Memorandum submitted by Save the Children
UK
1. Save the Children works in nine areas
across Iraq and is developing its new headquarters in Baghdad.
Previously Save the Children UK (SC UK) had worked in the Kurdish
Northern Governorates (Iraqi Kurdistan) implementing reconstruction
and development work since 1991. We are recognised as the leading
international NGO working in North Iraq, from the point of view
of both operational capacity and analysis. SC UK is currently
responding to emergency needs throughout Iraq.
THE CURRENT
SITUATION IN
IRAQ
Food
2. In the last week, SC UK has completed
the first structured assessment of the vulnerability of the poorer
communities in Baghdad. The results indicate that even the poorest
households have wheat. Wheat was distributed in large quantities
by the UN and the former Government of Iraq under the 986 Oil
for Food Programme (OFFP). Double and even triple rations were
distributed in the run up to the war and many households have
stocks of wheat that will last them through to September. The
price of wheat on the local market is 100 Iraqi Dinar (ID) per
kg or the equivalent of 5 US cents.
3. Whilst this means that people will not
starve to death, the same survey shows a dramatic drop in household
income. The lack of economic or government activity has left many
families dependent on rich relatives or selling household assets
to survive. In the poor district of Shu'la in Baghdad, a quarter
of the families interviewed in depth by SC UK had no income at
all. This rapid destitution of the population has grave implications
in terms of both social unrest and the nutritional status of children.
An added problem the team identified was that fuel is in short
supply to prepare the wheat, and is also expensive.
4. The World Food Programme (WFP) has imported
over 200,000MT of food since the end of the war, and is planning
to re-establish the public distribution system (PDS) in June.
This seems ambitious given the current security situation (warehouses
continue to be looted in Baghdad and Mosul), but crucially is
likely to be only wheat, the one commodity that is not in short
supply. Distribution of the high value items in the former ration
(which consisted of oil, pulses, sugar, tea and detergent) remains
crucially important to meeting basic needs.
5. UNICEF reports a doubling of malnutrition
rates in Baghdad since the beginning of the war. Whilst the data
collection cannot be reliable under current circumstances the
lack of a balanced food basket coupled with poor quality water
is bound to lead to a worsening in children's health and leave
them vulnerable to disease outbreaks.
Health
6. The health situation has been well documented
in recent weeks. There has been a sharp increase in water-borne
diseases such as gastro-intestinal diseases, Typhoid and in Basra,
some cases of Cholera. This has led to acute shortages in intravenous
fluids and certain types of antibiotics. The severity of these
outbreaks is difficult to quantify because the insecurity means
some people are unable to reach hospitals and the lack of a functioning
health department means that collection of health information
and data is patchy.
7. Hospitals are over-stretched, dirty and
under-resourced. Staff are beginning to be paid but the administrative
chaos caused by "de-Ba'athification" means that the
health system remains highly fragmented. This situation is unsatisfactory.
A functioning health department should be urgently re-started
so that health services can function in a coordinated and efficient
manner.
8. In addition to the serious outbreaks
of gastro-enteritis, there are still large numbers of trauma patients
from incidents of insecurity (banditry, crossfire, or other hostilities)
and unexploded ordnance.
9. There are pre-existing severe shortages
of specialist drugs such as cytotoxins for cancer treatment and
pentostam for the treatment of the disease Kala Azar. There are
also acute equipment shortages at many hospitals. In paediatric
wards many children are therefore dying unnecessarily of preventable
diseases.
10. The primary health care system is not
functioning due to the prevailing disorder. This sector will need
a great deal of investment, as years of sanctions and neglect
have led to an erosion of rural services in particular.
11. There is a grave risk of epidemic (bacterial
dysentery & cholera) due to sanitation problems in Baghdad,
rising heat and the fragmentation of the health system. There
do not seem to be sufficient contingency plans in place but SC
UK will be working with the authorities and others in both the
health and the sanitation sectors to urgently address this potential
problem.
Child Protection
12. Children currently do not enjoy the
special protection they are afforded in international law. The
social services department is not functioning and general insecurity
has put other institutions working with and for children at risk.
There are persistent reports of children being abducted from orphanages
and girls abducted from schools. Many orphanages had sent children
to stay with extended families before the war and juvenile justice
centres similarly closed down and released children in their care.
Many of these institutions remain closed and the administrative
chaos is pre-empting early resumption of work.
Education
13. One way to protect children is to open
schools again and to ensure these are safe for children to attend.
Some schools have not re-opened because of damage to their equipment
and looting of furniture.
14. The schools should urgently be reopened,
or children risk losing most of a school year.
