WFP’s Programs for Aiding the Afghan, Iraqi, Yemeni and Syrian Displaced in Negar Gerami’s View

 Published August 30, 2015

WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency that fights hunger worldwide and in emergencies, makes sure food is delivered in every part of the world to save the lives of those who have been damaged by war, interior conflicts or natural disasters. Once having brought causes of crises in control, they still continue to help the people recover from the previous situation and get back on their feet. This agency is a UN member and has its budget taken care of voluntarily. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the objectives and practical plans of this UN operating agency, we conducted an interview with Negar Gerami, the Head of World Food Program Country Office in Iran. She offers us a thorough personal background as well as the mechanisms of WFP in Iran and the Middle East.

AVA Diplomatic’s Exclusive Interview with Negar Gerami, WFP Representative in Iran

I read in your resume that you had studied in Germany. What did you educate in there?

I studied at the international school before the Revolution and then went to Germany. Between 1985 and 1992, I gained my M.A in German literature and linguistics, English and pedagogy, after which I came back to Iran.

It sounds interesting you studied at the international school. Did that have any specific reason?

It does. I was born in Iran, but my father worked in the UK and that is why we soon went there. We moved back here, however, when I was three.

What did you father do back then?

My father was an electronic engineer who went to the UK to complete his studies and as a result, I was raised there in an English background. When back to Tehran, I attended the Community School which stood among the top three international schools then to study at.

Soon after your studies in Germany, you entered the International Consortium for Refugees in Iran (ICRI). Did that happen for any particular reason?

It occurred incidentally. When I came back to Iran, I started teaching English at the Azad University but that was short-lived. Thereafter I started working at the Iranian Broadcasting Network IRIB as news anchor and translator into both English and German languages in the overseas section of the radio.

How long did you work at the IRIB? How old were you back then?

I worked there for about two years. I was born in 1967 and in 1992, which is when I moved back to Iran, I was nearly 26.

Despite your young age, you gained some valuable experience.

That is so. Anyway, I came back here when I was 26 and at the age of 28, my daughter was born and that is how I put aside my job. After a while, when my daughter was bit older, one of my friends who worked at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, offered me a part-time job, and as I didn’t want to work full-time, I took it and started a job at ICRI.

I also had some journalism in my background which came to my help there. From there, I joined a British NGO working for elderly named “Help Age” This NGO provided medical services to elderly Iraqi refugees. Later, in 2000, I entered the WFP.

Many would want to know how they can join the UN organizations. Was your joining the WFP purely a coincidence or someone had introduced you to them?

No, they did not, and this time, too, I coincidentally joined the WFP. I was the project manager at Help Age and was invited over to Sanandaj for an opening ceremony of a brick-making factory. The then WFP Country Director was also there and told me they were looking for a programming expert, and I replied to him that my contract with Help Age was bound to last for another two months. After I finished my contract with HelpAge I started working part time with WFP.

I started full time employment as Program Officer as soon as my daughter started school. A short time later 9/11 happened and within the crisis of Afghanistan. Back then, the need was felt to use Iran as a transit corridor for sending humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. As I was a senior officer, I was tasked with negotiating with governmental officials for opening the transit corridor and that is how I veered into a career in logistics.

Would you elaborate more on the aiding processes to Afghanistan?

At the time of the crisis in Afghanistan, the need for aid distribution was hugely felt. Transit routes such as Pakistan were not considered safe due to escalating tensions, and we couldn’t deliver humanitarian assistance (in our case food) to those in need in Afghanistan through the existing route of Pakistan.

In accordance with its mandate, the WFP had to find new ways to deliver assistance and Iran had never been used as a transit corridor for humanitarian assistance before. I knew that infrastructures were in place. Iran has strong road and rail networks and well developed ports. As most of the assistance came from the US government and certain sensitivities needed to be considered, we started negotiations with the Iranian government and given the humanitarian nature of our request, the Iranian government agreed to facilitate safe passage of US contribution to Afghanistan through Iran in spite of the absence of ties with the US.

We brought in two huge 60-ton Panamax ships carrying humanitarian goods to Iran. We imported bulk wheat to Bandar Abbas and Chabahar, bagged and sent it to Afghanistan, which took about 8 to 9 months.

