Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to provide aid and support to the Kurdistan region of Northern Iraq.

To date, the UK has committed £79.5 million of humanitarian assistance in Iraq. All UK funded aid is distributed on the basis of need to ensure civilians are not discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion or ethnicity. This funding has supported the response in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), as the KRI is supporting 27% of IDPs.

Given the importance of a coordinated response, we have provided £1 million of funding to UNDP to support the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Joint Crisis Centre (JCC), as well as its equivalent for the Government of Iraq, the Joint Crisis and Monitoring Centre (JCMC). In close collaboration with the JCMC, UN, donors and NGOs, the JCC is leading humanitarian efforts for the KRG.