In Numbers
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366,517 people assisted in November 2020
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953 mt of in-kind assistance distributed
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USD 3.64 million distributed through cash-based transfers
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USD 11.1 million six months net funding requirements (January – June 2021)
Operational Update & COVID-19 Response
• In November, WFP reached 246,004 IDPs and 74,601 refugees; and 45,912 returnees and people from vulnerable communities through Food for Assets (FFA), Urban Livelihoods, EMPACT, and monthly food and cash assistance programmes, in 12 governorates.
• WFP concluded distributions of a “hybrid” combination of cash-based transfers (CBT) and in-kind food, using a variety of CBT delivery mechanisms including mobile money transfers and electronic vouchers (e-vouchers). Alongside livelihoods projects in Sinjar, WFP supported returnees from camps in Duhok who returned in October with one-month Family Food Rations (over 28,000 returnees).
• As of 30 November, up to 13 IDP camps and informal sites were closed, consolidated or re-classified as informal settlements, with 33,990 individuals departing from these sites. Four IDP camps remained open in federal Iraq at the end of November; in Anbar, Ninewa, and Salah al-Din, in addition to the IDP camps in Kurdistan Region. WFP is closely monitoring the closure of camps and working in coordination with partners including the government, to ensure continued support to IDPs and returnees during the closure phases.
• WFP has locally procured a contingency stock of ready-to-eat food packages (Immediate Response Rations) to help respond to families’ emergency food needs when required. The stock will be on hand in WFP’s Erbil warehouse for use when required.
• Urban livelihoods projects, responding to the loss of employment caused by the COVID-19 crisis, concluded in Baghdad, Basra, Ninewa and Wassit. The interventions included activities that helped generate temporary income opportunities such as cleaning streets, renovating schools, planting trees and more. More than 70,000 people were reached through the projects, which quickly responded to people’s needs during the crisis.
• WFP’s rural livelihoods Food for Assets (FFA) projects are ongoing, such as the rehabilitation of irrigation canals and systems, reforestation and capacity strengthening of smallholder farmers, in Anbar, Basra, Ninewa, Salah al-Din and Thi-Qar. WFP is working to expand these programmes in 2021, towards helping create sustainable incomes for returnees and vulnerable host communities.