Omar Abdel-Rahman on a project in Iraq involving building businesses in conflict-affected cities, and why environmental justice cannot be separated from justice for everyone.
This is the fourth in a series we are calling 10 Years. 10 Insights – where BFS team members share what they actually learned from their hardest projects.
- Iraq 006 was a GIZ-funded private sector development project running incubation and ideation programmes for waste management startups across Mosul and Basra.
- The project launched when COVID became reality. Every workshop, every ideation session, every business model review was run online for two years.
- At the end of the programme, two startups received full equipment funding: one in vermicomposting, one in mushroom cultivation from green waste.
- The mushroom company now trades in Iraq and is one of the biggest mushroom growers in Ninawa governorate.
- Omar Abdel-Rahman has been with BFS for six and a half years. He started as a project manager assistant. He is now Project Director.
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2 Yrs Programme ran entirely online during COVID; every workshop, coaching session, and business review conducted remotely |
2
Startups received full equipment funding at programme end: vermicomposting and mushroom cultivation from green waste |
Nearly $1Bn
GIZ has invested in Iraq since 2014; Iraq 006 is part of a decade-long private sector development commitment |
| 55M Tonnes
Conflict debris estimated in Mosul after ISIS; the waste challenge that made this programme both urgent and meaningful |
6.5 Yrs Omar Abdel-Rahman’s tenure at BFS; from project manager assistant to Project Director |
Omar, Iraq 006 is apparently your favourite project. Why that one?
Because we were with these entrepreneurs from the very beginning. Not from when the business idea was already formed. From before that. From the application process, from the interviews, from the moment when most of them had no idea what business they wanted to start.
It was a GIZ project, focused on two cities: Mosul and Basra. The goal was to find motivated people who genuinely wanted to build something in waste management, put them through an ideation and incubation programme, and at the end, three startups would receive financial support to get their businesses off the ground.
What made it difficult from day one was COVID. The project was awarded just as travel became impossible. And this is a programme built entirely around workshops, ideation sessions, group work, face-to-face business coaching. None of that could happen in person. So we ran all of it online, across two years.
What happened when you started the ideation phase?
Almost everyone in the programme went straight to plastic. Plastic waste, plastic bottles. And you understand why. Plastic is what you see. It is on the streets, under the trees, everywhere in daily life. So when you ask someone to think about a waste business, that is the first image that arrives.
Part of the ideation work was to push past that. To help participants see other streams, other possibilities. Most people in the programme had no waste management background at all. They were just people who wanted to build something and saw waste as the opportunity.
By the end, we had two companies that went all the way and received full funding. One built a vermicomposting operation, using worms to convert organic waste into compost. The other grew mushrooms from green waste. That company now trades commercially and is one of the biggest mushroom growers in Ninawa governorate. It was built, essentially, inside a Zoom call.
Both winning companies were from Mosul. Is that significant?
It means everything. Mosul was the most affected city in Iraq by ISIS. The people from there who applied to this programme, who stayed through two years of online workshops, who built business models and BOQs (Bill of Quantities) and financial plans, were doing this in a context that most people in our industry never have to think about.
One participant did the entire two years on a phone. No laptop. Eight-hour sessions. Filling in Excel sheets, completing presentations, giving feedback on their peers’ business ideas. On a phone. For two years.
That is the thing that stays with me. We talk a lot about impact in this sector. That is what impact actually looks like.
What did the project teach you about your own role?
I was the only Arabic speaker on the project, so my role was the bridge. Between our team and the participants, between the technical content of the programme and the context these people were actually living in. That kind of mediation is not just translation. It is understanding what someone needs to hear, and how they need to hear it.
Stakeholder management is really just that. It is understanding that every person wants to be spoken to in a specific way, wants to feel heard. It does not matter if you are sitting with a minister or with a first-time entrepreneur in Mosul. You deal with everyone the same way.
I grew with those entrepreneurs as they built their businesses. Watching people with no waste background get into this sector, figure it out, and build something real. It teaches you things about what is actually possible that you cannot learn from a project brief.
Last question: One thing you want readers to take away.
There is a quote I come back to often: environmentalism without class consciousness is just gardening.
What I mean by that, and what I saw clearly in Iraq, is that waste management in most parts of the world is still a marginalised sector. The people working in it, collecting waste, sorting it, building businesses around it, they are often from communities that are already marginalized. And if we are serious about environmental outcomes, we have to be serious about the people doing this work.
There is no environmental justice without justice for everyone. That is what I learned from Iraq. And it is what I think we at BFS actually try to live up to.
