Iraq: Expanded Humanitarian Response Fund Bulletin No. 22 - Sep 2009

The Expanded Humanitarian Response Fund (ERF) aims to help fill critical humanitarian gaps within different sectors through readily available flexible funding for emergency response to:

1. Save lives and protect threatened livelihoods;

2. Meet critical short-term humanitarian needs and

3. Respond to sudden-onset complex humanitarian emergencies. The maximum grant is US$400,000. ERF resources address needs arising from both natural disasters as well as conflict-related or other man-made crises.

Operational Updates

Projects:

Sixteen ERF projects are under implementation as of the end of September 2009. Overall, the ERF's Technical Review Committee (TRC) has approved 80 project proposals since 2007. During August and September the TRC approved an additional 10 projects for the total amount of US$ 1,454,082.

These newly approved projects were for support of displaced Iraqis, school children, and other vulnerable families. Projects approved include the sectors of Health, Shelter, Food, Water, and Education.

From the map above it can be observed that with the exception of Baghdad, on-going projects are relatively spread out over all 18 governorates of Iraq. With the persistence of the drought causing continued displacement, the ERF team will promote projects in governorates which have been the most severely affected especially Ninewa and Kirkuk.

As a result of the negative effects of the drought on vulnerable Iraqi's, in the past 2 months the majority of projects received by the ERF have been for water and sanitation. Water and Sanitation projects currently account for 28% of all activit