More than fifty countries, UN agencies, the World Bank, IMF, and representatives from Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority (the Iraqi governing council was created mid-July) met in a two-day information-sharing session on 23-24 June to discuss concrete measures for the support of Iraq's recovery over the short, medium and long term.

On the first day, the participants discussed ways to respond to immediate humanitarian needs in Iraq, and the following day, longer term needs for reconstruction. Key issues included the need for rebuilding a police force and safeguarding essential public services as the security situation still poses serious problems for humanitarian relief efforts, the role of women, human rights and justice, and economic transition to a free-market system.

The information-sharing session, which was organized by the United Nations Development Group (UNDG), was the first of its kind, bringing together the Coalition Provisional Authority, the UN, donor countries, and international financial institutions, to discuss how to begin collaboration on the reconstruction process in Iraq.

There was general agreement on the necessity of funding wide-ranging reconstruction projects as Iraq's petroleum income was not considered sufficient to cover reconstruction needs over the coming years. Following up on this agreement, the participants decided to organize a high-level donor conference in mid-October to discuss and coordinate donor assistance for the next few years. The conference will be sponsored by the UN, the World Bank, the EU, US, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates. It was also decided that a liaison group, with participation of the Coalition Provisional Authority, be established to facilitate planning of the donor conference. To gather information for the preparation of the conference, United Nations Development Group and the World Bank agreed to co-sponsor a set of needs assessment missions to Iraq.

During the session, UN agencies launched a funding appeal to meet the humanitarian needs through the rest of 2003. The appeal aimed to cover the remainder of the $2.2 billion flash appeal launched by the UN in March as well as unpredicted requirements stemming from looting and destruction during and after the war.

Significant additional resources are still necessary for humanitarian agencies to be able to respond to needs in a number of sectors, e.g. the health system, nutrition support, education, and mine clearance. The food sector, however, which is the largest component of overall requirements in Iraq, is fully covered by donor funding and by resources from the Oil-for-Food Programme. (See also the UN System Network's article from June 2003 on UN and NGO humanitarian efforts in Iraq).

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

- the Iraq section of the UNDP website: www.iq.undp.org

- the Iraq section of the United Nations Website: http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=50&Body=Iraq&Body1=inspect

- a site called "Future of Iraq Portal" with an extensive collection of links on Iraq: http://www.justinalexander.net/iraq. Issues include "Reconstruction", "Humanitarian relief", "NGOs", "News, Discussion & Analysis", "Politics", and "War/Occupation".