IDPs Access to Livelihoods and Social Cohesion (IALiSCo) in Anbar - 2016 The ongoing violence in Iraq has caused a large-scale humanitarian crisis, which has created unpredictable waves of internally displaced people. From January 2014 to November 2015, 3.2 million people were forced to flee their homes, alongside multiple smaller flows caused by armed conflict across the country, particularly in the central south and western regions of the country.

Relief International (RI) has been an active member of the Emergency Livelihoods and Social Cohesion Cluster (ELSC) in Iraq, and is an implementing member of the ELSC Cluster response as part of IHPF 2015 in Kirkuk. Based on assessed needs in Anbar, this project responds to objectives 1 and 2 of the strategic objectives, providing first line interventions for immediate response to IDPs' needs within three months of their displacement, providing them with emergency livelihoods opportunities, cash for work, and equipping women with skills, tools and micro grants to rebuild their assets and regain dignity.

Through this intervention, RI is proposing a small-scale pilot project in Anbar governorate, where there are currently no other humanitarian actors delivering fused EL and SC assistance, in partnership with other ELampSC newly-funded actions in Anbar. RI will respond to immediate needs in Anbar by providing 400 IDPs with cash-for-work opportunities in rehabilitating 6 health and WASH community facilities, used by both IDP and the host communities. RI plans to target 4 health facilities and 2 WASH facilities in locations and programmes RI is currently running with funding from ECHO. Therefore RI has the necessary permissions and acceptance from the community to conduct this activity, as well as the assessments of the needed rehabilitation works.

In addition, RI will bring together newly displaced IDPs (displaced within 3 months), long-staying IDPs and the host community in Amereyat al Falluja and Habaneya Tourist City, to work together to rehabilitate each community facility, with an aim to promote social cohesion in an action oriented approach. This project will be closely coordinated with the ELampSC, WASH and Health Clusters. 
Furthermore, RI will provide 500 newly displaced IDP women heads of households with micro grants for asset recovery, together with orientation on how to identify appropriate alternative for them to re-establish a livelihood, utilizing their skills in connection with local market demand. This combination of interventions is proposed based on RI's active participation in the ELSC cluster taskforce for learning, and on lessons learned with RIs current programming such as the ELampSC project that RI implemented under IHPF in 2015/2016 in Kirkuk.

In total The project will directly serve 900 households, 500 women heads of households who will benefit from assets recovery and 400 young men between 16 and 24 years old, the age that was identified to be at risk of recruitment by armed groups. These young men will benefit from cash for work in rehabilitation/establishing of community facilities in health and WASH (5400 people) in addition to 800 people who will benefit from Health and WASH facility rehabilitation, through cash for work. RI will give special attention to Al Habaniya Tourist City (HTC). RI has built experience in both rural and urban contexts, and a combination of both will be made available to women in these areas based on their sets of skills and type of livelihood that they want to re-establish. Moreover, RI is already operational in HTC through our existing Health and WASH programmes and so is well positioned to work here through this intervention.