Security
15. While security is slowly improving,
most cities in Iraq remain unstable and subject to daily incidents
of looting and banditry. Many of the major transport arteries
(including the main roads from Amman and Kuwait City to Baghdad)
are similarly insecure. Popular anger is running high at the lack
of security and services, and this in turn fuels anarchy. Most
people own arms, which are also sold openly.
Unexploded Ordnance
16. Unexploded ordnance is a huge problem.
There are still many arms dumps in schools, private residences
and other civilian areas left by the former regime. There are
also thousands of unexploded cluster bomblets, especially along
the path of the Coalition invasion from the south and these continue
to kill and maim children.
CURRENT AND
EMERGING ISSUES
FOR INTERNATIONAL
NON-GOVERNMENTAL
ORGANISATIONS (INGOS)
Access/Security
17. Access to children in need remains difficult,
due to security constraints. Large parts of Baghdad and the countryside
around Mosul remain very difficult to access safely. Getting supplies
and personnel into the country also remains problematic although
the lifting of sanctions and the commencement of both UN and NGO
flights has started to ease this problem.
18. Security is a major problem (as above).
Predictably, the power vacuum is being filled by criminal gangs
and popular political movements. Humanitarian workers, who can
often be viewed as part of the Coalition occupation, are very
much at risk from the popular unrest.
INGO Co-operation with the Military
19. INGO co-operation with the military
has been problematic, although this has improved with time. The
Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is starting to take the
load off the military in terms of INGO coordination, but until
this point the Civil Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) mechanism
had proved frustrating. This was mostly due to high staff turnover
and little real understanding of how INGOs worked or what they
could do. Another frustration has been that the CMCC mechanism
seems designed to keep decision-makers away from INGOs, leading
to a lack of meaningful dialogue.
20. SC UK continues to attend meetings of
CMCC and press home points about access, security, services, etc.,
but in general we have the impression that we are not being listened
to—and that there is no mechanism for listening to us.
INGO Co-operation with the UN
21. The UN have only just established themselves
in Baghdad so co-operation has been limited up to now. This is
starting to improve with strong OCHA staff on the UN team, but
a highly restrictive security curfew has not allowed the UN to
properly resume work.
CPA (formerly ORHA)
22. ORHA had given the impression of being
in internal turmoil, with little understanding of their role.
With the formation of CPA, there seems to be a new spirit within
this team but they still appear to be woefully short of skilled
staff, and too few in numbers to properly carry out the job of
government. This coupled with the removal of the top three levels
of the former civil service in the "de-Ba'athification"
process has left most ministries unable to carry out their former
duties.
RECONSTRUCTION
The Role of the UN
23. The UN Secretariat and its specialised
agencies and programmes are well placed to play a central role
in seven key areas: humanitarian assistance; transitional governance;
technical assistance for post-conflict recovery; security sector
reform (civilian policing); electoral assistance; human rights
monitoring; and management of oil revenues and reconstruction
contracts.
24. UN Resolution 1483 gives the UN a variety
of roles in different areas. Much remains to be done in terms
of fleshing out what these roles will look like in practice. In
order to work efficiently, a clear division of responsibility
with the Coalition Provisional Authority will be essential to
achieve the goals of the UN. Any UN involvement must share with
the current occupying forces the objective of handing over decision-making
to Iraqis at the local and national level. The UN's contribution
in terms of inclusiveness, transparency and legitimacy, will be
very important. Therefore, its position of independence in the
monitoring bodies should be strengthened when detailed mandates
are laid out.
25. The UN should focus on areas where the
organisation can exploit its comparative advantage either vis-a"-vis
Iraq or in relation to its organisational competencies. It should
also only commit to a role where there is a reasonable level of
certainty that the organisation can deliver in fulfilling that
role. The comparative advantage of the UN relating to Iraq is
based on its mandate and its organisational expertise, including
extensive knowledge of humanitarian conditions and requirements
throughout Iraq; extensive experience in co-ordination of humanitarian
assistance in other emergencies around the world; a track record
of engagement with national institutions and officials at all
levels in Iraq, including in the oil sector, during implementation
of the OFFP; some experience in human rights monitoring in the
country; experience in institutional capacity-building for governance
in a number of post-conflict situations and electoral assistance
missions eg East Timor, Kosovo and Afghanistan.
Wider Recovery
26. Given the magnitude of Iraq's debt,
the extensive humanitarian needs and the dearth of local resources,
Iraq will continue to rely heavily on oil revenue for reconstruction
and development. A key challenge will be to achieve sustainable
development and break the cycle of dependency on oil, imports
and government handouts. This will require fresh consideration
of the relative weighting of the agricultural, manufacturing and
service sectors and the state's involvement in them; intensive
efforts to build Iraqi capacity and a focus on excellence in education;
and good governance through transparency, accountability and responsiveness
to local needs. Strategies should be participatory and include
plans for the transition from emergency measures to development
programmes. The rule of law and respect for human rights will
be extremely important, as will efficient financial systems.