We used this transit route again in 2002, following a1 million ton contribution of wheat from the Indian government to WFP. The wheat was milled into wheat flour and used to produce high energy biscuits that was then sent to Afghanistan through Iran. a project which continued up until 2005. During this time we also had the Iraqi emergency in 2003 and the Bam earthquake in early 2004.

As you know, our mandate in Iran is restricted to assisting refugees. Iran being a middle income country does not need any international assistance otherwise. Nevertheless we always stand ready to assist the government in response to major natural disasters that are above and beyond local response capacity.

What if the government doesn’t ask for help? Will the WFP not help?

No, here is the thing. In Iran, Red Crescent Society is very strong and can quite easily respond to natural disasters without seeking any help. But in big earthquakes such as Bam and the needs are beyond the response capacity of any single government. The Government stated that it welcomes international assistance. That was our que to We immediately airlifted High Energy Biscuits (HEBs) to Kerman and from there, sent them to Bam. The distribution was carried out with the help of Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) who is our designated partner in times of crisis.

One pack of HEBs fulfills the daily nutritional requirements of a person and is used in the immediate aftermath of an emergency when cooking food is not possible. HEBs are usually provided for a maximum period of10 days.

During Bam earthquake response we distributed HEBs for 10 days and then, for 3 months, we provided monthly food rations to 120,000 persons in 16 villages surrounding Bam.

WFP is also in charge of provision of humanitarian air services on behalf of the UN (UNHAS). We charter planes and provide air services for Representatives of the international community, the UN and NGO staff from capitals to affected areas.

We provided UNHAS services for almost 3 months in Iran. In the early days after the earthquake and later, there were regular flights between Tehran and Bam 3 times a week.

During the post-earthquake period in Bam, we saw that plenty of aids were being sent to the city. Were they all distributed by the WFP?

No. When the magnitude of a natural disaster is as big as Bam, the humanitarian are also very big. For example, I recollect that at that time, Saudi Arabia had given Iran an aerial ambulance for the injured to be flown between Bam, Kerman and, if needed, Isfahan. Contributions such as that are regarded as bilateral.

The assistance provided through WFP was from governments who wanted to channel assistance through the UN.

You stated that diplomats and ambassadors could visit the shaken lands using your organization. Did you do this for international figures and individuals, too?

Yes, any organization could use that potential. Generally, UN and NGO staff and embassy personnel use such humanitarian services. This service is usually free of charge and provided to those with official business in stricken area.

At the time of the earthquake in Bam, we did see Prince Charles visit the area. Was that carried out in coordination with your organization, too?

No. I was not aware of his visit to Bam.

For 3 years, you were the WFP deputy in Iran and later became the WFP Head of Iran Office, which means you made your progress step by step. Would you please explain about how, as an Iranian, you achieved your current position?

Yes, you are right. As I mentioned earlier, I used to head two units of logistics and programme was programme and logistics officer dealing with two underpinning pillars of the WFP, and that is how I was promoted to the level of deputy. Back then, the WFP Head of Programme was not Iranian, and the problem of language barrier existed which meant most of the times one of our colleagues had to interpret for him in official meetings. I as an Iranian did not have that problem and could directly make my contacts with Iranian officials. I guess that is one of the reasons why I was chosen for this position.

In 2008, when the last WFP head of office retired from Iran, the regional office of the WFP, which is our first reporting line , proposed the position to me. Since I didn’t want to leave Iran and pursue and international career, I it was delighted to take up this position. As a point of fact, it was a win-win deal; for me because I wanted to stay in Iran and also for the regional WFP office which had an individual heading the office who could both easily communicate with Iranian officials and the international community.

I couldn’t be “accredited” to Iran hence I presented my “letter of appointment” to the then Foreign Minister of Iran, Mr. Mottaki, and since 2009, I have been officially working in Iran as the WFP head of office in Iran.

Diplomats mostly serve under 4 to 5 years of terms depending on their respective countries. Is there any certain period of time for your service in this post?

