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Iraq: a new rise in the dollar exchange rate and warnings of exacerbating poverty rates


yota691
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"World Food" comments on the decision to reduce the value of the Iraqi dinar
 
 
 

Baghdad - NNC

The representative of the United Nations World Food Organization in Iraq, Abdul Rahman Megaj, commented today, Wednesday, on the decision to reduce the value of the Iraqi dinar against the dollar, while measures to confront Corona have affected job opportunities.

"Iraq is facing challenges due to the ongoing epidemic, and the mitigation measures taken by the government affect job opportunities, as well as the devaluation of the Iraqi dinar," Megaj told the "News Center."

He added, "The Public Distribution System (PDS) is an important social safety net in Iraq that aims to provide four basic foodstuffs for almost all Iraqis every month."

Indicating that “according to the International Organization for Migration to track displacement, most of the displaced are located in the governorates of Nineveh, Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, while the returnees are concentrated in the governorates of Nineveh, Anbar, Salah al-Din and Diyala.”

He pointed out that "price increases in areas hosting vulnerable population groups are higher. The government's National Food Security Project (2020-2022), which was launched in April 2020, is designed to increase food self-sufficiency in Iraq."

The Minister of Trade, Alaa Al-Jubouri, revealed to the "News Center" this morning that the ministry had put in place an urgent plan to develop the ration card and overcome the obstacles in this file.

It is noteworthy that the Iraqi government decided in December 2020 to change the exchange rate of the dinar against the dollar, to become 1450 dinars per dollar, after it was 1190 dinars per dollar, as included in this decision in the draft budget of 2021, which it is hoped will vote on next Monday.

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Thanks yota .....

now all iraq needs is someone to step up and speak about how / when the IQD really devalued and how it has hurt the citizens and that iraq IMO must return to the real exchange rate not the 1190 value that seems to be referenced lately  

.... we wait , all the best dv'ers

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20 minutes ago, 3n1 said:

Thanks yota .....

now all iraq needs is someone to step up and speak about how / when the IQD really devalued and how it has hurt the citizens and that iraq IMO must return to the real exchange rate not the 1190 value that seems to be referenced lately  

.... we wait , all the best dv'ers

The goi members and the cbi seems don't care about the suffering of their own people. What they care the most is their own fat pockets and greed. They like to talks talks and talks BS about their citizens suffer from devaluation, but they do nothing about it and never do the right thing to improve the lives of their own people.

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United Nations: Iraq needs additional support from donor countries

 
 Baghdad: Hazem Muhammad Habib
 
The United Nations World Food Program in Iraq revealed that the price of the food basket rose to 14 percent after the devaluation of the local currency against the dollar, while calling for formulating policies to increase the contribution to the gross domestic product. The program indicated that 10% of people use "coping strategies" to help with their condition, because they do not have enough food to eat. 
The program announced that poverty rates have reached 31.7%, while demanding additional support from donor countries for Iraq.
The representative of the World Food Program in Iraq, Abdul Rahman Megaj, told Al-Sabah: “The World Food Program monitors the prices of foodstuffs, including the average food basket of 2,100 calories per day.” 
He noted that 10% of people use "coping strategies" to help their condition, because they do not have enough food to eat. Of those 10%, about 35% buy cheaper food, and of the same 10%, about 27% buy food.
Regular monitoring by the World Food Program last December showed that about 3 million people in Iraq, including 731,000 internally displaced people, did not have enough food.
“The World Food Program is working this year to reach 849,000 people across Iraq, through monthly support for the most vulnerable people, building resilience and school feeding programs, as well as government support, including digitization and reform of the public distribution system for rations,” Megaj added. Food, and WFP's work is expanding in the south of the country.
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Displaced people in Kirkuk. "Internet"
  

 Reports


Economy News - Baghdad

The representative of the World Food Program in Iraq announced that the price of the food basket increased by 14% after the devaluation of the local currency against the dollar, noting that 10% of the population use "coping strategies" to deal with the situation, because they do not have enough food to eat.

The program announced that poverty rates reached 31.7%, while calling for additional support from donor countries to Iraq.

The representative of the World Food Program in Iraq, Abdul Rahman Megaj, said that "the World Food Program monitors the prices of foodstuffs, including the average food basket of 2,100 calories per day," according to Al-Sabah newspaper.

He pointed out that "10% of people use coping strategies in dealing with the situation, because they do not have enough food to eat," explaining that "of these 10%, about 35% buy cheaper food, and of the same 10%, about 27 borrow. % Of food. "

The World Food Program’s regular monitoring last December showed that about three million people in Iraq, including 731,000 internally displaced people, did not have enough food.

Megaj added, "The World Food Program is working during the current year (2021) to reach 849,000 people across Iraq, through monthly support for the most vulnerable people, building resilience and school feeding programs, in addition to government support, including digitization and reform. The ration system, expanding the scope of the World Food Program in the south of the country.

