IRC Iraq’s Protection Needs Overview: October 2022 – March 2023 (attached). This is the follow on to our previously released April-September 2022 report, and draws on data collected in Anbar, Ninewa, Kirkuk and Salah al-Din governorates regarding the protection and humanitarian needs of IDP, returnee, host, and refugee communities and households. This report is based on 625 household-level surveys, 278 key informant interviews, and 158 focus group discussions comprised of over 1,000 individuals. More than five years after the defeat of the so-called ISIS group in Iraq and in light of the humanitarian transition, these monitoring efforts are vital to promote informed service delivery and response for households impacted by the conflict, including durable solutions for the nearly 1.2 million individuals continuing to experience displacement, including ‘complex cases’.

Out protection monitoring reports are shared widely with our local and international NGO colleagues, as well as our UN and government partners. In this round of monitoring activities, IRC noted the following:

• Over the six month period, there was no meaningful improvement in the number of households who expressed difficulty accessing basic services. The top barrier to access was cost of services, followed by distance of service providers and gender norms which curtail women’s access.
• All surveyed households continued to express significant needs for livelihood support and referrals. The majority of those surveyed indicated that their main source of income was daily-wage labor, without guarantees of continuous income generation.
• A negative financial situation is impacting children’s ability to access education and contributing to child labor and increased vulnerability of adolescent boys, who may be engaged in daily labor such as begging and trash collecting to support household finances.
• While there was some improvement over the six month period in the number of households receiving civil documentation, registration with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs continued to prove challenging. A lack of information regarding the registration process and long-pending registration cases impacted the ability of households to register for the social safety net and public distribution services.
• The majority of IDPs and refugees expressed their unwillingness to return to their areas of origin.
• Housing, land, and property concerns featured heavily in this monitoring period. 13% of surveyed households reported eviction threats and 19% are missing the housing card. The majority of households live in unfinished buildings without key services such as electricity and water; and nearly one quarter of households live in buildings that require urgent essential repairs such as windows, doors, and roofs.

The report is available in both Arabic  and English  and can be shared publicly as you see fit. Should you have any questions regarding the report or any of the data within, please feel free to reach out.