No, this is the great thing about it. As long as the two sides are inclined to continue their collaboration, it could go on. At the UN, international missions are considered to be 2-year terms which can be extended to 4 years, but to extend beyond four years demands particular reasons. But for me, an Iranian who is working in her own country, that is not the case.

As you pointed out, your Iranian nationality has its own advantages. Has it had any disadvantages, such as higher expectations on the part of the Iranian authorities and institutions you are in contact with?

No, never. I never felt my Iranian nationality could be to my disadvantage. On the contrary, in my meeting with Iran’s then FM, Mr. Mottaki, he underlined, “As an Iranian and the representative of an international organization, your responsibility is bigger.”

The nature of my job is humanitarian and we never go into politics. Therefore my Iranian nationality has never troubled me in my endeavors. It has even helped me hugely in my work, for I’m aware of the circumstances and the culture inside Iran.

In fact, both sides know me as an honest broker; someone who seeks to find solutions. They know when something is practical and doable, I would definitely do it, and if I say no to it, them that means it is impossible to do.

There is a negative supposition that once women took administrative positions, they start having family problems. What do you think about this? How much does your husband support you?

He has always backed me up. I try to separate my personal life from my professional life.one of the reasons why I have stayed in Iran is that my husband is a civil engineer and it is difficult for him to find a job if he constantly travels with me.

I have chosen a career and he supports me, too, esp. when our daughter was little and I had to go on many different missions. We always tried to keep our family life as normal as possible.

There are some points, however. For instance, as most of our job is done via emails, I worked with many colleagues on email during the Afghanistan and Iraq crises without ever meeting them. My name, Negar, does not specifically determine whether it is feminine or masculine. The logistic realm then was a perfectly masculine domain and the number of women who worked in it was very few. Hence most of my own co-workers didn’t know I was a women. When we met each other at regional meetings they were very surprised to realize I was woman.

The Executive Director of the WFP is a woman, too. How much has she been able to enhance the role of women in managerial areas?

Ms. Cousin is a great supporter of women. At the UN, of course, it is a corporate effort to get to a 50%-50% gender balance. Although great achievements have been made, we are still lagging behind in terms of senior management positions.

Ever since Ms. Cousin took over responsibility we have had a separate women only gathering on the sidelines of our annual global meetings to discuss challenges and opportunities we face as women is senior management positions.

After you became in charge of the WFP office in Iran, what interested us was the link between the WFP programs and artists. In fact, their social base was used to attract the public. Is this method practiced only in Iran or that’s a pattern used in other countries, too?

I can really claim that it was my and Mr. Darbandi’s brainchild. About Mr. Darbandi, joined WFP one year after I did so we have known each other for a long time. When I was appointed in charge of the office in 2009, we both felt the need for advocacy for WFP in order to make our mandate better known to the general public in country.

We may not be a large agency in Iran but we are the world’s largest humanitarian agency and the general public needs to be aware of our global activities and capacities. We want people to know about us once they know us and trust us, then they would help us.

We used different means of communication one of which was to use influential people, and artists have definitely what it takes.

We also utilize the media to spread our message. We ran campaigns to spread the information using printed media, and later, we became active in online and social media. Artists have a great outreach and we use their influence to raise awareness on hunger issues.

I believe this is more effective than giving facts and figures. Iran has been recognized as a pioneer in this regard and I believe to a large extent we owe a large part of our success to the Iranian artists who responded to our calls.

Before getting down to the current WFP projects, would you please tell us more about the duties and work conditions of a WFP head of office?

When you are selected as a WFP head of office, you normally have a project under your supervision. You need to make sure that funding is secured to run the operation. And of course I need to ensure project implementation is in line with WFP rules and regulations. Establishing and maintaining good relations with the government is also very important.

There are some overlaps in the activities the UN and the WFP do such as the High Commissioner for Refugees. How do you handle that?

Our activities do not overlap, rather we complement one another. For example, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is in charge of taking care of non-nutritional needs of refugees, but the WFP deals with the food refugees need to be provided with.

At global level, the two organizations have agreed that whenever the number of refugees exceeds the scope of 5000, then it is becomes the responsibility of WFP to take care of their food and nutritional requirements. UNHCR deals with health and educational needs and so on.

