Logistics Cluster: Iraq closure report

A surge in violence between armed groups and government forces in Iraq in January 2014 displaced millions of people across the country. The security situation rapidly deteriorated and restricted access to affected areas, provoking one of the fastest growing humanitarian crises in the world. As a result, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) declared a system-wide Level 3 emergency (L3). The Logistics Cluster, led by the World Food Programme (WFP), was activated by the Humanitarian Coordinator on 3 April 2014. By June 2015, 152 organisations were responding to the emergency, including national and international NGOs, UN agencies, and other local actors.

The 2014-2015 Strategic Response Plan estimated that 5.2 million people were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance due to widespread violence and insecurity. By June 2015, the estimated number of people in need rose to over 8.2 million, increasing to 10 million by 2016. By late 2016, large-scale military operations conducted in and around Mosul, Telafar, Hawija, and western Anbar resulted in the evacuation of over 1 million people, due to the destruction of homes and livelihoods.

The Logistics Cluster facilitated the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the affected population by providing the humanitarian community with information management and coordination support, and by facilitating access to logistics services including common storage and transport.

Following the scale-down of operational activities and Logistics Cluster deactivation, the Global Logistics Cluster (GLC), in close collaboration with the WFP country office will begin implementation of Preparedness Project initiatives across 2019-2020. The project will build upon the capacity building activities rolled out during the operation, with the aim to continue to support the augmentation of national level logistics capacity to prepare for and respond to future crises.