Strategies for Private-Sector Development and Civil-Service Reform in the Kurdistan Region — Iraq

This monograph provides strategies to reemploy civil-service workers in the private sector and to increase private-sector employment in the Kurdistan Region — Iraq. Prepared for and at the request of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), this monograph is based on a variety of research methods and analyses. These include a review of the existing literature, analyses of survey data, analysis of Kurdistan regional and Iraqi national documents and laws, and a qualitative assessment of numerous conversations with government officials and private-sector employers.

The KRG can develop its private sector by removing obstacles to starting or expanding a business, by identifying sectors for which conditions are particularly favorable for private-sector growth and supporting them, and by outsourcing and privatizing some functions that the KRG currently performs. However, private-sector growth does not guarantee that civil-service workers will leave for private-sector employment. Civil-service workers will need the qualifications necessary for private-sector jobs and will have to expect that the benefits of private-sector employment outweigh the benefits of civil-service employment. At the same time, as the KRG devises methods for encouraging civil-service workers to leave for the private sector, a key challenge will be to ensure that the KRG is able to retain the employees it needs in order to ensure the proper functioning of government.