As a part of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) reform agenda, reform progress in waste collection contracts saves public expenditure and improves quality of the service in the Erbil province.

Waste collection contracts are the Kurdistan Regional Government’s second highest operational cost, at approximately USD 100 million per year. In January 2021, the Office of the Prime Minister began work with the Ministry of Municipality and Tourism to reform these contracts with the aim of delivering better quality services and fairer practices to the people of Kurdistan whilst improving public finances by reducing the cost of one of the KRG's largest operational expenditure items.

The project includes analysis of all existing waste collection contracts and developing a new strategy that will help move from an input-based specification,where the MoMT determines all operational requirements, to an output-based service. Thus, suppliers have the freedom on how they deliver the services as long as service quality standards are met.

As reform in these contracts advances for the Erbil province, this strategy of optimized contract delivery is planned to be rolled out to other provinces of the Kurdistan Region.