WFP in Iraq: 2015 in Review

The year 2015 brought with it some significant achievements for WFP in Iraq, despite challenges and funding shortfalls. In January, winter brought hardship to tens of thousands of displaced Iraqi families as temperatures across the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) dropped below zero. Winter weather in the central and southern regions brought wind, rain, and flooding. About one-third of all internally displaced people (IDPs) in Iraq were living in substandard housing, unfinished or abandoned buildings, makeshift collective centres such as schools and mosques, or spontaneous settlements. WFP’s winterisation response involved a scale-up of food assistance to over 1.2 million people with family food rations (FFRs), immediate response rations (IRRs), and vouchers for over 400,000 people in the north. The voucher-scheme helped to boost the local economy while empowering people with greater choice over their diets. In 2015, vouchers distributed to IDPs injected US$62 million into Iraq’s economy.