UNDP Iraq - Stabilization and Employment, FFIS/ICRRP

completed

Iraq has been severely damaged by several wars, political crises and, most recently, the fight against IS. It is expected that, despite the expulsion of IS and the liberation of Mosul in the third quarter of 2017, the reconstruction of the country and national reconciliation will take years. According to the IOM, 4.2 million people, including around 2.0 million children, have been able to return to their homes since IS was defeated in September 2017. As of April 2019, around 1.6 million Iraqis (including 900,000 children) are still considered internally displaced, of which around 500,000 are in Nineveh province, 330,000 in Dohuk province, around 212,000 in Erbil province, 150,000 in Sulaymaniyah province, almost 120,000 in Salah-Al-Din and 102,000 in Kirkuk province. According to IOM, around 30% of the internally displaced people live in refugee camps, 70% in other accommodation, of which around 8% are in emergency accommodation (informal settlements, abandoned buildings, etc.). But many internally displaced people who have returned also continue to live under critical financial conditions (estimated at 10%). The remaining internally displaced persons usually have serious reasons (e.g. membership of ISIL) that could prevent them from returning soon, even in the medium and long term. The return rate of the remaining internally displaced persons has decreased significantly over the course of 2018 and currently. In addition, Iraq has taken in around 250,000 Syrian refugees since the beginning of the Syrian crisis. The sometimes considerable demographic pressure on the communities hosting the internally displaced persons and Syrian refugees is in many cases leading to an overload of the already inadequate public services. This is particularly serious in the Kurdish autonomous regions. Syrian refugees, internally displaced persons and residents of the host communities are increasingly competing for housing and public services as well as employment and income opportunities. The project comprises two components, which are primarily aimed at (1) immediate stabilization (Funding Facility for Immediate Stabilization; FFIS) and (2) strengthening resilience (Iraq Crisis Response and Resilience Programme; ICRRP). The overarching objective of the FC measure is to contribute to the short-term improvement of socio-economic conditions, in particular the income situation, in those communities that were recently liberated from so-called ISIL (Component 1 FFIS) or that have taken in a substantial number of internally displaced persons or Syrian refugees in the course of the fighting in Iraq and Syria (Component 2 ICRRP). This objective is to be achieved by carrying out labour-intensive measures necessary for reconstruction (FFIS) or for the maintenance of existing local infrastructure and the upkeep of basic public services (ICRRP), thus generating income for an estimated 16,661 people. The regional focus of the measures is on Mosul (FFIS), Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah (ICRRP). The target group of the measures includes the population of Mosul, internally displaced persons, the population of the host communities and Syrian refugees. The SI measures have been implemented since the fourth quarter of 2017 and will run until March 2021.