It has been 30 years now that Iran hosts Afghan immigrants. The first wave of immigrants came to the country at the time of the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Army in 1979 and the second came in 1992 as a result of Taliban’s operations. How different does the WFP find these two waves of immigration?

The WFP office in Iran started in 1986. Back then, the incoming number of asylum seekers was staggering. I heard it from the people who worked there before us that over 2 million individuals crossed Iran’s borders at one point.

The High Commissioner for Refugees came to Iran in 1985. Once the government felt that assisting these large numbers of refugees is beyond its capacity, it called for international agencies to intervene.

At the time, shelters were pretty basic and makeshift camps were set up to provide shelter to the people. By the second wave, the government was more experienced and refugees were housed in more than 20 established settlements.

According to your own experiences in logistics, how do you find the positions of those 20 settlements? Is a settlement better to be located close to borders or inside the country?

Look, this crisis has been ongoing for 30 years. I don’t think the proximity to borders would be that effective in these people’s lives. Border areas are always sensitive and for us access is much easier in non-border areas so I think the current approach is much better.

The refugees in Iran are now into third generation and settlements are administered under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior.

Are there similar settlements in Jordan for the displaced Syrians?

Iran cannot be compared to those countries, of course. In both Jordan and Turkey, shelters are sort of temporary and in tents, whereas in Iran refugees live in houses (bricks and mud brick). There is only one settlement in Kerman where some refugees still live in tents.

The settlements more resemble small villages with running water and electricity. Some are even connected to the natural gas networks. These settlements all have schools and health care centers.

How are settlements located in Iran? In which provinces are they mostly located?

When we first hosted Iraqi refugees, they were mostly settled in Khuzestan. There are a limited number of Iraqi Kurds who still reside in Western Azerbaijan and Kurdistan provinces.

Afghan refugees are present in different provinces such as Khorassan, Kerman, Yazd Markazi and Semnan provinces.

According to the latest statistics, how many refugees are in Iran?

According to the latest statistics, the number of registered refugees are 950 thousand Afghans and 50 thousand Iraqis. We in WFP cover 30 thousand of them. These are refugees who live in these settlements and not in urban areas

How many individuals are estimated to not have registered?

Estimates are around 1 million and 500 thousand to 2 million who have not been registered.

One of the goals of the WFP was to increase the rate of girls’ enrollment in guidance school and the number of female teachers. How has that worked out?

We embarked on that project nearly a decade ago. Most of the Afghan refugees are traditional and do not care much about their daughters’ education.

In the beginning, the project had only 30% of girls who were eligible for school enrolled and the rest would stay home. In order to encourage families, we told them that in return for each girl attending school regularly we give them 4 kilos of cooking oil. Now, after 10 years, the number of girls in school has soared from 30% to 70%.

Our mandate focuses on elementary education, but as requested by the refugees, we expanded our assistance to secondary level school and that has only happened here in Iran. The other thing is that Afghans are more comfortable in sending girls to school when teachers are also female. We therefor provide incentives to women teachers to come out to these mostly remote areas to teach. Presently, there is only one school in Saveh settlement that does not have female teachers and together with UNHCR, we are trying our best to bring female teachers there, too.

Elementary school is available in all settlements but most settlement schools do not offer secondary level education and girls who want to continue beyond primary level have to go to the closest cities which makes some parents uncomfortable. They do not want their daughters to use the public transportation. To work this out, we together with UNHCR have organized shuttle bus system for the girls going to school outside settlements. We currently have three thousand girls studying at elementary and secondary levels. We now see

the age of marriage among girls increasing and overall the girls are more self-confident and independent.

Different rations of 10-kilo and 16-kilo food baskets are distributed. How much progress has the distribution of such commodity baskets had?

Our annual budget is nearly $3mn and we have managed to secure more than $2mn each year, which means we have distributed roughly 3 thousand tons of nutritional material. We give 30,000 refugees wheat flour, beans, sugar, oil and rice every month.

There have been times, though, when we did not have one or more items in the food basket. We call this a pipeline break. Pipeline breaks usually happen because we wither do not have enough funds to purchase the commodity or there is a bottleneck in the supply chain like delays in shipment or delays in custom clearance.