“Environmentalism without class consciousness is just gardening. There is no environmental justice without justice for everyone.”
Omar Abdel-Rahman, Project Director, BlackForest Solutions
About the series: BlackForest Solutions turned 10 in March 2026. Instead of a celebration, we asked 10 team members to share the hardest lesson from their hardest project. This is what a decade of doing the work actually looks like.
About Omar Abdel-Rahman:
Omar Abdel-Rahman is a Project Director at BlackForest Solutions GmbH. He joined BFS six and a half years ago as a project manager assistant, and has since moved through project manager and project lead roles to his current position. His work spans private sector development, waste management capacity building, and stakeholder management across MENA and beyond. Iraq 006 remains his favorite project.
Project at a Glance
| Iraq 006 — GIZ Private Sector Development | Project Snapshot |
| Client | GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit) |
| Geography | Mosul (Ninawa) and Basra, Iraq |
| Duration | Approximately 2 years |
| Format | Fully online (COVID period) |
| Programme type | Ideation training and incubator for waste management startups |
| Partner | CVAS |
| Startups funded | 2 (vermicomposting; mushroom cultivation from green waste) |
| Notable outcome | Mushroom company now among the largest in Ninawa governorate |
GIZ — Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit; a German development agency implementing projects globally on behalf of the German government.
BOQ — Bill of Quantities; a document used in project costing that itemises equipment, materials, and labour required.
Vermicomposting — A composting process that uses worms to break down organic waste into nutrient-rich compost.
PRO — Producer Responsibility Organisation; a collective body through which producers manage end-of-life waste obligations.
FAQs: Waste Management Startups, GIZ Iraq 006, and Building Circular Economy in Post-Conflict Cities
Q1. What was the Iraq 006 project and what did it set out to achieve?
Iraq 006 was a GIZ-funded private sector development programme that ran waste management startup ideation and incubation sessions across Mosul and Basra — two of Iraq’s most conflict-affected cities. The goal was to identify motivated entrepreneurs, take them from initial idea through to a viable business model, and provide full equipment funding for the strongest companies at the end.
Q2. How was the Iraq 006 incubator run entirely online during COVID?
The programme launched just as COVID made all in-person activity impossible, forcing two years of workshops, ideation sessions, business coaching, and peer reviews to be conducted online. This was a programme built around face-to-face group work running it remotely required adapting every facilitation method while maintaining the quality of business coaching that participants needed to build real companies.
Q3. What businesses did the Iraq 006 programme fund, and what happened to them?
Two startups received full equipment funding at the end of the programme: one built a vermicomposting operation converting organic waste into commercial compost, and the other grew mushrooms from green waste. The mushroom company now trades commercially and is among the largest mushroom growers in Ninawa governorate built entirely through online sessions.
Q4. What is vermicomposting and why was it chosen as a waste management business in Iraq?
Vermicomposting uses worms to break down organic waste into nutrient-rich compost it is low-capital, requires minimal infrastructure, and turns a waste stream that clogs urban environments into a sellable agricultural product. In a city like Mosul that was rebuilding its food and agricultural systems post-conflict, it was both technically appropriate and commercially viable.
Q5. Why is it significant that both funded startups came from Mosul rather than Basra?
Mosul was the most conflict-affected city in Iraq during the ISIS period the people from there who stayed through two years of intensive online work were doing so in a context most development practitioners never encounter. That both winning companies came from Mosul is not a coincidence; it reflects what becomes possible when people in marginalised contexts receive sustained, structured support rather than one-off interventions.
Q6. What does Omar Abdel-Rahman mean by ‘environmentalism without class consciousness is just gardening’?
Omar is making the point that environmental outcomes cannot be separated from the economic and social conditions of the people delivering them. In waste management specifically, the collectors, sorters, and micro-entrepreneurs doing this work are often from already-marginalised communities and if we are serious about building sustainable waste systems, we have to be equally serious about the rights, conditions, and recognition of the people inside those systems.
Q7. What role did BFS play in the Iraq 006 programme and what does that say about how BFS works?
BFS led programme delivery in partnership with GIZ and CVAS, with Omar Abdel-Rahman serving as the Arabic-speaking bridge between the technical programme content and the local context participants were actually living in. This mediation not just language translation but understanding what people need to hear and how is a core part of how BFS approaches stakeholder management across all its projects.
Also Read in This “10 Years. 10 Lessons Nobody Warned Us About” Series
Daniela Tavera’s article on deposit refund systems, the Kosovo project.
Mohamed Kotaish’s article on e-waste, data quality in emerging markets.
Beatrice Vanek’s article on extended producer responsibility