Contribution to UNHCR efforts related to the Syria Crisis in Lebanon and Jordan and to the Iraq Situation - IRAK

Iraq is confronting multiple overlapping crises, with more than 3 million persons internally displaced since 2014, an additional one million IDPs displaced in 2006-2007, and almost 240,000 Syrian refugees. Furthermore, over 368,000 individuals are currently displaced as a result of the Mosul offensive which started on 17 October 2016. Cumulatively, more than 473,000 individuals have been displaced from Mosul and surrounding areas since 17 October 2016, including 114,030 who have returned to their homes (data according to International Organisation for migration Displacement Tracking Matrix). Overall, humanitarian needs across Iraq are immense. Millions of displaced families are in need of assistance to meet their most urgent needs and to ensure their survival. As economic conditions are worsening, countless IDPs are unable to access livelihoods opportunities and face depleted resources and savings, compounded by the increasing cost of living across Iraq. Families are forced to go into debt to meet their basic needs. Ongoing military operations to retake Mosul and subsequent re-building of retaken areas require significant resources further straining public services. In addition, from a humanitarian response perspective, limited donor resources limit humanitarian actors’ capacity to respond to IDP needs. As part of the inter-agency IDP coordination structure, in addition to leading the Protection, Camp Coordination and Camp Management, and Shelter/NFI clusters, UNHCR co-chairs the Cash Working Group for Iraq. In this respect, UNHCR plays a strategic, technical and advisory role in the development and implementation of cash assistance projects throughout Iraq, facilitating strategic planning with communities, donors and local authorities. UNHCR’s cash assistance activities complement the activities undertaken by the Cash Consortium of Iraq (CCI) and other cash actors, contributing to more coordinated and comprehensive responses, while playing a catalytic role in promoting a linkage of cash interventions with social protection schemes. This Program will support vulnerable Syrian Refugee families in Lebanon and Jordan as well as vulnerable IDP families through Cash Based Interventions (CBI).

Population has sufficient basic and domestic items