 
 
Number of observations 71   Date of addendum 3/13/2021
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The information / Baghdad ..

The United Nations World Food Program in Iraq revealed , on Saturday, that the price of the food basket has risen to 14% after the devaluation of the local currency against the dollar, while calling for formulating policies to increase the contribution to the gross domestic product.

"The World Food Program monitors food prices, including the average food basket of 2,100 calories per day," said the representative of the World Food Program in Iraq, Abdul Rahman Megaj, in a statement reported by the official Al-Sabah newspaper, which was seen by the information.

Megaj added, “10% of people use 'coping strategies' to help with their condition, because they do not have enough food to eat. Of those 10%, about 35% buy cheaper food, and of the same 10%, about 27% borrow food.

He continued, “The World Food Program is working during the current year to reach 849,000 people across Iraq , through monthly support for the most vulnerable people, building resilience and school feeding programs, in addition to government support, including digitization and reform of the public distribution system for rations. Food, as the work of the World Food Program is expanding in the south of the country, where poverty indicators are among the worst. The poverty rate in Iraq is about 31.7%.

He revealed, "The average price of the food basket has increased by 14% since the devaluation and is expected to remain at a new high level, which will directly affect the food security of the vulnerable population in Iraq , especially the displaced, returnees, refugees and other vulnerable Iraqis."

The representative of the program stated that “it is necessary to support imports of basic foodstuffs, to help reduce the impact of devaluation on the purchasing power of vulnerable Iraqis, and it will also be necessary to formulate policies to increase the contribution to GDP from sectors other than oil, and reduce economic dependence on Oil exports by boosting domestic food production.

Regarding the ration card items, he explained that "according to the recommendations of the National White Book for Iraq, the focus of the public distribution system on the most vulnerable people will be necessary to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the system, and thus support the most needy families by providing the required foodstuffs monthly without interruption."

He pointed out that "data-based decision-making and policy planning are also important and it is necessary to monitor food security at the national level and early warning systems, link main data sets and determine when action is required, which will allow Iraq to respond proactively to food security needs."

The representative of the United Nations World Food Program in Iraq said, “Although the government has taken appropriate measures, humanitarian and development actors in the country also need to increase efforts to mitigate the impact of devaluation on vulnerable groups. Additional support from countries will also be needed. The donor at this time ”. End / 25

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Human Rights: Threats to Food Security

Monday 15th March 2021 121

Human Rights: Threats to Food Security

 
 Baghdad: Shaima Rasheed 
 
The High Commission for Human Rights has warned of the risks threatening national food security, calling on the government to take practical measures to restore the food balance to the groups of society most affected by the high prices of commodities and materials.
Food.
A member of the Commission for Human Rights, Anas Akram Muhammad, said: “There are groups in Iraqi society that were more affected by the increase in the dollar’s exchange rate and its negative consequences for the rise in commodity and food prices by 14%, which constitutes a serious threat to national food security and doubles poverty levels. Declared in Iraq, which calls for intervention by the government and the Ministry of Trade to reduce these effects
Negativity.
A member of the Commission on Human Rights stressed the need for the government to deal seriously and professionally with the report of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), which indicated the defect of the government’s ill-considered measures and their impact on the market and the standard of living. 
And Iraq's food and human security, with matching statistics announced by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and international organizations, which indicated that the poverty rate in Iraq has exceeded the barrier of 31%, which will increase the country's economic crises, and will make Iraq, its economic independence and food security in a weak position, and under pain of need for support Additional donor countries or at the mercy of the requirements and policies of the World Bank.
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After reading through the above articles posted by Yota691 (THANKS!), I'm beginning to wonder if the Iraqi government actually cares for the people of Iraq?  Or am I misunderstanding this?  They DEVALUE the Dinar against the US Dollar so MORE of their people are impoverished!  WHY?

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Planning: raising the price of the dollar caused an increase and cast a shadow over the poor
  
{Baghdad: Al Furat News} The Ministry of Planning indicated that the raising of the dollar price caused an increase and cast a shadow over the poor

 

A spokesman for the Ministry of Planning, Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi, told {Al-Furat News}, that "we do not have data on the loss caused by the approval of the fiscal budget for 2021," stressing that "the change in the exchange rate of the dinar against the dollar had side effects. One of these effects is the rise of the materials." In general, the food, consumer and construction materials, which rose in varying rates, led to an increase in inflation levels in the country by 2/4 over the past three months. "

He continued, "During the period that has passed, the rise does not exceed one and a half percent, and as a result, when such a percentage occurs, which is 2/4, of course, there are some prices that may have risen to 20% or less or more, and that this price increase has cast a shadow over the vulnerable and poor who live below the line." Poverty. Therefore, one of the important measures is how to maintain prices while providing the basic food or consumer materials that the Iraqi citizen needs, with regard to the implementation of projects and their impact on the issue of raising the price. 

