Attachments
In Numbers
264,295 people assisted in January 2019
2492.6 mt of food assistance distributed
US$ 1.46m cash-based transfers made
US$ 53 m six months (February-July 2019) net funding requirements
Operational Updates
• In January, WFP delivered food assistance for 264,295 people in 7 governorates, reaching 94.3 percent of the monthly target of 280,375 people.
• On 9 Jan 2019, the Ministry of Trade (MoT) & WFP launched a new initiative to test digital solutions to modernise Iraq’s Public Distribution System (PDS).
WFP is providing technical expertise and support to MoT, with the goal of improving the management and transparency of the PDS operations, and more efficient services to citizens, prioritising those most in need. In the past, the PDS could only provide information on citizens in their place of origin; a digitised database would be able to provide lists of active citizens claiming rations in their current locations. This first phase is rolling out to over 30,000 people in the Baghdad, Duhok, Misan, Al-Basrah, AlAnbar & Al-Muthanna governorates, testing in rural and urban environments. WFP is seeking donor support for the scale-up of the project.
• The movement of IDPs in and out of camps continues to be closely monitored, in coordination with cooperating partners (CPs) and camp management partners. No significant numbers of returnees were reported. WFP’s Erbil office registered 156 new arrivals in IDP camps in the region, against 97 returnees.
• Work on cleaning irrigation canals in Ramadi was completed by 171 participants in resilience programmes. 60 participants are working on the rehabilitation of Ramadi water pump stations. 89 km of canals have been cleaned to date.
• Due to banking and financial regulations and sanctions, the CO faced problems in transferring funds to its Mobile Money Transfers (MMT) provider, Asia Hawala. CBT were delayed but as a workaround, WFP transferred via UNDP’s account. MMT are now planned to take place in March.