Attachments
CONTEXT
Five years after the conclusion of large-scale military operations against ISIL, the humanitarian situation in Iraq has improved considerably. The number of Iraqis requiring humanitarian assistance has declined from a high of 11 million people in 2017 to 2.5 million in 2022. Meanwhile, humanitarian funding in Iraq is reducing dramatically at a time Iraq is regaining financial independence through increasing oil revenues. As of 3 August 2022, the Iraq Humanitarian Response Plan has received approximately USD 106 million, or 26.5 per cent of the USD 400 million requested in 2022, making it one of the least funded HRPs.
At the beginning of 2022, the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) in Iraq decided that the clusters should be deactivated as of December 2022 as development interventions were assessed as more appropriate to address the current situation for both IDPs/returnees and the wider Iraqi population.
The humanitarian community in Iraq has taken several steps to support the transition and scale down the collective international humanitarian architecture, and accordingly strengthen its development interventions, including at field level, under the UN Strategic Development Cooperation Framework and its Durable Solution pillar co-led by IOM and UNDP. Since late 2021, the Humanitarian Coordinator has met regularly with counterparts in the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government to formally notify them of plans for transition and seek their collaboration in moving towards government-led service provision support, when required, by the international community and the UN in particular.
REMAINING NEEDS
While clusters are transitioning, the need for assistance remains high amongst a significant number of Iraqis covered by the HRP. However, many other Iraqis, not directly affected by the ISIL insurgency and therefore not captured under the HRP, are similarly facing a deficit in the realization of their human rights.
Displacement or return situations seem not to be necessarily anymore the driver of poverty and deprivation of rights in Iraq. The UN and its partners estimate that some 2.5 million people will remain in need of humanitarian and other forms of assistance related to durable solutions in 2022. Many extremely vulnerable individuals are at a high risk of marginalization due to their inability to secure civil documentation and, thus, access to public life-saving services, compensation schemes, social safety nets and freedom of movements (in relation to checkpoints). According to the 2021 Multi-Cluster Needs Assessment (MCNA), civil documentation remains a critical need, with an estimated over one million Iraqis - out of 2.5 million people remaining in need of humanitarian assistance, lacking at least one core legal document, 500,000 lacking at least two core documents and 250,000 lacking at least three core documents. These statistics only refer to the baseline in the HRP of 2.5 million Iraqis previously affected by ISIL violence. A more comprehensive baseline about the situation of other Iraqis who may have similarly difficulties accessing their civil documentation is not available. Future efforts by the UN and protection partners will seek to provide the means to the relevant public authorities to address the needs of these populations as well.