An umbrella group of over 1,000 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) appealed on 24 July for large-scale financial support from the government and “effective rather than symbolic” assistance from international organisations.
“Iraqi NGOs get no direct financial support from the Iraqi government, unlike other NGOs around the world,” said Basil al-Azawi, head of the group, which is based in Baghdad and known as the Commission for Civil Society Enterprises.
“The only support local NGOs get is from international bodies and this support is subject to annoying bureaucratic measures; it is also limited and conditional,” al-Azawi added.
He explained that international funding, for example, could not be used to pay staff salaries or rent offices.
“As a result, some local NGOs cheat, using the money to cover other expenditure, and this of course affects the quality of projects,” he said.
OCHA report
On 7 July the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said local and international NGOs were under-funded in Iraq and that key humanitarian sectors faced funding shortages.
“Coordination and support services are 80 percent funded, while the health sector has only had 15 percent of its appeal met,” said OCHA in its second Quarterly Regional Humanitarian Funding Update (April-June 2008).
So far the Iraqi government has been the largest donor to OCHA’s Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP), contributing US$40 million, followed by the USA with about $35 million, and the UK with about $10 million.
In its report, OCHA said NGOs had appealed for $14 million in the 2008 CAP, but had received only $1 million so far.
OCHA said the CAP was much more than an appeal for money: “It is a tool used by aid organisations (UN agencies, NGOs and governments) to plan, implement and monitor their activities together.”
According to the report, the breakdown per sector in terms of the percentage of the appeal funded so far was: water and sanitation 22; shelter and non-food items 37; food 78; education 22; health 15.
OCHA urged donors “to fund NGO projects as well as larger UN operations, since NGO operations are crucial to reach communities in need.”
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