Crop, Food Supply And Nutrition Assessment Mission To Iraq

CROP, FOOD SUPPLY AND NUTRITION ASSESSMENT MISSION TO IRAQ

JUNE/JULY 2003

TERMS OF REFERENCE OF THE MISSION

The Mission will be composed of an agriculturalist (team leader), an agricultural economist and a nutritionist from FAO, and a food aid technical and policy advisor from WFP. The Mission will be supported by Technical Support Personnel in the country and will be technically backstopped from regional and headquarters staff of both FAO and WFP. On nutrition and health related issues the Mission will liaise with all relevant agencies, and in particular with UNICEF, WHO, and representatives of the Ministry of Health. As necessary, the Mission will also meet with other organizations or institutions (Min. of Labor and Social Affairs, ORHA, Min. of Agriculture, UNOCHI, NGOs …) to get a better understanding of the specific food aid needs.

The overall objective of the Mission is to assess (a) the food supply situation and compare these with previous assessments of the food and nutritional situation (b) the nutritional status of the population and (c) elaborate an appropriate set of food aid interventions targeting the food insecure and nutritionally vulnerable groups.

To achieve this objective, the Mission will:

In the field of food supply and food aid needs assessment

· Conduct a thorough examination of available information concerning food production, marketing and imports and estimate the food import requirements;

· prepare a supply/demand analysis for staple food crops during the 2003/2004 marketing year (July/June).

· estimate the emergency food aid requirements with particular reference to the needs of the most vulnerable groups;

· elaborate an appropriate set of food aid interventions targeting the food insecure and nutritionally vulnerable groups and liaise with relevant authorities and agencies with regard to food distributions and the social safety net (PDS).

· prepare a summary report on the major findings, conclusions and recommendations for incorporation into the main report of the Mission.

In the field of nutritional status assessment

· review available data on the nutritional status of the Iraqi population in different parts of the country in previous and current years, with particular reference to population groups and households at-risk and to vulnerable groups such as under 5-year-old children, and pregnant and lactating mothers;

· comment on the nutritional value of the foods available for consumption at local, household and individual level and assess its adequacy in terms of quantity and quality and variety to cover nutritional requirements;

· study the socio-economic factors affecting access to food by the population and assess the household food insecurity resulting thereof, including the effect of health, water and sanitation and education on nutritional well being;

· visit health centres, hospitals and nutrition rehabilitation institutions to enquire about the nature and magnitude of nutritional and health problems and the problems faced in the treatment of patients;

· provide recommendations on how current data collection systems can play a role in the monitoring of nutritional status on a regular basis, and how existing nutrition-related projects and activities being carried out in different parts of the country by local authorities and humanitarian organisations' can be modified to improve the nutritional status of affected population groups.

The Team Leader shall be responsible for ensuring that inputs from the members of the Mission are received in time and are of an acceptable quality for preparing the final reports of the Mission.