Given what you just said, it is impossible to distribute rice or rich-material bread, right?

The flour we hand out is fortified with folic acid. Even the oil we give them is fortified with vitamins and minerals.

Is the fortification carried out in Iran?

Usually fortification is carried out by international suppliers upon our request and are done abroad. We did however purchase fortified wheat flour locally with funds received from Germany and Republic of South Korea.

Would you say how much were the supports?

Yes, we received $1.1mn from the government of Germany and $1.5mn from the Republic of South Korea.

How did you receive these donations?

Our headquarters receives the fund and allocates to our budget accordingly.

What about the food products imported in Iran’s harbors, esp. Bandar Abbas? Where are they stored?

Upon completion of custom clearance procedures, consignments are dispatched without delay to the warehouses in 19 settlements. We contract commercial transport companies for this purpose. The food is stored in each warehouse and distributed on a monthly basis.

Are there any logistic warehouses for critical times in Iran?

Not in Iran, but the UN Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) in Dubai is one of the five logistics hubs worldwide that would support Iran in case of any emergency.

What are your plans for these 30 thousand refugees’ health care?

Iran’s health system is very advanced. The health network of Iran is viewed as a model among Middle-Eastern and North-African countries, and considering the fact that all of our settlements are classified as villages in the national health system, a health center is manned in each one of them.

Some of them have medics and some others have resident medical doctors. Some other places have non-resident medical doctors who come to examine the patients once a week. Primary health care is free of charge. Secondary and tertiary services are provided through a health insurance scheme sponsored by UNHCR.

Do these health services include special and incurable diseases?

Yes, there is a special referral system through UNHCR for chronic and special diseases such as Thalassemia, and renal failure etc.

I would like you to tell us more about the visit of Ms. Cousin, the WFP Executive Director, to Iran.

It was during her second year of appointment as Executive Director when I invited her to Iran on the sidelines of a global meeting. She welcomed the offer. It was very interesting that I could unexpectedly obtain Ms. Cousin’s acceptance for a trip to Iran, for the itst and last ED’s visit to Iran dates back to 1999, which means it was nearly 15 years that a WFP ED had not paid Iran a visit. Ms. Cousin’s trip to Iran was arranged in January 2014 and that was very exciting for her, too. Because she was visiting an office totally run by local staff. She visited our largest settlement and had meeting with high ranking government officials, UN Heads of Agencies and members of the Diplomatic community. Her visit provided an excellent exposure for WFP in Iran.

Following the bloodshed in Yemen, how are Iran’s medical contributions channeled to the country by the WFP?

There was heated debate on the Iranian contribution on board the MV Shahed heading to a port in Yemen. We managed to negotiate with the government to channel its assistance through WFP and deliver the aid to our logistics hub in Djibouti.

When was the consultation conducted between Iran and the WFP? How long after the movement of Iran’s ship and where was it?

Nearly 10 days after the vessel had departed Bandar Abass. It had just arrived at the Gulf of Aden. We arranged a phone call between Ms. Cousin and Mr. Amir Abdollahian, the deputy foreign Minister and offered to receive the consignment in Djibouti for onforwarding to Yemen.

The cargo on the ship weighed around 2500 tons and was sent by Iran’s Red Crescent. We unloaded the ship and stored the goods (both food and non-food) and will send them to Yemen gradually.

Out of 2500 tons, around 2300 food consisted of 1200 tons of rice, 700 tons of flour, 400 tons of tuna fish and the rest were non-food items including medicine, medical equipment, blanket, gas cookers and tents.

These aids would be transferred to WFP chartered vessels from the port in Djibouti and delivered to a port in Yemen and then, distributed through the Yemeni Red Crescent Society. An aircraft carrying 20 tons of canned tuna fish also landed in Djibouti and given into WFP custody for distribution in Yemen.

Does the WFP have an independent base in Yemen?

Yes, it has been a long time since we became active in Yemen. We have a project covering nearly 10 million people.

Why was Djibouti chosen as a route for delivering helps?

Because it is easier to receive and store goods there and gradually send into Yemen. Yemen is involved in a conflict and access is a big issue. Djibouti is a short distance away and we can ensure safe passage before sending cargo and staff in.

