Iraq Crisis - Nutrition and Food Security in Iraq - World Food Programme 2017-2018

September 2016 – The humanitarian situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate as armed clashes between Daesh and government forces drive displacement. Since January 2014 over 3.3 million people have been displaced and an additional 887 000 previously displaced people have returned to their homes that have often been destroyed making it one of the largest cases of internal displacement in the world. Persecution of minority groups is an ongoing concern as well as the protection of women and children who are at an increased risk of (and in some cases targeted for) sexual violence such as rape as well as child early and forced marriage. Canada is helping reduce the vulnerability of hundreds of thousands of crisis-affected people especially women and children through a broad spectrum of humanitarian assistance activities across Iraq. GAC’s multi-year humanitarian support to the World Food Programme (WFP) is contributing to meeting the nutrition and food security needs of up to 2.4 million people in Iraq. Project activities include: (1) providing family food rations emergency response rations and food vouchers; (2) implementing the food component of the rapid response mechanism for newly displaced persons; and (3) providing unconditional cash assistance to vulnerable persons.

The expected outcome is improved health and nutritional status of vulnerable persons. The ultimate outcome is lives saved suffering alleviated and human dignity maintained in countries experiencing humanitarian crisis or that are food insecure.