Iraq - IOM Iraq’s Community Revitalization Program (CRP) held a partnership meeting this week to review the needs of conflict-affected families in Iraq, assess current activities, and plan future programming to most effectively assist internally displaced persons (IDPs).

The meeting brought together IOM staff with representatives from Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement, and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs from the Central Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, additional national and local government partners, and US Government technical experts.

The CRP is a multi-sectoral programme, which aims to contribute to stabilization in Iraq by improving the conditions for sustainable economic and social inclusion of vulnerable individuals in communities with significant populations of IDPs, returnees and host communities.

IOM began these efforts under the Programme for Human Security and Stabilization in 2007, in response to displacement resulting from internal armed conflict. CRP is now concluding its fourth phase, with generous support from the US State Department, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM).

IOM’s community stabilization portfolio has impacted the lives of almost 140,000 beneficiaries to date. Program components include: individual livelihood support, business development services, psychosocial support, community assistance projects and coordination of humanitarian information.

In the current phase IOM has provided more than 2,200 families with individual assistance, and involved more than 40,000 community members in community assistance projects to address socio-economic needs of families and communities. The program assists both displaced persons and host community members to mitigate possible tension in conflict-affected communities.

The partnership meeting was followed by an exhibition: “Improving Lives, Enhancing Livelihoods – Working Towards Durable Solutions” highlighting IOM Iraq’s range of programs across all 18 governorates. The exhibition was attended by donors, government representatives, partners and UN agency representatives. The purpose of the exhibition was to showcase the range of emergency, recovery and stabilization programming of IOM Iraq. On display included emergency assistance – provision of shelter, non-food items and cash, livelihood and business development programming, health and psychosocial support, migration management and capacity building and the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), which records displacement across the country.

IOM Iraq Chief of Mission Thomas Lothar Weiss said: “As the crisis evolves, the needs of displaced persons returnees and host communities grow more complex, and longer-term approaches and increasingly diversified assistance are required. The scale of humanitarian needs in Iraq and the changing situation require large-scale and flexible humanitarian assistance. We thank the US State Department – PRM and all of our donors for their generous assistance to sustain this desperately needed programming. IOM will continue to work closely with government authorities and partners to improve economic opportunities to assist vulnerable people throughout Iraq.”

According to the IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), over 3.1 million Iraqis have been internally displaced by violence since January 2014. IOM Iraq works to track and identify the needs of displaced persons and returnees across the country; this data is shared with partners and used to guide humanitarian programming.

The most recent IOM Iraq DTM dataset, Dashboards, and Dynamic Displacement Map, in addition to previous DTM products, can be found at: http://iomiraq.net/dtm-page

For further information please contact Sandra Black at IOM Iraq Tel: +964 751 234 2550, Email: sblack@iom.int