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Alert
Iraq
Support to Conflict Affected People
Geneva, 20 June 2014
1. Brief description of the emergency and impact
Some half a million people are estimated to be on the move after the armed group ISIS took over a swathe of Iraqi territory eastwards from Syria, capturing the city of Mosul and a number of other towns north of Baghdad. With the subsiding of armed clashes in Mosul, many of those displaced across the Tigris River have now returned from the east to the west side of the city. Many have, however, decided to leave the city and head for the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, in fear of an Iraqi army counter attack.
IOM Rapid Assessment and Response have identified priority needs for IDPs: 1) inside Mosul City include food, water and fuel, 2) outside Mosul include food, NFIs and Shelter, 3) at KR-I border checkpoints include food and NFIs. The majority of IDPs are living with relatives and friends; others are in public building, mosques, churches and rented houses. Needs include: food, NFI and shelter.
2. Why is an ACT response needed?
ACT members have a good track record in providing humanitarian support in Iraq. Christian Aid and Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe (DKH) have four partners in the region. One of them is REACH which has over 17 years of experience in carrying out humanitarian programmes including drought and conflict-related displacement. Partners of Christian Aid and Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe are already mobilizing to respond to this crisis with food, NFI, and psychosocial assistance.
3. National and international response
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is leading the coordination with UN agencies (UN Mission, UNICEF, UNHCR, IOM), INGOs and local humanitarian actors, many of them are already conducting assessments and starting up response activities. However, the government and humanitarian agencies are already burdened with the Syria and Anbar crises and thus hugely overstretched.
4. ACT Alliance response
Christian Aid’s and Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe’s partners intend to respond to the priority needs of the most vulnerable IDPs with food, non-food item assistance (including hygiene kits) and conduct psychosocial support activities in Erbil, Dohuk, Sulymaniyah Governorates inside KRG and also in Kirkuk area and Salahaddin (north of Baghdad) in Greater Iraq. They are aiming to reach up to 75,000 beneficiaries during their initial response.
5. Planned activities
Activities will include:
• Conduct of validation assessments, coordination with other humanitarian actors and household selection of beneficiaries to identify the most vulnerable IDPs.
• Procurement and transportation of relief food and non-food items to target project locations.
• Distribution of relief items in coordination with local leaders, government officials and other key humanitarian agencies.
• Conducting psychosocial support activities addressing post-displacement stress targeting especially children, youth and women in IDP camps.
Expected results:
• Most vulnerable 60,000 IDPs receive food and household NFIs to meet immediate family needs during the initial crisis period of 12 weeks.
• Distribution of hygiene kits ensures 15,000 of IDPs have improved personal hygiene, health, dignity and well-being.
• Over 10,000 vulnerable IDPs (primarily children, youth and women) will benefit from psychosocial activities.
Initial estimations of requirements suggest that up to $1,300,000 could be absorbed in the humanitarian response of Christian Aid’s and Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe’s partners.
6. Constraints
There is an intention of developing an ACT appeal in order to respond to this emergency. If there is scarce funding from ACT Alliance then the two ACT members (CA and DKH) will not be able to respond as planned and will need to come up with a response of smaller scale with limited funding from other sources.
Any funding indication or pledge should be communicated to Jean-Daniel Birmele, Director of Finance (jbi@actalliance.org)
