Highlights
In 2022, UNICEF required US$ 52.2 million to meet the critical and acute humanitarian needs of vulnerable children and families in Iraq. US$ 11.2 million were received against UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal in Iraq, while US$ 5.5 million were carried over from 2021, with major funding gaps in WASH, Health and Nutrition and Child Protection.
UNICEF supported the creation of government-led sector coordination working groups at both national and sub-national levels of and handed over clusters/sub-cluster coordination to these groups.
UNICEF scaled up support to return from northeast Syria, with child protection, health, education and WASH support, both in transit facilities and in communities.
Funding Overview and Partnerships
In 2022, UNICEF required US$ 52.2 million to meet the critical and acute humanitarian needs of vulnerable children and families affected by a combination of humanitarian situations, including protracted crises due to conflict, political instability and the COVID-19 pandemic. As protection is central to UNICEF’s humanitarian action, the child protection response is the largest component of the country’s appeal at 41 per cent, followed by Education and WASH. The funding requirement for 2022 was 21 per cent lower than 2021 due to a decrease in the number of people and children in need. By the end of 2022, UNICEF had received only US$ 11.2 million against its Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal in Iraq, while US$ 5.5 million were carried over from 2021. UNICEF’s response to emergency-affected people in Iraq during 2022 was thus 68 per cent underfunded, with a total funding gap of US$ 35.5 million. The sectors presenting major funding gaps were Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) (78 per cent), Health and Nutrition (73 per cent) and Child Protection (66 per cent).
UNICEF’s HAC appeal in Iraq in 2022 was mainly funded by the Czech Republic, Canada, the European Community Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), the Republic of Korea and the United States. UNICEF response also benefitted greatly from flexible humanitarian thematic funding. Since the humanitarian situation in Iraq has, for a number of years, been evolving swiftly and unpredictably, the flexible and multi-year nature of thematic funding continues to be critical to allow UNICEF to support underfunded areas of programming and respond in a timely fashion to emergency situations, reaching the most vulnerable populations in conflict and displacement-affected locations.
As the country transitioned from a humanitarian to a development context, sustaining key essential services for the most vulnerable women and children remained a challenge due to lack of funding. Transferring responsibility to government agencies and finding sustainable solutions for IDPs was also a challenge, as the government continued to rely on UNICEF technical and financial assistance. UNICEF Iraq will continue to utilize nexus/transition funding to maintain key interventions, while ensuring system strengthening and to build the capacity building of governmental authorities.
Source: UN Children’s Fund