Iraq: One-in-3 live in poverty
News24 - [19/02/2007]
One third of Iraq's population of 27 million live in poverty, according to a study released ON Sunday by Iraq's planning ministry and the United Nations development programme (UNDP).
"From a thriving middle income economy in the 70s and 80s, one third of today's Iraqi population lives in poverty with more than five percent living in extreme poverty," the study said.
The findings were based on a survey conducted in 2004 - a year after the launch of the US-led war on Iraq - which provided "long-term indicators that are not expected to change significantly in the short term of three years", organisers said.
"A country like Iraq which is blessed ... with the largest potential of natural resources (and) the highest quality of human resources, has been brought to its knees by human hands," said UNDP Iraq director Paolo Lembo.
The study sought "to address the notion of poverty, not only in terms of income or economic indicators, but in terms of access to various services" such as health, education and housing, Lembo said.
Poverty in Iraq means living on less than one dollar per day per person.
The study recommended that "sustained and major reconstruction efforts aimed at providing basic services to the populations ... should precede the transformation from a centralised state to an open market economy".
