Oil-for-Food Programme

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Oil-for-Food Programme

Abbreviation	OIP, OFFP
Formation	1995
Legal status	Dissolved in 2003
Head	Benon Sevan
Parent organization	United Nations Secretariat
Website	www.un.org/Depts/oip

The Oil-for-Food Programme (OIP) was established by the United Nations in 1995 (under UN Security Council Resolution 986)^[1] to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs for ordinary Iraqi citizens without allowing Iraq to boost its military capabilities.

The programme was introduced by United States President Bill Clinton's administration in 1995,^[2] as a response to arguments that ordinary Iraqi citizens were inordinately affected by the international economic sanctions aimed at the demilitarisation of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, imposed in the wake of the first Gulf War. The sanctions were discontinued on 21 November 2003 after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the humanitarian functions turned over to the Coalition Provisional Authority.^[3]

The programme was de facto terminated in 2003 and de jure terminated in 2010. Although the sanctions were effective, there were revelations of widespread corruption in the programme and abuse of its funds.