On December 19, 2020, the Central Bank of Iraq decided to raise the exchange rate of the dollar against the dinar with the support of the Ministry of Finance, and it became official:

 1450 dinars per dollar is the purchase price of foreign currency from the Ministry of Finance.

1460 dinars per dollar the selling price of foreign currency to banks.

1470 dinars per dollar is the selling price of foreign currency to the public.

The decision sparked a wave of anger in the Iraqi street as a result of the high prices of materials in general and their impact on low-income people.

The Ministry of Finance attributed the decision to the government's attempts to address the stifling crisis that Iraq is witnessing as a result of low oil prices, to ensure protection of the economy and to achieve the reforms it promised several months ago. 

It is noteworthy that the representative of the coalition of Iraqis, Hassan Khalati, announced the collection of parliamentary signatures to reconsider the exchange rate of the dollar after its negative impact on the local market. 

Forgiveness Al-Khalidi

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Food prices increased more than expected

Sunday 21st March 2021 64

Food prices increased more than expected

 
 Baghdad: Hussein Thahab 
 

The local markets have indicated a rise in food prices, which raises the concern of the Iraqi family and the economic community, due to the shock devaluation of the currency, away from the balanced gradient of such trends in order to protect the local market from confusion. Economic expert Salah al-Shami confirmed that “devaluation of the currency in this way is like a shock to the local market,”

pointing out that “economic circles are not against the decision, but against its issuance in this way, which had an impact on all joints of the local market, as such a decision requires that it be gradual and subject To be evaluated every three or six months, after which the appropriate decision is taken to devalue the currency or not. Al-Shami pointed out that «the devaluation of the currency is supposed to be in successive stages and to start from 1,300 dinars per dollar, and in this way we reduce the market’s vulnerability to the reduction’s decision.

 
Local markets
Business Union member Dr. Ali Al-Masoudi said: “The rise in foodstuff prices in the local markets is natural, especially since most of the market’s supplies are imported from foreign markets, and transactions are carried out in US dollars, and it is natural for prices to rise after the decision to devalue the national currency.”
He pointed out that «the rise in the prices of local products came because the raw materials are imported from foreign markets, which in turn witnessed a rise in prices, and this was reflected in the reality of the prices of the final product inside the factory, which led the factory owners to raise the price of the product,» indicating that “The decision to devalue the currency in this way needs to be reviewed by the authorities
 Concerned »
 
Integration
In turn, a member of the Iraqi Economists Association, Ikram Abdul Aziz, confirmed that «the increase in food prices more than expected, especially for products that are manufactured locally, comes due to the import of raw materials for most of them from outside the country, which requires that we go towards achieving integration in the national industry through hard work. On interest in manufacturing industries and investing in local wealth to support national industries » 
She indicated, “The importance of the decision to devalue the currency in successive stages to balance the processes of promoting the local market, and to reduce the negative effects that are affecting the economy.
 Family »
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Just a little reminder from days gone by at the WFP and the UN.

How Corrupt Is the World Food Program?

April 11, 2010

 

How pervasive are the problems at the World Food Program, the largest hunger relief agency in the world and the United Nations agency responsible for food aid? It’s a $2.9 billion question—the amount of direct aid disbursed by the WFP. A significant part of its budget comes from U.S. contributors, and USAID coordinates some of its work through the WFP.

It’s been a month since the leaking of a scathing evaluation of WFP’s Somalian relief program written by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia. The body, created by the UN Security Council, alleges that three Somali businessmen who held about $160 million in WFP transport contracts were involved in arms trading while diverting the agency’s food aid away from the hungry. A New York Times report also claimed food was being siphoned off by radical Islamic militants and local UN workers.

Allegations had been simmering for months. The WFP suspended the contracts of the three businessmen but continues to deny there were serious problems. It has tried to frame the findings as unfounded or exaggerated. Speaking from WFP headquarters in Geneva, Executive Director Josette Sheeran said there was “zero evidence” for the allegations of a large-scale diversion of aid. “These estimates of diversion are not apparently based on any documentation, but rather on hearsay and commonly held perception,” the UN’s aid chief in Somalia, Mark Bowden, wrote in the letter to the monitoring body. Bowden didn’t provide his own estimate. The WFP said it would welcome an investigation.

Somalia is not the WFP’s only controversy, only its most recent and most public.

Somalia is one of the most challenging places in the world for aid work, making the allegations difficult to verify. Food has to pass through roadblocks manned by insurgents and bandits. Investigators, who face the peril of kidnapping or even assassination, could end up relying on the people they are probing to provide for their protection.

Certainly an agency as large and diffuse as WFP—it has offices in 80 countries and provides food relief to 100 million people a year—is bound to have some problems. But questions remain as to how WFP executives monitor their vast network and how transparent and responsive they are when questions arise.

Somalia is not the WFP’s only controversy, only its most recent and most public. Its operation in Ethiopia, which is one of the largest recipients of food aid in the word, is reportedly in disarray, with the transport companies controlled by the country’s authoritarian government at the center of the controversy. According to the U.S. State Department, in 2008 only 12 percent of food aid (most of it overseen by the WFP) made it to its intended recipients in the poverty-stricken eastern region.

