Housing, Land and Property Sub-cluster Iraq COVID-19 Response Guidance Note
Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic on 11 March 2020. The first case of COVID-19 in Iraq was recorded in Najaf on 24 February 2020. At the time of writing, the WHO had recorded 1,031 cases in Iraq, including 64 deaths. The latest figures on COVID-19 in Iraq may be found here. The Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government have imposed extensive measures to prevent a large outbreak of the virus in Iraq, including closing airports and land borders, significant movement restrictions and nationwide curfews.
During the COVID-19 Operations Cell Meeting on 23 March 2020 the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) for Iraq requested the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG) to summarize critical humanitarian COVID-19 related preparedness and response activities which could be implemented in the short term if donor funding was made available. Thus, the below guidelines provide brief on how critical activities should be carried out during the outbreak by considering safe delivery of the HLP activities.
Context: COVID-19 has resulted in the deferral of HLP activities that require direct contact with beneficiaries. Moreover, all casework has been interrupted because of the closure of governmental offices, civil affairs directorate and the civil courts. Instead, partners are engaging in remote support to beneficiaries, such as awareness raising whenever possible within districts and remote legal counseling. A serious concern that arises if the pandemic is not successfully controlled, is the exposure of vulnerable households to unsafe housing arrangements, illegal increases in rent and eviction and lack of access to legal services such as compensation claims for damaged or destroyed properties.
The purpose of this document is to provide HLP actors in Iraq with a guidance to safe delivery of a limited range of critical HLP activities in the wake of the COVID19 outbreak in Iraq.
