Iraq - In response to the need to address and mitigate the risk of gender-based violence (GBV) for displaced Iraqis, IOM and humanitarian partners will be more efficiently collecting and analyzing data on population movements as well as on the safety conditions of displacement sites across the country.

A workshop held this week (6-8 June) in Erbil, Iraq, brought together IOM, GBV experts and other partners to find synergies within their respective databases and identify GBV mitigation strategies for field operations.

Throughout the workshop, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), partners reflected on data collection for GBV mainstreaming and developed a list of recommendations to improve and facilitate means of data sharing in support of activities on the ground.

Workshop participants included: experts from Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM-IOM’s body for data collection); Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM); Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH); Protection and Shelter staff; and representatives of local and international NGOs working in the field of gender-based violence response.

GBV Area of Responsibility Coordinator Jennifer Chase said: “Preventing, mitigating, and responding to gender-based violence is the responsibility of the humanitarian community as a whole. Only in this way will we improve the lives of women and girls, in Iraq and globally.”

IOM’s GBV Specialist Monica Noriega said: “Regardless of the sector in which we work, promoting the safety, health, dignity and privacy of the persons we seek to assist is our core responsibility. To prevent and mitigate GBV we act in partnership, and information is key.”

Of the more than three million people internally displaced by the ongoing conflict in Iraq, over 734,000 are currently living in camps and an additional 457,000 are based in critical shelter arrangements. Protection concerns arise in these environments, especially for women and girls, who can be at greater risk of gender-based violence due to lack of gender-segregated showers and latrines, adequate lighting, door locks, privacy for families and access to health and legal services.

“Iraqi women, men, boys and girls who have been forced to flee their homes continue to face further challenges in displacement, including serious protection concerns. IOM Iraq and humanitarian partners strive to identify these vulnerabilities to enhance risk mitigation and operational response. Information sharing facilitates our joint action to protect these populations,” said Thomas Lothar Weiss, IOM’s Chief of Mission for Iraq.

Since 2014, IOM-DTM has worked to improve information gathering and response in Iraq, and in coordination with GBV Specialists, incorporated protection concerns and standard operating procedures (SOPs) that include the Protection Cluster and the Child Protection and GBV Sub-Clusters. 

The SOPs outline: type of data collected, data sharing frequency, levels of data sensitivity and data protection policies; they also facilitate continuous collaboration to ensure capacity for improved data collection on protection-and usage.

These tools are being reviewed and enhanced, to refine and improve indicators, trainings and data collection mechanisms. Data is essential to anticipate and identify concerns and risks that displaced populations may face.

The DTM Integrated Location Assessment analyses displacement and return movements of conflict-affected people, including vulnerabilities and protection issues. The report and data are available at: http://iraqdtm.iom.int/AllLocationAssessment.aspx

With an estimated 90,000 displaced Iraqis living in informal settlements, IOM Iraq DTM ran a second round of the Safety Audit (February-March 2017), focused on identifying GBV risk levels in informal sites in Baghdad, Diyala, Najaf and Salah al-Din governorates. This information is presented in a geo-portal to visualize and facilitate understanding of the most critical protection concerns identified at the informal site level. The Safety Audit and Geo-portal were conducted and developed with support from SIDA and the US State Department, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM).

IOM’s DTM actively monitors displacement across Iraq. The latest DTM Emergency Tracking figures on displacement across Iraq are available at: http://iraqdtm.iom.int.

Cumulatively, from 18 October 2016 to 8 June 2017, IOM Iraq’s DTM has tracked and confirmed the location of more than 530,000 individuals (88,486 families). Of these, more than 386,000 are currently displaced and more than 144,000 have returned. This cumulative displacement figure represents an increase of 13,000 individuals over the past week.

Click to download the latest DTM documents:

DTM Mosul Operations Factsheet – 8 June: https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/dtm/IOM_Iraq-DTM_Mosul_Operation...

DTM Mosul Operations Snapshot – 8 June: https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/dtm/IOM_Iraq-DTM-Mosul_Operation...

West Mosul Displacement Overview – 8 June: https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/dtm/WestMosul_Displacement_Overv...

For further information, please contact IOM Iraq:

For media inquiries:
Sandra Black, Tel. +964 751 234 2550, Email: sblack@iom.int
Hala Jaber, Tel. +964 751 740 1654, Email: hjaberbent@iom.int

For DTM and GBV research inquiries:
Laura Nistri, Email: lnistri@iom.int
Aliyah Sarkar, Email: asarkar@iom.int