The trucking situation is little better in Afghanistan, where reports suggest that WFP is paying two to three times more than commercial rates, taking large chunks out of the $1.2 billion, three-year relief effort. The WFP has admitted that it inflated its shipping costs in North Korea by funneling business through dictator Kim Jong Il’s government.

In each case the WFP has denied the magnitude of the problem. But the responses miss the point. Why hasn’t the WFP, which portrays itself as a model of transparency, opened its books so the international community can exercise appropriate accountability and oversight? And what actions are other international agencies requiring of humanitarian aid agencies to ensure transparency?

The Georgian Mess

The trucking situation is little better in Afghanistan, where reports suggest that WFP is paying two to three times above commercial rates, taking large chunks out of the $1.2 billion, three-year relief effort.

The problems with WFP food aid now coming to light are not isolated. I experienced them firsthand while in the republic of Georgia from 2008 to 2009, where I was the post-war aid monitoring coordinator of Transparency International Georgia. I was researching my doctoral thesis about aid accountability in a country where I myself had been an aid worker between 2002 and 2006.

The WFP had already been working in Georgia for several years when the brief but bitter conflict with Russia broke out in August 2008. Several days of intense fighting left hundreds of people dead. Nearly 130,000 Georgians were forced to flee their homes, suddenly displaced within their own country. Driven by strategic considerations and humanitarian concerns, international donors pledged to provide more than $4 billion in aid. One billion dollars of this money was pledged by the United States, making it the largest donor to Georgia. Millions of dollars were to be used to provide emergency food aid to tens of thousands of Georgians who had been affected by the fighting, including many who had been forced to flee their homes during the conflict and were now internally displaced.

In the wake of the conflict, WFP and numerous other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) started delivering emergency humanitarian assistance in addition to continuing work on their longstanding development projects. My research in Georgia revealed that the WFP, in cooperation with four international charities, used donor money to distribute insufficient, inappropriate, and in some case useless food rations to thousands of Georgians traumatized by war and displacement. As appears to be the case in Somalia, there was at best spotty oversight of the relief effort; also, to date, no one has been called to account.

In this case, the issue was not the transport infrastructure but the handling of the actual food rations. While most Georgians had been able to return home by the end of 2008, tens of thousands of people remained displaced and in need of support. Food aid was managed by the WFP and four aid agencies—CARE, the International Orthodox Christian Charities, Save the Children, and World Vision—all of which are still operating in Georgia. The food was delivered to people displaced by the conflict and to residents of the so-called “buffer zone,” a rural area where much of the fighting had taken place.

According to the U.S. State Department, in 2008 only 12 percent of food aid (most of it overseen by the WFP) made it to its intended recipients in the poverty-stricken eastern region of Ethiopia.

One of the key responsibilities of a food aid agency is to provide a daily minimum diet to prevent malnutrition and starvation. In Georgia, food rations were not adjusted upwards to account for the bitter winter, and therefore fell below globally accepted minimum standards, including those of Sphere, the guiding global humanitarian and disaster relief charter. Neither the Georgian government nor international donors realized that WFP and the four NGOs were delivering food that fell short of the minimum needs of those who were enduring the harsh Georgian winter. As a result, aid recipients experienced a food gap until February 2009, when—in an unrelated development—the UN distributed credit-like cards to food aid beneficiaries so they could buy fruits and vegetables. It was supposed to supplement their wheat-heavy regular aid, but many of the recipients instead had to use these cards to bridge the gap left by WFP in their basic food needs.

The problems were compounded because the aid recipients had no way to communicate with WFP or its sister relief agencies. They had been provided with a nonworking hotline number that left Georgians helpless and frustrated.

While the quantity of food was clearly insufficient, the quality of the rations at times was even worse. In early 2009, using its global procurement system, similar to what was in place in Somalia, WFP purchased 1,800 tons of wheat flour from a supplier in Turkey and began distributing it. It could not be used to make Georgian bread due to a problem with the flour’s gluten index, although it technically met WFP standards. When people tried to bake bread, it turned hard, making it inedible. Mixing this flour with flour from other sources did not solve the problem. The absence of edible bread left thousands of people with a huge calorie gap.

Why hasn’t the WFP, which portrays itself as a model of transparency, opened up its books so the international community can exercise appropriate accountability and oversight?

The WFP and its partner NGOs were fully aware of the problem but downplayed its significance. “There is an issue with the gluten index which results in poor performance when bread is baked,” the WFP acknowledged in March 2008. “But since the flour is perfectly fit for human consumption, WFP is not planning to take back the distributed tonnages.” This statement flatly contradicted a qualifying line in the draft report that WFP kept from becoming public when the official report was released: “Anecdotal reports from the field suggest that some IDPs [internally displaced persons] are using the wheat flour as animal feed because they cannot use it to bake bread.”

