The NGO Coordination Committee for Iraq (NCCI) would like to wish its member NGOs and other humanitarian partners a merry Christmas and a happy 2016. 2015 has been an intense and fruitful year for NCCI.  First of all NCCI closed its office in Amman (Jordan) in July 2015, at the same time strengthening the office in Erbil. The enhanced capacity of the Erbil office allowed NCCI to expand its operations throughout the Kurdistan region of Iraq, delivering effective support to humanitarian cooperation and responding to members’ needs in the region. NCCI’s Baghdad office expanded its role as a coordination platform for NGOs in central and southern Iraq, often forming a crucial link between NGOs and the UN in Baghdad. NCCI…

The NGO Coordination Committee for Iraq (NCCI) core task is coordination between NGOs operating in Iraq, which also includes facilitating contact between NGOs and the UN agencies operating in country.  In an attempt to bridge the gap between local NGOs and the UN, NCCI facilitated a meeting with UNAMI representatives and local NGOs in its Erbil office on 13 December. UNAMI is the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a political mission which is mandated to advise and assist the Iraqi government on issues including political dialogue, national reconciliation, human rights, humanitarian coordination and economic reform. UNAMI’s main objective for the meeting was to gain a more holistic understanding of the situation in Iraq from the perspective of Iraqi civil society…

In October 2015 NCCI reached out to NGOs operating in Sulaymaniyah. Following this first successful meeting it was decided to organize regular coordination meetings in Sulaymaniyah, the first of which was held on 26 November at CDO’s office. The coordination meetings in Sulaymaniyah serve three main purposes: first of all they are an opportunity for NCCI’s members based in Sulaymaniyah to take part in NCCI’s coordination activities. Secondly the meetings are a forum for NGOs in the governorate to input information and concerns to NCCI. Lastly NCCI feeds back information from its activities in Erbil and Baghdad to organizations operating in Sulaymaniyah. 15 local and international NGOs attended the meeting, which started with an introduction about the Civil Development Organization…

In October 2015 the NGO Coordination Committee for Iraq (NCCI) organized a first joint general coordination meeting together with OCHA in Baghdad. As this meeting was positively received by the attendants a second joint meeting was held on 19 November. 26 local and international NGOs and representatives from IOM, UNHCR, UNICEF and WFP attended the meeting at NCCI’s Baghdad office. First local NGOs raised a number of issues regarding the HRP process. These issues included the short timeframe given to NGOs to familiarize themselves with the HRP process and the online project system, the need to include feedback and information from all government levels and difficulties faced by local NGOs in reaching out to the clusters. OCHA offered to facilitate…

As part of its advocacy efforts the NGO Coordination Committee for Iraq (NCCI) organized an advocacy event in Geneva titled “Durable Solutions for Displaced People in Iraq: Setting a Framework in a Protracted Crisis.” The event took place on 26 October at the Swiss Mission to the UN in Geneva and was organized in cooperation with NRC, IRC, Oxfam, PAX and Save the Children with support of SDC. The event is timely given the increasing number of IDP returns being seen in Iraq and the discussions currently taking place between all actors engaged in the humanitarian response to ensure displaced Iraqis can pursue options for their futures which are well informed, voluntary and dignified. The event consisted of two panel…

On the 4th of November NCCI organized a general coordination meeting at its office in Erbil. General coordination meetings are organized monthly in both NCCI’s Erbil and Baghdad office and are designed as a meeting space for NGOs to coordinate their operations and share relevant information. The meeting started with an introduction on the IDP call center, which is organized by UNOPS and serves as a communication channel between IDPs, UN agencies and NGOs. IDPs can call the center with questions about humanitarian aid distribution. The center keeps track of these questions and possible complaints and relays them to the relevant UN agencies or NGOs, increasing the accountability of humanitarian actors towards their beneficiaries. Next a brief update on NCCI’s…