HPG Working Paper The humanitarian response in Iraq Support beyond international assistance in Mosul John Bryant July 2019 About the author John Bryant is a Research Officer at the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) at ODI. Acknowledgements A particular thank you to Roger Guiu and Nadia Siddiqui, and the rest of the team at Social Inquiry, for leading the research and analysis that informed this case study, as well as their indispensable help and advice. Thanks also to Sam van Vliet, Robin Michaels and Peggitty Pollard-Davey for providing feedback on drafts and giving valuable insights on the context of northern Iraq. Within ODI, thank you to Barnaby Willitts-King and Christina Bennett for all of your support and guidance on this work, as well as to Katie Forsythe, for her editing skills. Finally, a sincere thank you to all of those interviewed, both those living in Mosul and humanitarian responders, who gave up their time to participate in surveys and interviews. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Readers are encouraged to reproduce material for their own publications, as long as they are not being sold commercially. ODI requests due acknowledgement and a copy of the publication. For online use, we ask readers to link to the original resource on the ODI website. The views presented in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of ODI or our partners. Contents Acronyms v Executive summary vi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Methodology, tools and limitations 2 2 The crisis context 4 2.1 The conflict with ISIL 4 2.2 Displacement and return 5 2.3 Local, national and international actors 7 2.4 The macro-level funding picture 8 3 How people in Mosul make ends meet 10 3.1 Surveyed households and displacement status 10 3.2 Sources of income 11 3.3 Summary 16 4 Analysis of key issues 17 4.1 A lack of effective reconstruction support hinders conflict recovery 17 4.2 Sources of support reflect political violence 18 4.3 The changing character of social networks and non-monetary flows 20 4.4 Summary of key issues 21 5 Conclusion 22 References 23 Annex 1: Sampling methodology 26 Humanitarian Policy Group iii Boxes, tables and figures Boxes Box 1: Coping strategies 14 Box 2: Welfare payments and Iraq’s Public Distribution System (PDS) 15 Tables Table 1: Neighbourhood by sampled households in each population group, quantitative survey 3 Table 2: Neighbourhood by sampled households in each population group, qualitative interviews 3 Table 3: Percentages of households responding positively to ‘[Before the conflict in 2013/while in displacement/under ISIL/currently] did your household have access to any of these sources of support to get by and carry out normal life?’ 12 Figures Figure 1: Map of Mosul’s neighbourhoods classified by the severity of conditions 5 Figure 2: IDP population of Iraq divided by time of displacement, demonstrating successive waves of displacement following the ISIL invasion of 2014 6 Figure 3: Total ODA excluding debt relief to Iraq, 2008–2017 8 Figure 4: Respondents citing current sources of support from NGOs or UN they ‘regularly’ receive 15 iv The humanitarian response in Iraq Acronyms AWG Iraq Assessment Working Group FFES Funding Facility for Expanded Stabilization FFIS Funding Facility for Immediate Stabilization HPG Humanitarian Policy Group HRW Human Rights Watch IDP internally displaced person IOM International Organization for Migration ISIL Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant JCMC Joint Coordination and Monitoring Centre KRI Kurdistan Region of Iraq NGO non-governmental organisation NRC Norwegian Refugee Council OCHA [United Nations] Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs PDS Public Distribution System PMU Popular Mobilisation Unit RRP Recovery and Resilence Programme UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees WFP World Food Programme WHO World Health Organization Humanitarian Policy Group v Executive summary This report contributes to Humanitarian Policy Group government also provided support, albeit less frequently (HPG) research on alternative sources of humanitarian and in lower monetary value. funding, the hypothesis of which proposes that international humanitarian assistance is only a With this broader framing of support and income, small proportion of the total resources used in crisis international humanitarian assistance certainly response. Instead, help from other sources can often appears less important, and recipients of this type be a more significant and reliable means of support of support are largely limited to those who have for those affected by crises. experienced displacement: whether currently IDPs (62% of respondents reported having access to This case study explores this hypothesis in the city of international aid) or those who have returned to their Mosul, northern Iraq, using the lens of displacement area of origin recalling support they received while status to explore how the various sources of support displaced (64% had received it). Post-displacement, have been impacted by conflict and occupation. The aid fell sharply and was largely in-kind and perceived 300 respondents to this study’s household survey were as temporary and infrequent, albeit a source of comprised of three equally sized groups: internally support that arrived rapidly and fulfilled basic needs. displaced people (IDPs); those who were displaced but have since returned to their area of origin; and Sources of support have been shaped by varying those who have stayed in Mosul since the onset of experiences of the crisis, and so it is unsurprising the conflict with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to find that those who stayed and those who had (ISIL) in 2013. This survey was complemented been displaced have different means of income and by in-depth interviews with affected people and assistance. However, in Mosul these differences often humanitarian responders. intersect with the divides of recent communal violence and are further entrenched by the current political Following two years of rule by ISIL and widespread environment. This includes the perceived stricter destruction caused by the city’s recapture by security clearance practices for those who remained government forces in 2017, Mosul has faced in Mosul under ISIL, reducing their access to more a humanitarian crisis. As well as suffering the lucrative government salaries and welfare payments consequences of conflict and displacement, the under Iraq’s Public Distribution System (PDS). In city’s residents have also faced a lack of jobs and addition, salaries from security forces and international little support for reconstructing destroyed housing aid are being disproportionately received by IDPs and and services, despite a well-funded international returnees, deepening existing economic inequalities. humanitarian response. These issues have contributed Corruption in recruiting for jobs and accessing other to a slowing rate of former residents returning to support such as compensation for damaged housing Mosul, as well as hindering the city’s recovery and is also a common source of frustration. Such findings being a factor in continuing insecurity. highlight the risks these disparities present to a sustainable peacebuilding process, especially in the The study shows that affected people drew upon a perceived absence of government-led reconstruction diverse range of sources of support during displacement efforts, as well as the limits of using displacement status and in the present reconstruction phase. Over half of as the sole indicator of humanitarian need. respondents received government salaries in the past month, and over 60% received income from non- There was also a clear sense of value in the sources government jobs including in retail, construction, of help that went beyond simple monetary assistance. catering and other trades. Further sources of income This was particularly apparent for support received included welfare payments, revenue from privately from friends and relatives, which although largely owned business and informal daily labour wages. Other in-kind in nature was seen as providing an important resources, such as income from rent, support from coping strategy. Of respondents who stayed in Mosul networks of family and friends (including in the form under ISIL, who had far less access to international of remittances) and aid from religious endowments and humanitarian assistance, 43% reported receiving support vi The humanitarian response in Iraq from relatives and friends in the city. However, these technical exercises that can be understood through flows have altered over the duration of the crisis, and a purely financial lens. In Mosul they are instead residents reported a general decline of help since the end products of the current political context and of of the conflict despite similar levels of need. the legacy of conflict and ISIL rule, necessitating a humanitarian and development response that is The findings of this study demonstrate that neither perceived as inclusive and works from a sophisticated studying sources of support nor reconstruction are understanding of need and vulnerability. Humanitarian Policy Group vii viii The humanitarian response in Iraq 1 Introduction The city of Mosul in northern Iraq has been subject have been affected by crisis. It will explore the effect to a series of humanitarian crises, most recently as of conflict on social support networks, and the role a consequence of the conflict between