WFP together with its NGO subcontractors continued distributing this flour for weeks. In total, 800 metric tons—equivalent to the flour content of 1.6 million individual daily rations—costing more than half a million dollars were distributed to tens of thousands of people before WFP finally ordered a halt.

The Accountability Gap

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has not yet responded to calls to authorize an independent investigation of the WFP operations in Somalia or elsewhere. But everyone, even the beleaguered food agency, acknowledges there is a problem. Bowden, the Somalian aid director, said UN bodies have spent over $350,000 to improve monitoring in Somalia since 2008, and adopted other steps to limit risks in a “complex environment where a war economy has predominated for many years.”

What can the international community do to prevent the kind of problems that simmer in Somalia, Georgia, and other parts of the world that depend on international aid to feed the displaced and hungry? In theory, aid agencies are accountable to a variety of stakeholders, including private and institutional donors, their beneficiaries, the governments of the countries they work in, and the wider aid community. In practice, accountability is almost nonexistent because international standards either do not exist, are not enforced, or become victims of political crossfire. In Somalia, WFP has rejected one of the recommendations by the UN monitoring agency, to allow monitors to use UN Humanitarian Air Services to travel around the country. “The work of the monitoring group has been determined to be political in nature and therefore … it would not be appropriate to make UNHAS flights available to them,” Bowden said.

In practice, accountability is almost nonexistent because international standards either do not exist, are not enforced, or become victims of political crossfire.

The WFP has set up a firewall in Georgia as well. When I contacted them, the WFP and the four aid agencies refused to release the agreements governing their relationship—a violation of standards set by InterAction, an international coalition of humanitarian agencies, and of the Code of Conduct for NGOs in Disaster Relief (which WFP requires sub-contracting NGOs to follow). That made it impossible to determine how much aid money WFP pays to NGOs to distribute food.

Private donors in wealthy countries simply lack the information needed to hold aid and development NGOs to account for how their donations are used thousands of miles away. The only information available is that which is voluntarily provided by the NGOs, which are extremely reluctant to open their operations to scrutiny.

U.S. citizens concerned about the use of their tax dollars abroad may find it equally hard to discover how NGOs awarded grants by USAID are spending their money. I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with USAID in May 2009, requesting copies of all NGO project budgets financed with American taxpayers’ money during the second half of 2008. Almost a year later, USAID has still not released these documents.

Institutional donors like USAID usually do have a presence on the ground in developing countries, but they rarely directly monitor NGO activities in the field. Instead, they usually, though not always, rely on information provided by their grantees. Interviews with dozens of donor and NGO representatives in Georgia, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan suggest that neither NGOs nor donor country offices have an incentive to document instances in which aid money is stolen, wasted, or unwisely spent. Projects are almost invariably portrayed as successful, irrespective of realities on the ground.

Private donors in wealthy countries simply lack the information needed to hold aid and development NGOs to account for how their donations are used thousands of miles away.

Government officials in Somalia or Georgia are unlikely to try to hold the WFP or other international NGOs accountable for their activities. They lack the capacity to do so effectively and NGO projects typically do not receive funding from host governments. When the flour scandal finally made headlines in the Georgian media, the opposition quickly blamed the government rather than WFP, so the UN agency was never called to account.

The beneficiaries—the displaced and the hungry—are often caught in the middle. NGOs have a vested interest in presenting themselves as accountable to the needy to keep funds pouring in. But NGOs face no institutional pressures to meaningfully follow through on such commitments. They live off private donations and government grants, so being responsive to beneficiaries is irrelevant to organizational growth and survival.

Most Georgians receiving food aid come from villages and do not speak English. They do not know (and frequently do not care) which NGO delivers what aid. Whether intentionally or not, NGOs fail to identify themselves, don’t provide contact details, or leave beneficiaries in the dark about their entitlements. Georgian beneficiaries did not know when to expect the next delivery or even whether there would be a next delivery at all.

An Intractable Challenge?

Aid organizations have responded to concerns about their lack of accountability through a variety of initiatives and mechanisms intended to create transparency within the aid community. Senior staff members at NGOs’ global headquarters readily sign up to noble-sounding initiatives and commit their organizations to meeting certain standards. But these measures lack teeth and often require organizations to act as a whistleblower against a partner agency. As a result, they are almost universally ignored in practice. Few field-level aid workers are aware of the various commitments that their organizations have made, so they are not in a position to press for reforms.

Interviews with dozens of donor and NGO representatives in Georgia, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan suggest that neither NGOs nor donor country offices have an incentive to document instances in which aid money is stolen, wasted, or unwisely spent.

When issues do come to light, as in Somalia, agencies in the crosshairs invariably claim that the food relief program is largely helpful and successful and there will always be some problems in emergency response situations. The WFP notes it faces enormous challenges in Somalia, where more than 3 million people—or about half the population—suffer from malnutrition and need aid.

