Food Assistance and Education Incentive for Afghan and Iraqi Refugees in the Islamic Republic of Iran
This Operation has been modified as per Buget Revision 7 (see below).
The proposed protracted relief and recovery operation (PRRO) is a follow up phase to PRRO 10213.0, which assisted Afghan and Iraqi refugees in Iran from 2003 to 2008. This operation will address the food needs of 38,000 Afghan and Iraqi refugees through a relief component of general feeding and a recovery component of food for education.
The governments of Iran and Afghanistan have been actively promoting the repatriation of refugees. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an estimated 1.5 million Afghans and 500,000 Iraqis have voluntarily returned home from Iran since 2002. Out of those, some 859,200 Afghans and 20,400 Iraqi refugees have benefited from UNHCR's repatriation assistance. In 2008, only 3,500 Afghans were assisted to return home from Iran – the lowest in years. Notwithstanding these efforts, 950,000 Afghans and 50,000 Iraqi refugees still reside in Iran, representing a large burden for the local economy. The Government of Iran has designated specific areas where refugees can reside. 32,000 Iraqi and Afghan refugees currently live in 16 settlements located in these designated areas. An additional 6,000 registered refugees who were residing outside are expected to relocate to these settlements in the near future. A comprehensive joint assessment mission (JAM) undertaken in June 2008 concluded that the refugees living in settlements had few means of subsistence and were therefore in continued need of humanitarian assistance. Restrictive labour laws limit their possibilities to find unskilled wage labour. In light of this, this PRRO will cover the needs of 38,000 Iraqi and Afghan refugees living in settlements for the next two years.
Through its relief component, this project will address WFP Strategic Objective SO 1 - Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies. By so doing, it will ensure that the basic food needs of the refugees are met. The recovery component ("Support to Girls' Education") will contribute to SO 3 - Restore and rebuild lives and livelihoods in post-conflict and post-disaster situations. More specifically, the “Support to Girls' Education” programme will help stabilize or increase enrolment and completion rates of refugee girls in primary and secondary schools in line with WFP gender policy.