Children in north still receive some aid

Despite a scaling back of humanitarian and development activities in the region due to security concerns, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) intends to continue some of its projects in the north of Iraq. Its acting officer-in-charge in the north and national officer for health and nutrition, Dr Paula Abdulkadeer Nooraddin, told IRIN in Arbil that its role would change but much of its work would continue. “In health and nutrition we will be doing much the same work including promoting health and hygiene projects. And in education too, especially in girls education. But we won’t be doing big reconstruction projects like we did under the Oil-for-Food Programme such as renovating health centres and water projects.” On 21 November the UN handed over of the Oil-for-Food Programme, including food distribution and welfare projects, to the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and local bodies. However, the CPA and the World Food Programme (WFP) signed a recent agreement whereby the food agency would take over food buying and distribution for three months so that the CPA can train Iraqi staff to do the job. Most of UNICEF's projects had been completed under that programme, but any remaining ones were transferred to local authorities. The agency had also closed it's offices in the northern cities of Dahuk and Sulaymaniyah. There are some 34 national staff working from Arbil and Dr Paula expected about 25-30 staff to remain. International staff had left in November following the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad on 19 August in which 23 people were killed. But Dr Nooraddin said he would like them to return if security improved because they brought much needed experience. However, he was in regular contact with international staff in Amman, Jordan. UNICEF's biggest project is helping vulnerable children despite its potential oil wealth, Iraq has some of the worst child statistics in the world. One in eight children dies before reaching five and a quarter of children under that age are chronically malnourished. The same percentage is born underweight. An estimated 70 percent of child deaths are due to preventable diarrhoea and respiratory disease and five million people have no access to clean drinking water. Dr Nooraddin, who has worked with UNICEF since 1995, said there had been big improvements in child health in the north during the time of the Oil-for-Food Programme. The child mortality rate was dropping and this reflected the efforts of all humanitarian agencies, local government and NGOs. Immunisation was a vital pillar of child health and again there had been big steps forward. “When I joined UNICEF there were increasing rates of polio and epidemics of measles and cholera outbreaks. Despite all the difficulties we improved the immunisation programme,” he explained. Since 1998 there had not been a single polio case in the north because of an immunisation and eradication programme. Measles had also decreased and it was several years since the last outbreak of cholera because of improvements in safe drinking water and health practices. Nutrition programmes also helped build resistance and had resulted in a decline in malnutrition. Immunisation centres had been set up and mobile teams chased up those children who had dropped out of school. Dr Nooraddin said the immunisation rate was about 80 per cent in the northern governorates now but could still be improved.“If there is stability we can reach more people,” he said. UNICEF had purchased and stored enough vaccines for more than a year and it had also been able to extend into areas such as Mosul and Kirkuk, which were just outside the northern governorates. But he said trained staff and refrigerators were just as important as new buildings where people could come to be immunised. While security was generally better in the north than the rest of Iraq, Dr Nooraddin said it would still have to improve further to allow UNICEF to carry out all its programmes.