An independent investigation could be illuminating, but launching yet another NGO-to-NGO mutual accountability initiative likely would be fruitless. The problem is not a lack of standards and codes of conduct, but lack of enforcement and sanctioning of existing standards. Oversight by institutional donors such as USAID is inherently difficult because institutional incentives reward donor country offices for reporting successes and punish them for highlighting failures. Adding more of the same red tape, encumbering NGOs that are already drowning in bureaucratic requirements, could reduce the ability of committed NGO field workers to assist those in need, and would likely do little to address inefficiencies.

NGO project budgets are the single exception to this rule. USAID could require all grant recipients to post their proposed project budgets online before funding is released. These budgets already exist as part of the formal project proposals, so publicly revealing them would require negligible additional effort by NGOs. At a minimum, this would act as a constraint on some NGOs’ tendency to pay grossly inflated tax-free salaries to their international staff. However, as Transparency International Georgia’s experience has shown, any such initiative might be resisted by NGOs, and probably also by USAID itself, and is therefore unlikely to succeed in the absence of serious and sustained congressional pressure.

For the poor and hungry, the situation is daunting. Raising aid agency responsiveness towards beneficiaries may hold out the greatest hope of improving accountability in international aid. But exact mechanisms to make that happen are elusive. In order to have real effects, such transparency and disclosure must be backed by effective sanctions when the performance of aid agencies falls short of beneficiaries’ entitlements.

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Agency: The government is determined to punish those manipulating the prices of food commodities in Iraq

Agency: The government is determined to punish those manipulating the prices of food commodities in Iraq
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi
 

Mubasher: Mustafa Al-Kazemi, Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, today, Monday, directed the security services to prevent merchants from manipulating food prices.

The Iraqi News Agency (INA) quoted a government source as saying that most of the materials whose prices have risen are made by Iraqis and have no income at the dollar price, but the greed of some merchants and their exploitation of citizens raised a number of prices.

The official added that Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi directed the Ministry of Trade to mobilize all efforts, enter a state of emergency, and work around the clock to provide the entire ration card items and give additional rations as well.

He pointed out that punitive measures will affect those who take advantage of the situation and raise the prices of foodstuffs, and that they will be matched by a large infusion of foodstuffs such as oil, sugar and flour in the ration card items.

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  •  Time: 03/22/2021 21:49:39
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After the rise in prices ... Trade reassures citizens about this substance
  
{Baghdad: Al Furat News} The Ministry of Trade assured citizens, on Monday, that it is striving to equip them with the ration card items before the holy month of Ramadan, pointing to the contract to purchase 80 thousand tons of sugar as part of the contracting mechanisms to purchase foodstuffs and provide them with a full meal during the holy month.
 

A statement of the ministry, the Euphrates News Agency received a copy of it today, stated that "the central contracting committee in the ministry contracted today, with a national laboratory, to purchase 80 thousand tons of sugar to distribute a new meal within the ration card items."
The statement added, "The aim of these contracts is to complete the full quota and equip it for citizens during the month of Ramadan, after Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi's directive to provide citizens with the food ration during the holy month."
He continued, "A number of contracts will be undertaken by the Ministry of Trade during the coming days for the purpose of stabilizing the supply of the ration card items and stabilizing its processing, one basket after the ministry is excluded from the instructions of government contracts and a ratio of 12-1 from the state's general budget, which allows the ministry to directly purchase from local and international sources in processing items. Ration card".
"The Ministry of Trade has prepared a full meal of sugar and another meal of edible oil during the past few period, and is in the process of making contracts to provide citizens with the quota for Ramadan and the coming months, within the framework of new mechanisms through which the ministry seeks to prepare the items of the ration card," he stressed.
The minister had stressed earlier today, "the necessity of equipping all citizens at once from the four basic ration card items that the ministry prepares."
He explained, "The ministry has prepared sugar and edible oil, and preparations are underway to prepare the third meal of flour, as well as contracting to purchase 36,000 tons of edible oil to complete the first meal of this article."

Raghad Daham

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After Al-Kazemi's directive, the Interior Ministry reveals its procedures for following up prices
  
{Local: Al Furat News} The Ministry of the Interior revealed its procedures for monitoring the prices of foodstuffs and commodities.
 

"From tomorrow our plan begins to follow up prices, and we will focus on the foodstuffs that the state has supported, such as products and crops according to the agricultural calendar, such as eggs and others," the ministry’s spokesman, Major General Khaled Al-Muhanna, told Al-Furat News.
"These commodities will be monitored mainly because they are local products and the government supports them. There are no similar goods, and there is special support for them," he said.
Al-Muhanna pointed out that the ministry "will coordinate with major wholesalers so that the materials are available," noting that "the nature of monitoring the market will be more than it is control and imprisonment."
The local markets are witnessing an unprecedented increase in the prices of foodstuffs, vegetables and fruits with the approaching month of Ramadan.

