Swiss Cooperation Programme for Iraq

More than two years after the military operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the challenges for the stability and peaceful development of Iraq -  according to the Global Peace Index 2019 the 5th least peaceful country - remain severe and multiple. Among the key challenges are the persisting social, ethnic and sectarian tensions  and the lack of trust across different segments of a society deeply alienated from each other by years of violent conflict. These divisions are further perpetuated and exacerbated by external influence and multiple dynamics of hybrid conflicts and/or violent conflicts through proxies in the region. The instability in Iraq has led the presence of an array of armed actors that operate autonomously and become increasingly active in economic and political activities resulting in a lack of monopoly of legitimate use of force in. The sever humanitarian consequences of the war with ISIL further exacerbate the deep seated fragility factors in Iraq. An estimated 4.1 million individuals remain in need of humanitarian assistance of which nearly 1.8 million individuals are in acute need. As of the beginning of 2020 an estimated 1.4 million people are still internally displaced in Iraq including 280’000 individuals residing in IDP camps.