IRAQ: Humanitarian Aid Alone Will Not Deliver

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ricardo Grassi

ROME, Jul 23 2003 (IPS) - The 2.2 billion dollar UN appeal for humanitarian assistance to Iraq has drawn a positive response, but it is uncertain how far it will take the Iraqis.

Within this appeal, the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations (UN) has almost all of the 1.7 billion dollars it asked for. But the current WFP undertaking is scheduled to last only until November. That is proving difficult enough, and uncertainties loom after that date.

"We thought we would have to take care of the direct distribution of food to 60 percent of the population, and for just a four-month period," Jean-Jacques Graisse, deputy executive director of the WFP told IPS in a phone interview.. "But two months after the war we realised that we would have to go on until October. Now we hope that by November the Iraqi Ministry of Trade can continue on their own, and we can go back to our monitoring role."

The WFP finds itself in an unprecedented situation. "A country where 100 percent of the population needs to be fed, a supply of 1,000 tonnes an hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, sustained for a month is unheard of," Graisse says.

The requirement of half a million tonnes of food a month makes this the largest food aid operation in history, involving 320 international and 800 domestic staff. About 25,000 truckloads of food were brought into Iraq last month to feed its 27 million people.

The WFP drew up a contingency plan for Iraq in December last year when an invasion of Iraq appeared imminent. The United States and Britain finally invaded Iraq March 20 this year.

The WFP launched a 1.3 billion dollar appeal March 28 to fund a massive food aid operation in Iraq. That appeal was raised to 1.5 billion dollars, and has now gone up to 1.7 billion dollars. Close to two-thirds of this is covered through contracts negotiated within the oil for food programme, and donors have already contributed 535 million dollars to the WFP.

Continuing supply of food after October remains a prime concern. "The Ministry of Trade knows very well how to conduct these operations, and some of its former heads were retained by the authorities that replaced Saddam," Graisse says. "But they need sufficient funds to pay staff, for running the public distribution system (PDS) network, and for transportation of food to the warehouses and silos."

Iraq has been able to buy food from sale of oil since 1996 under the oil for food programme supervised by the UN. Before the war, the WFP had been monitoring the distribution of food through the PDS network of 44,000 outlets where people collect their daily food baskets against a payment of 17 cents a month.

The WFP now wants that system to resume functioning under the Ministry of Trade. "Later we would like to assist the government in changing the system, and rely totally on private traders," Graisse says. "We would like to enable the government to analyse where the vulnerable groups are, and to provide them assistance. By June 2004 the whole system should be completely changed." The oil for food programme is due to end November 21, and with it UN supervision and the current WFP mandate to negotiate contracts with governments providing food in exchange for oil.

"We are called to rebuild the entire state’s structure, now totally destroyed," Adnan Pachachi, a member of the newly created Provisional Governing Council of Iraq, and leader of the Independent Iraqis for Democracy, told media at a conference called by the Socialist International in Rome last week. "Our immediate task is to re-establish water, electricity, health, and school services. The security is weak, but there is a way to put an end to current attacks and looting: ensuring a salary to the soldiers of the former regime, jobs for millions of unemployed people, and re-establishing minimum wealth for all Iraqis."

Those targets are still distant, requiring an estimated regular input of 4 billion dollars a month that other countries are not willing to contribute. In the meantime, worsening security is an immediate threat to food supply. The WFP reports an increase in shootings and looting at storage facilities, and attacks on trucks bringing food into southern Iraq. Distribution to food agents in Baghdad was recently suspended for more than a week.

"It seems most of the incidents took place after the withdrawal of U.S. troops guarding the premises," the WFP said in a report July 10. "While Ministry of Trade guards are now in charge of security at warehouses and silos, in many instances the WFP is concerned that the guards are unwilling or unable to intervene and that they have insufficient training, motivation and equipment." A breakdown in security could mean a breakdown in critical food supply.