The prices of all kinds of pulses and rice increased by {750-1000} dinars per kilogram, not to mention the rise in the prices of medicines and other service goods.
The prices of red and white meat, table eggs, fish and dairy alike have risen with the approach of Ramadan.
Citizens attributed the reasons for this to "the high value of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar, in addition to the exploitation of merchants, poor economic conditions that negatively affect the citizen's income and the approaching month of Ramadan."
The Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, directed the security services to prevent merchants from manipulating the prices of foodstuffs.
Al-Kazemi also directed the Ministry of Trade to mobilize efforts to provide the entire ration card items and to give additional rations.
A government source announced a large infusion of foodstuffs, such as oil, sugar and flour, in the ration card items.

Ammar Al-Masoudi

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  •  Time: 03/22/2021 19:41:45
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An unprecedented increase in food prices, with the approaching month of Ramadan
  
(Baghdad: Al Furat News) The local markets are witnessing an unprecedented increase in the prices of foodstuffs, vegetables and fruits with the approaching month of Ramadan.
 

The price of one bottle of oil reached {3} thousand dinars, after it was {1500} dinars, while the price of a bag of milk rose to {2500} after it was {1500}. Also, the price of a kilogram of sugar rose to {1500} dinars, after it was {750} Dt.
The prices of all kinds of pulses and rice increased by {750-1000} dinars per kilogram, not to mention the increase in the prices of medicines and other service goods.
The prices of red and white meat, table eggs, fish and dairy alike increased with the approach of the holy month of Ramadan.
Eyewitnesses attributed the reasons for this to "the high value of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar, in addition to the exploitation by merchants of poor economic conditions that negatively affect the citizen's income and the approaching month of Ramadan."
He appealed to the Prime Minister and the concerned authorities to "take into account the citizens, especially those with limited income and the suffering they encounter, in securing their most basic living rights as the holy month approaches." 
The high exchange rate of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar raised a state of concern among the street about its repercussions on the economy in the country, stressing the need to take the necessary measures to attempt to manipulate the exchange rates and expose the parties behind them.
In this regard, the expert in economic affairs, Ali Nehme, stressed that the employee segment was greatly affected by the decision to reduce the value of the Iraqi dinar, estimating the employee's loss of about 33% of income due to the expected rise in the prices of basic commodities, which are imported from abroad in dollars.
The pharmaceutical, food and other sectors were also affected greatly, two days after the implementation of the decision to lower local currency rates.
 The exchange rates of the dollar have stabilized in Iraq for the past two days, as the exchange rate of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar, according to the Baghdad Stock Exchange, reached 145.900.
Wafa Al-Fatlawi 

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Deputy: Parasites take advantage of Ramadan to raise prices, and it is caused by the dollar
  
{Locality: Al-Furat News} The deputy, Aras Habib Karim, accused today, Monday, what he described as "parasites" of taking advantage of the blessed month of Ramadan to raise the prices of goods and foodstuffs.

In a statement, the Euphrates News Agency received a copy of it, Karim called on the government to provide additional materials for citizens within the ration card by investing the rise in oil prices, stressing at the same time to monitor and hold accountable those who take advantage of important opportunities and occasions such as the month of Ramadan for manipulating prices. Food items that represent the citizen's daily sustenance. "
He added, "I do not think that price fluctuations where parasites seize an important occasion such as the month of Ramadan to raise the price of foodstuffs that are included in the daily sustenance of the citizen can be solved by returning the dollar exchange rate to what it was."
And "the matter is not so simple, because that would plunge us into a bigger crisis, especially with no alternative solutions available."
Habib continued, "
The local markets are witnessing an unprecedented increase in the prices of foodstuffs, vegetables and fruits with the approaching month of Ramadan.
The price of one bottle of oil reached {3} thousand dinars, after it was {1500} dinars, while the price of a bag of milk rose to {2500} after it was {1500}. Also, the price of a kilogram of sugar rose to {1500} dinars, after it was {750} Dt.
The prices of all kinds of pulses and rice increased by {750-1000} dinars per kilogram, not to mention the increase in the prices of medicines and other service goods.
The prices of red and white meat, table eggs, fish and dairy alike have risen with the approach of Ramadan.
Citizens attributed the reasons for this to "the high value of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar, in addition to the exploitation of merchants, the poor economic conditions that negatively affect the citizen's income and the approaching month of Ramadan."
The Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, directed the security services to prevent merchants from manipulating the prices of foodstuffs.
Al-Kazemi also directed the Ministry of Trade to mobilize efforts to provide the entire ration card items and to give additional rations.
A government source announced a large infusion of foodstuffs, such as oil, sugar and flour, in the ration card items.

Raghad Daham

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Al-Ghanimi to shopkeepers: monopolizing foodstuffs is a violation punishable by law
  
(Baghdad: Al Furat News) Today, Friday, Minister of Interior Othman Al-Ghanmi conducted a field tour that included a number of areas on the Karkh and Rusafa sides of the capital, Baghdad.

