By Bernhard SchellRepublished courtesy of IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
BAGHDAD (IDN) - Almost a quarter of Iraqis live in poverty, spending less than the equivalent of $2.20 per person per day. More than half of Iraqi children do not complete their primary education on time and, despite progress achieved in reducing child mortality, the country has the second highest rate in the region, says a new United Nations report.
The U.S. Bureau of Census estimated in July 2010 that with 29.7 million Iraq was the 40th largest populated country in the world.
But the report also contains some good news from Iraq. It says that progress has been made in a number of areas towards achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the war-torn country. It comes within three months of the UN and Iraq embarking on a programme to enhance the country's governance, social services and economic growth over the next five years.
The areas in which progress has been made are: reducing hunger and child mortality and promoting gender equality. However, there is slower progress reported in other crucial areas: enrolment in primary education, unemployment and access to safe and reliable water and sanitation services.
The Government of Iraq and the UN have, therefore, agreed to boost efforts to address these issues by 2015, the global deadline for achievement of the MDGs, paying special attention to reducing the gaps between the rural and urban areas.
Iraq's Deputy Minister of Planning, Dr. Sami Metti, says: "After decades of economic stagnation, reduced access to essential services due to wars, sanctions and conflicts, there is no better means than the achievement of the MDGs to make the lives of millions of Iraqi individuals a better one and Iraq a safe and prosperous country."
“The Millennium Development Goals for Iraq contain a set of key milestones for achieving a better future for the country and its people” said Christine McNab the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq.
“Supporting Iraq to achieve the MDGs is among the United Nations’ top priorities as this will ensure a better life for millions of Iraqis including those who will make Iraq’s future: the youth and the children” she added.
In September 2000, leaders from 189 Member States in the Millennium Declaration agreed on a vision for the future: a world with less poverty, hunger and disease, greater survival prospects for mothers and their infants, better educated children, equal opportunities for women, and a healthier environment; a world where developed and developing countries would work in close partnership for the well-being of all.
This formed the basis of the MDGs which the member states committed to achieve by 2015.
The report, released in Baghdad on August 5, is part of an outreach campaign launched by the UN and the Government of Iraq to promote and raise awareness of the importance of the MDGs as part of the development efforts agreed upon in the 2011-2014 UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) signed in May 2010.
The signing of the agreement marks "the start of a strengthened partnership for achieving a better future for Iraq and its people", McNab stressed, voicing hope that it will "make significant contributions to improving the lives of all people in Iraq".
The plan targets five key areas: ensuring inclusive economic growth; environmental management; promoting good governance and protecting human rights; boosting access to basic services for all; and stepping up investment in women, youth and children.
"We will continue to reach out to the most vulnerable groups," including the disenfranchised, the internally displaced, and refugees", the UN Resident Coordinator emphasized.
The issues covered in the new roadmap were selected to support Iraq's five-year National Development Plan, which envisages over $200 billion in investment in services, economic stimulus and environmental protection from 2010 to 2014.
This is the first-ever UNDAF for Iraq, but others have been implemented in countries such as Timor-Leste and the Sudan.
"Over the coming five years we will work closely with the Government of Iraq and key partners -- including civil society, academia and the private sector -- to promote the MDGs and raise awareness on the importance of achieving them in line with Iraq's national priorities," McNab stated.
The report’s key points are:
-- Nearly a quarter of Iraqis live in poverty spending less than 2,500 Iraqi dinars (2.2 US$) per person per day.
-- Youth unemployment is 30% double the national average.
-- Women's share of wage employment outside agriculture fell from 11% to 7% by 2008.
-- More than half of Iraqi children do not complete their primary education on time.
-- The proportion of children dying before reaching the age of five has fallen from 62 to 41 per 1,000 live births.
-- Despite the progress achieved in reducing child mortality, Iraq remains the second highest country when compared with countries in the region.
-- Just a quarter of households in Iraq is covered by the public sewage system dropping to 2% in rural areas.
-- More than 80% of Iraq’s water remains untreated which leads to increased pollution of Iraq’s wastewater.
-- Only 6% of Iraqis use the internet daily while more than 75% use mobile telephony.
The report contains a series of maps and graphs with analysis on the progress Iraq has made towards achieving the MDGs. All these maps are available for the public use.
EDUCATION
The UN is also stressing that more public spending is required in Iraq to ensure quality education for all, a right enshrined in the nation's constitution.
"Iraq faces considerable challenges to improve access to education and guarantee that girls and boys have equal opportunities," said McNab as the world body-backed Global Action Week for Education got under way on April 20, 2010.
She appealed for stepped-up resources for the Government to ensure that it provides education, from early childhood care and mainstream schooling to literacy and life skills for youth and adults.
Iraq has increased the budget allocated for education from 7.2 per cent in 2008 to nearly 10 per cent last year, but much more needs to be done to meet the 2015 target of 100 per cent enrolment in primary schools in rural areas, one of the eight MDGs and one of the six internationally-agreed targets of 'Education for All', a UN-backed movement launched in 1990.
Global Action Week aims to raise awareness of the importance of Education for All, whose importance was reaffirmed by more than 160 nations in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, in 2000.
This year's week called on governments and donors to act together and mobilize their resources, as well as to honour the $50 billion pledge to boost education made at the Group of Eight summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005.
"Of all of the issues confronting Iraq's children, the decline in children's right to access quality learning has perhaps the most alarming implications for Iraq’s future, the next generation’s doctors, teachers and leaders," said Sikander Khan, the Representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to the country.
This year's Education for All-Global Monitoring Report 2010 by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), entitled Reaching the Marginalized, found that the global financial crisis threatens to deprive millions of children in the world's poorest countries of an education, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, with a knock-on effect on future economic growth, poverty reduction and progress in health and other areas.
"While rich countries nurture their economic recovery, many poor countries face the imminent prospect of education reversals," UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said when the publication was launched in January, noting the failure of donors to deliver on pledges.
"We cannot afford to create a lost generation of children who have been deprived of their chance for an education that might lift them out of poverty."
The report urges rich countries and the so-called G20 group of developed and developing countries to scale up aid needed to avoid damaging budget adjustments in the poorest countries, stressing that a financing gap of $16 billion a year must be bridged to reach the Education for All goals.
Rich countries international and financial institutions are exaggerating how much aid they provide to help poor countries cope with the financial crisis, using "smoke and mirrors" in their reporting, it says.