Was Djibouti selected by the WFP?

I believe the most important factor for this choice was its geographical position and short distance to Yemen. We had an office in Djibouti before, and now we expanded it to a logistics hub.

We often expand presence in neighboring countries during a crisis to meet the rising needs. Iran for example received more than 70 staff during the emergency operation for Iraq but went back to its original small size after the emergency was over.

How many people in Yemen were covered or detected and wait to be covered by the WFP?

12 million individuals who are in need have been identified and covered by us, which counts for more than half of Yemen’s population.

Are these people sheltered in certain centers or camps were established?

As far as I know, no. we attribute the term “internally displaced” to them. Between April 15 and May 25, we covered 1.5 million people and 19 thousand tons of food was distributed. Surely, we cannot help them all, but we try to increase the number of people covered by us every time.

One of the things that matters in helping procedures is that helps go to the hands of those really in need. Is there any specific strategy in handling the crisis in Yemen?

A positive side of the circumstances in Yemen is the fact that the WFP has been there for 15 years and 10 million people were covered, we sign field level agreements with the NGOs we work with.

Most of the NGOs which worked with us in the times of peace, cannot operate now, but one of them, the Red Crescent of Yemen, is still working and cooperates with us.

In general, NGOs are responsible for distribution and we monitor the distributions.

What a person does with the goods after distribution is really out of our hands.

Have you been to Yemen?

No. I may go to Djibouti, but not Yemen.

Do you have any account of the contributions sent to Yemen in Djibouti?

Anyone can access the figures by going to the website of OCHA and find out about the overall count of all that has been sent.

For instance, how much has Saudi Arabia helped Yemeni people?

In critical cases and times when a global crisis takes place, the UN places a flash appeal through OCHA and in this format, Saudi Arabia donated $274mn to the WFP.

The crisis in Yemen came up once the WFP was moving past the Syrian crisis. Hasn’t the new crisis driven the Syrian crisis to the curb? Hasn’t the WFP bumped into some budget deficit in helping the Syrian displaced?

Unfortunately, as an institution which offers humanitarian services, we are always dealing with such challenges. We are an aid agency. In the UN discipline, there are 3 types of crisis: there is level 1 which is controlled by the country head of the agency, level 2 which is quite more intense and is dealt with at regional level of the agency and level 3 which is the highest ranking and is known as global emergency and the executive directors of agency Directly supervises the operation through a globally existing mechanism

Currently, we have 5 level-3 crises that include the Syrian crisis, Ebola, South Sudan, the crisis of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the crisis in Iraq.

Certainly, handling 5 L3s are not only difficult for us but also for all other humanitarian agencies.

Funding becomes a critical issue and we may be forced to cut rations or reduce beneficiaries based on levels of vulnerability.

Syria differs from other cases, for in other crisis-hit countries, there are governmental aiding organizations, but in Syria, most of the country is now under the ISIS’ control and the governmental aiding system is no longer efficient. And that brings lots of problems upon the WFP.

We have many people inside and outside of Syria and have established a procedure named “regional emergency coordination”. We have an office in Syria and local staff continue to work there throughout the conflict. Many of them have family members who have become refugees themselves.

Is aerial delivery of food and medicine cargo possible for the people of Syria who are on diaspora?

We used to do in the past what is called air drop in which food was dropped down from the plane in remote and inaccessible areas. This was not ideal and monitoring distributions was very difficult. That method is no longer used. But if ground access to the region becomes impossible, we might send the helps on choppers just like at the time of the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005. Back then, Muzaffarabad was impossible to access and in some places, we used mules. In Nepal, we even used elephants to deliver assistance.

We, however, always look for new and efficient methods. For example, in urban crises such as those in Jordan and Turkey where they host Syrian refugees in cities we establish supermarkets and beneficiaries are given smart cards they can use in specific shops to receive their assistance.

In the end, we appreciate the time you ascribed to this interview. Please tell us if there is anything you want to add.

I, too, thank you for the interview and as a final word, I hope to witness the day come when there is no more hunger in the world. Zero hunger is attainable. We need to work towards it together.

Interview by Mohammadreza Nazari