Attachments
Executive Summary
Nearly eight years after the displacement of Yazidis and other residents from the area of Sinjar in 2014 by ISIL, up to 350,000 Yazidis1 are still displaced. Many live in camps only hours away from their homeland of Sinjar and Ba’aj, in Iraq’s Ninewa Governorate.
In late May 2020, Yazidis began returning in greater numbers to Ba’aj and Sinjar districts, spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, citing failure to integrate and evictions as the main reasons. Return rates across the two areas was still only around 40% in October 2021 though (DTM Integrated Location Assessment VI). This has a significant impact on the economic environment in the district.
In 2022, living conditions for returnees to Sinjar and Ba’aj are among the worst in all areas of return across Iraq. In Sinjar, “reconstruction and rehabilitation of housing, as well as restoration of basic services and livelihoods is relatively low, while the need for community reconciliation and safety remains significant in many locations,” according to IOM’s Return Dynamics report in 2020. For this largely agricultural area, the situation remains severe for returnees to Sinjar. “In agricultural areas, just under half of all returnee households (46%) live in areas where none or only some agricultural activity is occurring at pre-2014 levels. A concerningly high rate of households in agricultural areas in Ninewa Governorate (48%) face this issue, especially in the districts of Mosul (50%) and Sinjar (99%).” 3 Fewer than five per cent of the areas of return in Sinjar have adequate provision of infrastructure and services. Security deteriorated in late 2021 and early 2022 with TAF air strikes in August 2021, in December and again at the start of February 2022. Increased tensions between the Iraqi Security Forces and local military actors as well as tribal disputes added to uncertainty among returnees and wouldbe returnees.
In an area where agriculture is the main source of income, destruction of agricultural assets (storage grains and silos, processing units and factories, animal sheds and poultry buildings), agricultural lands (IEDs), irrigation facilities and water sources by ISIL destroyed populations livelihoods and production capacities in the region. Lack of assets is preventing farmers from rebuilding their livelihoods, but also preventing displaced rural population from returning and resuming their activities. In parallel, water scarcity has been a serious issue over recent years and is affecting all farming systems in the region. In the winter of 2020/21, Iraq experienced the worst drought in 42 years. In March 2022, Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision reported on the impact of climate change in Iraq on the agricultural sector, revealing that many families no longer see a future in the sector.
Through this Labour Market Assessment (LMA) and ongoing water and livelihoods project, Solidarités International (SI) targeted areas immediately south of Sinjar mountain, where initial assessments were conducted in the villages known collectively as Solagh (Sinjar District), and 3 villages around Wardiya (Ba’aj District). These areas are seen by many displaced Yazidis as their legitimate Areas of Origin (AoO), before they were dispossessed of land rights and moved further south to live in collectives created under the Ba’athist regime in the 1970s.
As initial discussions with communities showed the key sector for employment is farming, SI assessed the results to identify the best strategy to support food and agriculture related value chains in the area, in order to revitalize the local economy and stimulate job creation and employment. The specific objectives of this assessment were the following:
To understand the impact of multiple crises between 2020 and 2021 which have affected businesses, farmers and breeders and the barriers for resumption of their activities
To identify market opportunities and potential of development for businesses in Wardiya, Solagh and neighboring villages, that can bolster productivity in these largely agricultural areas
To identify challenges faced by growers and livestock breeders
To identify the most in-demand skills that could be developed through dedicated trainings to support the entry of vulnerable groups, especially women, into the workforce
To assess market capacity and elasticity before supporting businesses in order to avoid overwhelming existing markets and create unfair competition.