Archive - U.S. Agency for International Development

Food Assistance Fact Sheet - Iraq

September 21, 2017

The 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan reports that 11 million Iraqis are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2017, including 3.4 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and nearly 260,000 Syrian refugees living in northern Iraq.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) estimates that at least 3.2 million people require food assistance in Iraq. Multiple governorates reported that household food consumption has worsened due to the ongoing conflict and economic crisis, and households are increasing their use of negative coping strategies.
The latest reporting on food consumption scores (FCS)—evaluating the diversity and frequency of food group consumption along with the relative nutritional value at the household level—from WFP, conducted in July 2017, indicates that 22 percent of households in eastern Mosul and 16 percent of households in Western Mosul have poor or borderline FCS. Negative coping behaviors are on the rise among displaced households, especially restricting adult consumption.
In Anbar Governorate, 58 percent of households have no income source. As a result, 37 percent of households have borderline FSC and 12 percent have poor FSC.

Since Fiscal Year 2014, the Office of Food for Peace (FFP) has contributed more than $182 million in emergency food assistance, including food vouchers, local and regional procurement of in-kind food baskets, and twinning, as part of the WFP response to people affected by the Iraq crisis.
Since October 2016, FFP partner WFP has reached over 526,000 households with immediate response rations—sufficient to sustain more than 2.7 million IDPs for approximately three days—in eastern and western Mosul. Additionally, WFP has reached up to 335,000 households in eastern and western Mosul with monthly family food rations—sufficient to meet 80 percent of household food needs of approximately 1.7 million people for one month— since October 2016.
Although markets are beginning to open in many east Mosul neighborhoods, the inability to afford items combined with ongoing fighting continue to hinder access to food. FFP is supporting the WFP to provide food assistance to communities in Mosul and at displacement camps in the region.

Food Security Situation includes information from WFP and OCHA.

FY 2017 contribution based on funds obligated to date.