27. Rehabilitating basic services is an
initial strategic goal. The concomitant goal of training and capacity
building in institutions and among Iraqis by Iraqis is a necessary
ingredient of short term as well as longer-term development. Excellence
in education would not only improve the childhood of the more
than 50% of Iraqis who are under the age of 18, but also lay the
basis for building sustainable livelihoods.
28. Humanitarian indicators such as household
income, daily caloric intake and employment rates could be used
to assess progress in reducing dependency on the food ration and
building sustainable livelihoods. Further gender and child-sensitive
intra-household indicators of inclusive access, participation,
assets and entitlements could provide the basis for an assessment
of the degree to which the relevant human rights of the population,
and of children in particular, are being realised.
29. The humanitarian imperative and prime
objective for food security in Iraq must be that no child or poor
or otherwise disadvantaged family has to struggle to obtain adequate
and sufficient food and the means to survive. To that end, the
former rations can be modestly improved so that nutritional deficiencies
are resolved and so that the ration lasts the full month. Complimentary
policies should target the poorest families—those 20% of
families who sold part of their ration in the past. Such measures
could include income generation or provision of essential children's
items (such as clothes and school books) to reduce family expenditures.
30. The food rationing system can build
in corrective measures by introducing "complaints and arbitration
boards". The norms of a community may by themselves ensure
that all those in need can exercise their right to adequate food.
Experience shows, however, that women and children in particular
are often better off if they can have a direct say in such programmes,
rather than depend on the decisions of others. Key elements of
targeting the food ration will be accurate information, widely
accepted criteria of eligibility, inclusion of beneficiaries in
the implementation, local management of alternative, integrative
measures across sectors, and independent, transparent and accountable
boards to monitor food security. The current system should be
maintained until experience from pilot projects and information
gathering can guide national and local policy.
31. It is important to reduce both macro-economic
dependency on oil and food imports and household dependency on
food packages through local substitution. Using local harvest
and produce instead of imports in the food ration will immediately
benefit Iraq's economy and farmers' income. If Iraq's agricultural
production prices are below those of the imported items, the trade
deficit would be reduced and foreign exchange increased, and rural
incomes could be boosted.
32. The crop harvest is due shortly but
the current re-establishing and re-structuring of the Iraqi administration
means that only central authorities will initially be able to
manage integration of the local harvest into the existing food
ration Public Distribution System. Food will have to be purchased,
processed, shipped and distributed. This task is best undertaken
by those with experience, and under oversight, with procedures
that eliminate corruption.
33. The distribution of the free food ration
through the Public Distribution System will likely need to continue,
until experience with local substitution over one harvest cycle
is gained, and greater clarity reached in the following areas:
the integration of plans for food distribution and agriculture
under OFFP and the UN Flash Appeal; legal tender through currency
reforms; validity of foreign contracts; property rights, especially
in landholding structures; and the effects of import substitution
on agricultural production and sharecroppers' livelihoods.
34. These are only some of the tasks facing
the new UN Special Representative in respect of the six-month
phasing out of the OFFP. With sanctions lifted, the administration
of the OFFP can be gradually assumed by Iraqis and move from direct
planning and implementation to government regulation and oversight.
However, livelihoods will be in danger if the food ration changes
prices and availability. This area therefore merits special attention
by the international community beyond the duration of the OFFP.
QUESTIONS FOR
THE UK GOVERNMENT
(i) How soon will the Coalition be able
to ensure that there are sufficient security personnel (Coalition
forces and local police) on the ground to provide a basic level
of civilian security?
(ii) What assessments have been made of
the recent significant increase in cases of gastroenteritis among
children in Iraq and of the ability of the Iraqi health care system
to respond to this serious problem?
(iii) What measures are being taken to protect
children from unexploded ordnance dropped by Coalition forces
in Iraq?
(iv) What contribution is the UK Government
making to the budget for the Coalition Provisional Authority?
(v) How much of the £60 million for
Iraq announced in the 2003 Budget has been allocated, and to which
UN agencies?
(vi) What assessment has the Government
made of whether key UN agencies, including UNDP, have adequate
resources to play a meaningful role in Iraq?
(vii) What assessments have been made of
the volume and nutritional adequacy of existing food stocks and
of the adequacy of distribution mechanisms in Iraq?
(viii) What steps is the Government taking
to kick-start the economy and support local markets through selective
import substitution?
(ix) Once the OFFP has been phased out,
how will the Government ensure that Iraqi children and their families
have access to basic goods and services?
(x) What measures are being taken to ensure
that not only emergency needs are met, but also that as reconstruction
is taken forward, Iraqi children and their families are given
opportunities to become more independent and self-sufficient?
Save the Children UK
June 2003
| 