A statement by the ministry stated, "The minister met with a number of associates and officers present to secure boycott of their responsibility, and listened to their needs, stressing the need to implement preventive curfew measures. 
He also met a number of citizens and listened to their requests, and he also exchanged talks with them about a set of topics and proposals. 
" Al-Ghanmi visited a number of shops and met with their owners, to find out the prices of food and other materials, stressing at the same time the importance of everyone's cooperation and not exploiting the current circumstances to raise the prices of materials or their monopoly, as this is a violation punishable by law.

Raghad Daham

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  •  Time: 03/27/2021 16:23:37
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Human Rights launches an important call to the government on food security
  
{Baghdad: Al Furat News} A member of the Human Rights Commission Council, Anas Akram Muhammad, called on the government and the Ministry of Trade to take practical measures to restore the food balance to the groups of Iraqi society most affected by the rise in the price of the dollar and its negative consequences on raising the prices of goods and food by 14%, which constitutes A "serious" threat to national food security and doubles the declared poverty levels in Iraq.

 

A member of the Commission for Human Rights stressed, according to a statement received by {Al Furat News} a copy of it, "The need for the government to deal seriously and professionally with the report of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), which indicated the imbalance of the government's ill-considered measures and their impact on the market, the standard of living, and Iraq's food and humanitarian security." With the matching statistics announced by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and international organizations, which indicated that the poverty rate in Iraq has exceeded the barrier of 31%, which will increase the economic crises of Iraq and will make Iraq, its economic independence and food security in a weak position and under the need for additional support from donor countries or at the mercy of conditions And the policies of the World Bank. " 

The statement called for the importance of "the government and its executive bodies working to review its economic decisions and financial policies, and intensify their efforts to reduce the negative effects of its policies and support the citizen in general and the most affected groups" in particular in light of an economic and health crisis that may cause more negative societal imbalances if not addressed in the form. the correct". 

Forgiveness Al-Khalidi

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Mosul markets are indicating a clear rise in prices

 
 Mosul: Shorouk Maher
 

The city of Mosul has witnessed during the last period a clear surge in the rise in food prices, which now affects the levels of supply, and its impact on the standard of living for families with limited incomes, and those living below the level of poverty. The high prices in Mosul are due to the increase in the prices of basic raw materials worldwide, the high costs and the delay in shipping as well, and the prevention of the importer's entry into the governorate, due to the protection and support of the local product, as well as the devaluation of the local currency. All of these have caused great concern in a city where about "two million" poor live. Of a total of three and a half million people. ”
Professor of economics at the University of Mosul, Dr. Jamil Al-Sabawi, stated that “supporting the local product is an inevitable necessity at this time, but the measures adopted have begun to reflect on the living reality of the simple people in the province, which is the second largest Iraqi governorates that witnesses the highest rate of high poverty in it, and the reason is due to The poor conditions experienced by the city of Mosul, the center of Nineveh Governorate, from total destruction, wars, murder, persecution, displacement, and bombing of the infrastructure and other factories and factories ».

Al-Sabawi pointed out that "about 60 percent of Mosul youths are without work, as the sudden rise in prices has confused the Mosul street and increases the suffering and anxiety of the poor, who were not able to earn their daily livelihood."
For his part, a member of the House of Representatives from Nineveh Governorate, Ahmad Madlul Al-Jarba, affirmed that "merchants have a responsibility to achieve a balance in prices after devaluing the currency and not allowing manipulation of food prices and controlling the cost of living."
Al-Jarba, through Al-Sabah, addressed the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank in order to stabilize the price of the dollar between (1250 and 1275) dinars, to return the prices of materials to what they were and the end of the exacerbation of the exorbitant price hikes of materials. 
Food.
Citizen Jamal Khaled pointed out that "the Iraqi family has been affected by the rise in food prices, especially those whose income is limited, especially since the daily wage for a large segment does not exceed ten thousand dinars in the normal situation after the curfew, this number has become less and in return it has increased clearly." For example a one-liter can of edible oil was 1250 now priced at 2,500 and other foodstuff spikes caused a big spike.
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  •  Time: 03/29/2021 10:17:45
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Al-Kazemi issues guidance on food prices
  
(Baghdad: Al Furat News) Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi directed, on Monday, the Ministry of Interior and the National Security Agency, to take the necessary measures to prevent tampering with the citizens' food, stop the greed of some merchants and follow the markets.
 

The General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers stated, in a statement that the Euphrates News received a copy of, that "the prime minister also directed, with the support of the ministries of commerce and agriculture, to work with utmost efforts to prepare flour at reasonable prices."
The statement added, "This directive came due to the high prices of locally manufactured foodstuffs, and the attempt of weak souls and some greedy merchants to confuse the social situation, and to exploit the demand of citizens to buy foodstuffs near the advent of the blessed month of Ramadan, as it happens annually."

Forgiveness Al-Khalidi

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