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Now, all Iraqis need food
aid
By Ricardo Grassi
ROME -
The war in Iraq has made the entire population of 27
million people dependent on food aid, leaders of aid
programs say. Before the war that the US 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 Inter Press
Service in a telephone interview.
The United
Nations WFP (World Food Program) chief representative in
Baghdad, Torben Due, says that 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 e-mail 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 depended on food aid, but that one in
five Iraqis were living in severe poverty. The results
of the survey were announced last week. Severe poverty
is defined by the 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 shocks and they 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," said
Due. Carol de Roy says that 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 1990s 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 percent 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 1990s 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 imports financed by revenues from
the oil export", Due said. 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
said. "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 Coalition Provisional Authority, headed by the US
that is responsible for administrative matters, he said,
"is receptive to the points of view of the WFP." Food
assistance to the Iraqi population is assured for the
next five months. The WFP has received almost US$500
million donations for the food aid program. The US and
Britain, which led the invasion of Iraq, are the largest
food donors, Due said.
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 US 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 said.
(Inter Press
Service)
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