Iraq: Hawija City area-based assessment October-November 2018
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Overview
Hawija city was one of the last remaining areas under the control of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and sustained significant damage during the presence of ISIL and military operations by the Government of Iraq (GoI) to retake the city. During that period many residents of the city were displaced. As of December 2018, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has recorded approximately 143,628 returns to Hawija district, while in October 2018, the IOM estimated that 56,544 individuals from Hawija district remained displaced.
As the context in Hawija city transitions from an emergency to one of recovery and stabilization, the priority for the government and the humanitarian community has shifted to facilitating the safe return of internally displaced persons (IDPs), the resumption of key public services in order to make returns sustainable, and the equitable rebuilding of Hawija city for all residents. In support of the international humanitarian community’s aim to coordinate humanitarian service delivery through, for instance, the Hawija community centre (CC), REACH Initiative (REACH), in collaboration with partners, conducted an area-based assessment (ABA) that sought to provide a tailored and actionable profile of the city, with a focus on household-level needs, livelihoods, and access to public services.
Data collection for the ABA consisted of both qualitative and quantitative components. The qualitative component included: secondary data review (SDR), 50 semi-structured key informant interviews (KIIs) with community leaders and individuals with specialized knowledge of service provision in the area (subject-matter experts,
i.e. SMEs), 36 community group discussions (CGDs), and 24 participatory mapping exercises.
The quantitative component was a householdlevel needs assessment in all neighbourhoods of Hawija city conducted with 415 households. All data was collected between 30 September and 14 November 2018. Findings from the household survey are generalizable with a 95% confidence level and a 5% margin of error at the city level.
The assessment found that households in the city faced significant challenges in most aspects of daily life, primarily due to the fact that houses, infrastructure, and equipment had been severely damaged or destroyed during the recent conflict.
The destruction of two of the three health centres in Hawija city posed a barrier for residents to access healthcare, three schools were not functioning due to damage, and the electricity supply had been seriously affected due to damage to multiple parts of the infrastructure. The frequency of solid waste collection in the city had significantly reduced due to damaging and looting of equipment, and the availability and quality of drinking water was much lower than before 2014. Lastly, livelihoods opportunities were negatively affected by the fact that many of Hawija city’s factories and shops had been destroyed, agricultural equipment had been stolen, and the electricity supply was unreliable.
This extensive damage and consequential negative effect on most aspects of daily life was also found to be an important reason for people not to return to Hawija city.
In addition to these consequences of extensive damage, residents of Hawija city were often lacking the financial means necessary to repair damages, access services, and restart income -generating activities. A lack of financial means was the primary barrier to accessing healthcare and education, and prevented residents from restarting business because they could not afford to replace stolen or damaged equipment, or rebuild damaged shops or factories. In addition, a number of issues had increased residents’ expenses, such as the price of goods increasing and residents having to pay at checkpoints to bring goods into the city. The lack of financial means, increased expenses, and limited livelihoods opportunities compound each other, making it difficult for residents to improve their situation without external assistance. At the same time, only 13% of households reported having received humanitarian assistance in the six months prior to data collection and 97% of households reported not knowing how to contact any organization for assistance.
Besides these challenges, women, children, and persons with disabilities were found to face additional barriers in accessing services. Women were much less often employed than men and were much less often looking for work, were facing additional barriers to accessing healthcare due to a lack of financial means or security issues, and two-thirds of children not attending education were female. At least 1% of children were working, 2% of children between 12 and 17 were married, and 17% of children under five years old had not been registered with the authorities. Persons with disabilities were less often employed, faced additional barriers to accessing healthcare due to a lack of specialized care and the distance to facilities, and faced difficulties accessing education because schools adapted to their needs were no longer available in Hawija.
The Hawija city ABA thus found that many aspects of daily life in Hawija city remain negatively affected by the recent conflict, partly due to residents lacking the capacity to restart activities.
As many residents had not received humanitarian assistance by the time of data collection, there is significant room for humanitarian actors to address needs in Hawija city.
