Anticipatory finance landscape – Iraq

This report provides an overview of anticipatory finance in Iraq, with a focus on the legal, institutional and f inance frameworks that underpin it. The objective is to identify existing opportunities, as well as barriers to the implementation of this type of financing, and to formulate concrete recommendations for strengthening anticipatory action as an essential component of disaster risk management (DRM).

The AF landscape in Iraq reveals a critical disconnect between recognized needs and operational capacity, where the 2.5 million people requiring humanitarian assistance underscore the urgent need for financial mechanisms that support proactive preparedness and response. The absence of constitutional provisions for DRR creates fundamental institutional fragmentation, with disaster management responsibilities scattered across outdated sectoral laws, including the centralized Civil Defence Law 1978, that directly contradict post-2005 federal decentralization principles and hinder effective coordination between federal authorities and provincial emergency response cells.