Attachments
Overview
In 2023, WFP laid down a broader development-oriented vision for its operations in Iraq focusing on climate change adaptation and resilience-building. This vision is underpinned by a comprehensive understanding of Iraq’s political landscape and socio-economic challenges and aligns with Iraq’s developmental priorities as mapped out in Iraq’s vision 2030[1] .
Recent political stability and strengthened security, albeit fragile, have created opportunities for Iraq to move toward a longer-term development trajectory. However, food security remains one of the most persistent challenges for Iraq.
The adverse effects of climate change have impacted the country's agricultural productivity, with increased salinization, desertification, and reduced water flows in the Tigris and Euphrates along with decreasing rainfall resulting in significant loss of arable land and crops. The repercussions of the climate change have disproportionately affected the most marginalized communities and rural households in particular who rely on land and water for income, leading to fewer livelihood opportunities, distress and increased food insecurity. Depreciation of the Iraqi dinar and consumer price inflation have also raised the price of food contributing further to food insecurity.
In response to these challenges, WFP, through its Country Strategic Plan (CSP) 2020-2024, implemented innovative solutions to mitigate adverse impacts of climate change, tackle high youth unemployment and foster a conducive ground for entrepreneurship, contributing to Iraq's efforts to achieve zero hunger. It also strived to develop the skills of displaced people and returnees in climate-vulnerable areas to help them rebuild their agricultural livelihoods. WFP continued to support Iraq's national school feeding programme in addition to strengthening its social protection system. Through this holistic strategy, WFP extended its operations beyond addressing immediate needs to building the resilience of Iraq to withstand increasing climate pressures and shocks, reaching over 680,000 food-insecure women, men, girls and boys in 2023. Half of them were women and girls and 15 percent were persons with disabilities.
Despite diminishing funding for emergency response activities, WFP remained committed to providing immediate support to the most marginalized, internally displaced and crisis-affected Iraqis, including those missing one or more essential civil documents to be integrated within the national social safety net. WFP prioritized its assistance, using its limited resources based on food security vulnerability criteria. Simultaneously, WFP advocated for the prioritization and inclusion of crisis-affected populations in national protection mechanisms and supported the coordination of cash assistance within the humanitarian response to these targeted populations. In 2023, WFP provided lifesaving support to over 150,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), more than 40,500 Syrian refugees in camps and 3,389 returnees across Iraq.
Under WFP’s resilience-building portfolio, WFP has pursued a multifaceted approach that encompasses environmental conservation, climate smart agriculture, effective water management systems, and a participatory planning consultative approach to empower communities and support them to become resilient to climatic shocks and stressors. In Southern Iraq, where the impact of climate change is felt most, WFP, in partnership with the local government of Basra, Iraq’s Ministry of Environment, and the University of Basra’s Marine Science Centre established a mangrove nursery in the tidal flats region with the capacity to produce up to 1 million mangrove seedlings annually. This is an unprecedented approach to combat heatwaves, preserve marine life, and sustain the livelihoods of the communities within the area. It also helps the Government of Iraq advance its commitment to planting 5 million trees by 2028.
WFP also employed innovative nature-based solutions to not only preserve vital ecosystems in the marshlands of Southern Iraq but to also create socio-economic opportunities for marginalized Marsh Arab communities.
WFP supported 2,511 smallholder farmers grappling with climate change and salinity, through rehabilitation of land and water canals, equipping them with smart irrigation systems, drip irrigation and sprinklers in particular. In parallel, WFP also worked with relevant ministries on strengthening climate information systems with the development of effective early warning systems and participatory planning to ensure timely and appropriate responses to climate-related threats.
With youth representing over 60 percent of the Iraqi population, WFP’s market-relevant vocational training programme and Jousour (bridges) initiative actively supported more than 39,000 unemployed youth in 33 governorates with marketable digital and English language skills to boost their employability and enable them to build better livelihoods. To achieve this, WFP built successful partnerships with the private sector and academia to leverage their knowledge and technology. This initiative contributes to promoting human capital development and entrepreneurship among youth, women, and people with disabilities, while also advancing financial inclusion to address inequalities.2023 | Iraq Annual Country Report WFP provided school meals to over 452,000 school children in 13 governorates across Iraq. WFP worked with the Ministry of Education to develop the National School Feeding Policy and strengthen the institutional capacity for the handover of the National School Feeding Programme (NSFP) by 2024. Additionally, WFP supported the Ministry to develop a Social Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) strategy and trained its personnel to lead an SBCC campaign aimed at promoting nutrition and hygiene practices not only among school children, but also teachers, parents and the wider community.
To strengthen social protection systems, WFP continued to share its expertise with the Government to reform the Public Distribution System (PDS) through digitalization, which aims to help the Government save up to 30 percent in expenditure on the PDS and better target the most marginalized communities. The digitalization of PDS was successfully completed in Najaf Governorate and registration for digital cards is underway in the governorates of Muthana, Kirkuk, Duhok, with Baghdad and Basra.
Maintaining its commitment to the SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals, WFP continued to play a crucial role as a strategic and operational partner to the Government, donors, and United Nations partners. WFP has also strengthened its capacity to integrate gender equality, social inclusion, and conflict sensitivity across its programmes.
Moving forward, WFP will continue to position itself as a strategic partner to the Iraqi government and work together with affected communities to ensure longer-term peace, security and stability and achieve the goal of food security and eradication of hunger in Iraq.