IRAQ: UN Agencies and NGOs step up humanitarian assistance while UN resolution calls for the termination of the Oil-for-Food Programme

On 22 May, the United Nations Security Council approved a new resolution (Res. 1483) that lifts 13 years of sanctions on Iraq while extending the Oil-for-Food Programme for a final period of six months. The Oil-for-Food Programme (under which Iraq was allowed to use oil sales to buy the food and humanitarian supplies on which 60 per cent of the population depended) is to phase out gradually to ensure that basic civilian needs are met while responsibilities for the administration of the Programme are transferred from the UN to the provisional authority in the country. When the six-month period is up, it is hoped that Iraqis will be able to obtain their food from the marketplace.

The resolution also called on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a special representative to assist in humanitarian relief and economic and political reconstruction in the country for a period of four months. On 27 May, Mr. Annan appointed Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, for this task.

Since the outbreak of the war, on 19 March, UN humanitarian agencies have worked intensely to step up humanitarian aid in Iraq. On 28 March, Mr. Annan was conferred with the special authority to make readjustments to the Oil-for-Food programme in order to accelerate emergency deliveries to Iraq (res. 1472). Within this framework, the United Nations Office of Iraq Programme (OIP) has been working closely together with a broad range of UN agencies to identify priority items, such as food, medicines, health supplies, water and sanitation equipment, and agricultural inputs that are already in the Oil-for-Food pipeline and can be extracted rapidly and shipped to Iraq.

The first UN agencies (including WFP, FAO, WHO, UNICEF, and UNDP) reopened their offices in Baghdad in the beginning of May. Until then, UN humanitarian relief had been coordinated from outside Iraq for a period of six weeks while all international UN staff was withdrawn from the country. UN staff is now present throughout Iraq. The main agencies working there include FAO, OCHA, OHCHR, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, and WHO. Since the return of international UN staff to Iraq, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq has held regular meetings with US civilian authorities, UN agencies and NGOs to coordinate relief activity.

On 1 June, WFP, one of the frontline UN agencies in food aid, in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and the U.S.-run Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Affairs (ORHA), started its first nationwide public food distribution program since before the war. The aim is to ensure that enough food is available to feed the entire Iraqi population (27 million) during the coming six months. The agency has so far been able to provide some food commodities, including wheat flour, bulk wheat, lentils, vegetable oil and pulses to supplement local harvests.

In early June FAO, in collaboration with WFP, launched a mission to assess the crop, food supply and nutrition needs throughout Iraq. FAO, working with the coalition authorities, has also been engaged in emergency stopgap measures to, among other tasks, restock looted supplies of urgently needed animal vaccines, repair cold storage facilities in the Baghdad and Kirkuk areas, provide spare parts for Iraq's aging national fleet of tractors and combine harvesters and pumps and other equipment to rehabilitate damaged irrigation infrastructure.

WHO is currently coordinating efforts with ORHA in an attempt to ensure efficient distribution of medicine and drugs throughout Iraq. UNICEF is working to restore a network of care centres for malnourished children that collapsed during the hostilities, and the UNDP recently (25 May) launched a re-employment program to provide 250,000 new jobs to Iraqis over the next six months.

Also the international humanitarian NGO community has been intensifying aid assistance in Iraq. According to the UN Humanitarian Information Centre for Iraq (HIC), there are currently more than 85 NGOs (as of mid May 2003) working in Iraq. One of the initial major tasks for the NGOs has been to find out who is doing what and where to be able to collaborate and avoid overlapping. To this end, NGOs have established a whole range of coordination mechanisms and support services. A group of NGOs working in, among other fields, health, education, water and sanitation, have, for instance, established the NGOs Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI) to provide a forum for coordination and exchange of information. Another group of NGOs recently established the Joint NGO Emergency Preparedness Initiative (JNEPI) (See article from the Network's April 2003 Update) also to facilitate communication between the various agencies working in the area.

For more information on current NGO activity in Iraq, please visit HIC's section on "Who's doing What Where?": http://www.agoodplacetostart.org/wdww.php. In this section, it is possible to download a spreadsheet (as of 15 May) on NGO activity and to contribute and/or check information on NGOs working in the country.

For general information on the situation in Iraq, please visit:

- The website of the United Nations Office of the Iraq Programme (OIP): http://www.un.org/Depts/oip where details on the practical aspects of the implementation of the new resolution (res. 1483) will be published shortly on the following page:
http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/cpmd/notices/noticetosuppliers030523.html

The Iraq section of Reliefweb (a humanitarian relief community website):
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/vLCE/Iraq?OpenDocument&StartKey=Iraq&Expandview

The Iraq section of Reuters' Alert Site: http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/sections/571273.htm

The Iraq section of Al-bab.com (Internet portal with links, country guides and news on the Arab world): http://www.al-bab.com/arab/countries/iraq.htm.