challenges. AGO takes a holistic approach, empowering rural families through training in agriculture, resource management, water, alternative income, and nutrition. We promote site-specific agriculture to support smallholder farmers in cultivating higher-yield, nutritious crops while conserving natural resources.
Protection
Aid Gate Organization (AGO) implements robust human rights protection programs aimed at assisting vulnerable groups, including children, adolescents, women, the elderly, people with disabilities, and displaced persons. Our interventions prioritize individual needs and provide protection services across multiple sectors to ensure the safety and well-being of those we serve.
Gender-Based Violence and Child Protection
AGO ensures protection for survivors of gender-based violence and vulnerable children. We provide access to essential services such as safe shelter, psychosocial support, and legal assistance to help survivors recover and rebuild their lives.
Livelihood Support and Mitigation of New Threats
AGO supports access to food assistance and livelihood opportunities for marginalized groups, mitigating their exposure to new threats. In response to socio-political and environmental crises, AGO extends protection to large numbers of displaced persons and returnees in our operational areas.
Collaborations and Capacity Building
AGO collaborates closely with governmental departments, such as the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MOLSA), to enhance their capacity in social protection programs and advocate for people’s rights. Capacity building for MOLSA staff, advocacy efforts, and adherence to international standards such as core humanitarian principles, child protection minimum standards, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) are integral to AGO’s protection programs.
Community Mobilization and Empowerment
AGO mobilizes and involves communities in establishing mechanisms to prevent and address wrongdoing, particularly benefiting the most vulnerable groups. We promote their empowerment by offering political, economic, and social tools to improve their living conditions and ensure their recognition as equal citizens with rights.
Good Governance
AGO focuses on promoting good governance by minimizing corruption and mismanagement, incorporating the views of communities, especially youth, ensuring the voices of the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making, and guaranteeing women’s rights. AGO’s Good Governance programming prioritizes four main areas:
Priority One: Developing the capacities of local authorities, civil society organizations (CSOs), and communities to formulate and implement local development plans and address local issues. This includes capacity building for local authorities and CSOs, awareness-raising activities on active citizenship, supporting partnerships between authorities and communities, and providing financial and technical support for local development projects
Priority Two: Increasing transparency in local decision-making through the support of accountability mechanisms. AGO focuses on the capacity development of local authorities in accountability and transparency practices, facilitating the introduction of new accountability mechanisms, capacity development of CSOs in monitoring and evaluation, and raising awareness about transparent decision-making processes.
Priority Three: Enhancing the capacities of CSOs and governments to collaborate and work together in policy-making processes and implementation. This involves supporting assessments of policy and legal frameworks, stakeholder analysis, multi-stakeholder dialogue, advocating for decentralization, capacity development for evidence-based policy making, and monitoring and evaluation of policy implementation.
Priority Four: Strengthening CSOs as independent actors and advocates for the needs of their communities, including marginalized and vulnerable groups. This includes tailored capacity development programs, facilitation of advocacy plans, grant competitions for civil society groups, dissemination of proven approaches, exchange visits and experience sharing, and support for networks and alliances for joint advocacy.
Throughout all of AGO’s Good Governance activities, AGO emphasizes gender equality and the inclusion of vulnerable groups in the decision-making process. AGO conducts research on barriers to women’s and vulnerable groups’ leadership and participation, provides capacity and skills development for women leaders and women’s groups, supports CSOs advocating for vulnerable groups, and facilitates experience sharing among CSOs.
Social Cohesion
Aid Gate Organization (AGO) is deeply committed to fostering social cohesion, preventing conflict, and promoting peace through integrated, conflict-sensitive development programs. Our focus on community resilience and peacebuilding plays a pivotal role in strengthening social cohesion.
Conflict Prevention and Violent Extremism:
AGO’s strategic approach centers on conflict prevention and preventing violent extremism. We engage with youth and community leaders to build trust between society and the government and promote collective participation towards a shared vision of sustainable peace and common development goals. We support infrastructures for peace and promote responsive, inclusive, and resilient institutions, essential for sustainable development and peaceful societies.
Peacebuilding and Capacity Building:
AGO’s core interventions related to social cohesion include peacebuilding, preventing violent extremism (PVE/PCVE), and capacity and resilience building. We implement programs and projects that address distrust and manage differences and diversity, enhancing the resilience of states and societies to adapt to the challenges of the 21st century.
Building Trust and Dialogue:
Our efforts include launching dialogue projects and developing local government capacities for consultation, bridging communities based on common values and destinies. We promote deeper understanding, dialogue, interaction, and interdependency as a foundation for conflict prevention and peacebuilding.