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IRAQ: Everyone Now Needs Food Aid
By Ricardo Grassi
ROME, Jun 30 (IPS) - The war in Iraq has made the entire population of 27
million dependent on food aid, leaders of aid programmes say.
Before the war that the U.S. and Britain launched March 20 to remove the
Saddam Hussein regime, 60 percent of the population had depended entirely
on food aid.
"Today, the lives of 100 percent of the Iraqi population, 27 million people,
depend on the provision of monthly food rations," UNICEF chief representative
in Iraq Carel de Roy told IPS in a phone interview.
The United Nations WFP (World Food Programme) chief representative in
Baghdad Torben Due says the crisis is unprecedented. "To avoid a food crisis in
the country we have initiated the largest emergency operation in the 40 years
history of the WFP," he told IPS in an interview on email from Baghdad.
The situation was bad enough before the war. A WFP survey of the southern
and central provinces then showed not only that 60 percent of the population
depends on food aid but that one in five Iraqis were living in chronic poverty.
The results of the survey were announced last week.
Chronic poverty was defined by WFP as conditions in which an individual or a
family cannot meet essential needs of food, water, clothing, shelter, health and
basic education over a long period.
The southern and central regions of Iraq covered by the WFP survey are home
to 22.3 million Iraqis. But the situation was little better in the north.
A report by the international charity 'Save the Children' was quoted in the WFP
survey as saying that most people in the north depended on free food rations
through the public distribution system. "Most households are extremely
vulnerable to external shocksàthey have limited (if any) capacity to expand to
other coping strategies and economic activities," the report was quoted as
saying.
The WFP now says that "two months of instability and war have most likely
made their ability to cope with an already deteriorating situation much worse."
Across the country, it says, vulnerability to poverty, food insecurity and
malnutrition have most likely risen over the past two months.
The war halted income-generating activities for many Iraqis, the WFP report
says, "as more pressing concerns such as personal safety and survival took
precedence." The report points out that many shops and private sector
businesses remain shut, and that many government employees have not been
paid for the past few months.
The 1980-88 war with Iran, the two Gulf wars and the economic sanctions
between them, and failing economic policies have impoverished a majority of
the Iraqi people "and reduced them to relying heavily on free food handouts,"
says Due.
Carol de Roy says the sanctions empowered Saddam's regime, and
weakened the population. "There is no question about it," de Roy says. "The
food issue is clear evidence."
The setbacks of the nineties came after considerable progress. A survey
conducted by the University of Harvard in 1991 after the first Gulf War noted that
the percentage of people with access to safe drinking water had risen from 66
per cent in 1975 to 87 percent by 1987. By that year, 93 percent of the
population was covered by free health services.
The sanctions were eased in the late nineties to allow Iraq to buy food against
oil exports. Now again "in the short and medium term the food needs will have
to be covered through import financed by revenues from the oil export," Due
says. In the long term, "Iraq has an important agricultural potential that could be
activated though massive investments in the agricultural sector."
Long term solutions need to be based on" a thorough analysis that takes into
consideration the current high level of dependency on food rations," Due says.
"A solid knowledge base covering poverty, malnutrition, food security, social
welfare and other related issues will be needed to have an informed dialogue
on the best policies to follow."
The new Collegial Provisional Authority (CPA, headed by U.S.) that is
responsible for administrative matters, he says, "is receptive to the points of view
of WFP."
Food assistance to the Iraqi population is assured for the next five months. The
WFP has received almost 500 million dollars in donation for the food aid
programme. The U.S. and Britain, which led the invasion of Iraq are the largest
food donors, Due says.
But disbursement is not easy. "The security situation is the most serious
concern, as it makes it difficult to operate in some areas of the country," he says.
The U.S. and British forces controlling Iraq are under increasing attack from Iraqi
opposition forces.
Food supplies are being hampered also by poor communication. The offices
of the Ministry of Trade were destroyed in the war, and this has restricted
communications between Baghdad and the rest of Iraq, Due says. (END/2003)
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