Background
During the military operations which took place from 2014 to 2017, the infrastructure of more than a third of Iraq was affected, mainly in the northern and western regions of the country. In addition to the impact of the military operations, floods caused by Iraq’s heavy seasonal rains intensified the crisis. The combination of these two factors resulted in the internal displacement of over 3.2 million people and caused severe damage to the country infrastructure, such as bridges, roads, healthcare, education, etc. The Logistics Cluster was consequently activated to assist humanitarian communities and to play a critical role in providing logistics services by supporting the relief and recovery efforts. 2018 was a year of transition for the Iraqi crisis, with an increasing number of returnees to pacified areas and a slow-down in the humanitarian activities. In 2019, the Logistics Cluster was deactivated and replaced with the Sectoral Working Group which maintained regular meetings and shared updates with active stakeholders. By the end of 2019, the security situation improved in the country. The Sectoral Working Group was deactivated and the Logistics Preparedness Project (the Preparedness Project) launched in its wake. The aim of the Preparedness Project is to bring the humanitarian community together in a cooperative approach to build a resilient national supply chain and a collaborative logistical response.
The Preparedness Project was initiated in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) to be later carried out in Federal Iraq (FI). The project was initiated after six high-level preliminary meetings with the authorities in KRI, INGOs and NGOs. The result of these meetings was to introduce the steps and objectives of the Preparedness Project and to facilitate its implementation. The initiation of the Preparedness Project was greatly supported by the Joint Crisis and Coordination Centre (JCC), an entity of the Ministry of Interior in KRI which manages the humanitarian coordination and emergency response.
The aim of the field-based Preparedness Project is to enable local governments and humanitarian actors to have a coordinated approach towards improving local supply chain resilience, and to ensure humanitarian actors have a joint logistics response. The Preparedness Project seeks to create networks and groups to bring the stakeholders of an emergency together. By doing so, the Preparedness project’s aim is to identify bottlenecks and solutions and to plan for an effective response.
The Preparedness Project main activities are planned to be conducted separately in two main regions of Iraq: KRI and FI.
Subsequently, the final consolidated roadmap of activities will be developed, during the last quarter of the year (20202.)
Project sponsors have been designated based on the preliminary assessment, the meetings, the introductory presentations of the Preparedness Project’s objectives, and the feedback from the authorities. These sponsors will lead the Preparedness Project’s activities in KRI and FI. Detailed future activities per location are highlighted in the Next Step section.