IRAQ: WHO RETURNS AFTER FIVE-YEAR ABSENCE

DUBAI, 23 July 2008 (IRIN) -

Doctors in Iraq have welcomed the return of World Health Organization (WHO) international staff to the country in June, after an absence of five years. Foreign WHO staff were withdrawn after the August 2003 attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad which killed 22 people, including UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. Over 100 others were injured.

In a recent statement, WHO said it was able to re-establish a permanent international presence following an improvement in Iraq’s security situation, and thanks to UN support for Iraq’s International Compact Initiative - launched in 2007 to help Iraq return to the international fold."Our day-to-day dealings with the government and other health partners will be vastly improved by having a permanent international presence here," WHO Representative to Iraq Naeema al-Gasseer was quoted as saying in a 17 July statement.

“Big boost”

Mohammed Abdul-Muhsin Jawad, a 38-year-old paediatrician at Baghdad's Medical City, a medical complex in central Baghdad, told IRIN on 23 July he welcomed the return of WHO’s foreign staff to Iraq: "It is a really big boost for Iraq that such an international health organisation is returning. We are in dire need of such a heavy-weight presence in our country to help us with all the pressures we are going through," he said. Since the withdrawal of its international staff from Iraq, WHO has been sending missions into the country from its office in Jordan to respond to humanitarian challenges.

According to al-Gasseer, WHO has been responding to emergencies, such as during the two Fallujah offensives, and after clashes in Najaf, Basra and Sadr City. It has also been supplying medicines and oxygen cylinders to hospitals, and advocating safety procedures for health professionals. WHO has also helped provide health services for internally displaced persons, and supported efforts to assist Iraqis forced to flee to neighbouring countries.

Call for more training assistance

Mu'taz Nadhim al-Timimi, a 41-year-old doctor at Imam Ali hospital in Baghdad's Sadr City, said: "We are highly appreciative of WHO for getting closer to the needs of the Iraqi health sector, rather than operating from an office in Amman... "I also advise the WHO to concentrate on the doctors themselves, by organising seminars or training courses on how to deal with critical cases, because we lack experienced doctors and depend greatly on graduates who don't have the necessary experience."

Lack of funding, limited access

However, WHO says it is returning to Iraq with insufficient resources.

In February, WHO appealed for US$19 million, but as yet no contributions have been made. In September 2007 a WHO appeal for $18million to help Iraqis in neighbouring countries, has so far only generated $7.4 million. Al-Gasseer told IRIN that in addition to the lack of resources “the major constraint for WHO is the level of flexibility that we have to move as freely as we would like on the ground between health facilities and the communities.”

"I think there will be obstacles in their work especially with regards to the security situation but still it is a good step forward," said paediatrician Jawad.

However, WHO’s al-Gasseer told IRIN: “I have always been optimistic and I have witnessed improvements in the security situation that have brought us to the stage where we are at today.”

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Theme(s): (IRIN) Aid Policy, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition