The UN announces strategy to end 50% of poverty in Iraq by 2030
Iraqi children collect recyclable garbage at a dump in the city of Najaf, Iraq. Photo: Reuters
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The United Nations announced on Sunday a new strategy to end 50 percent of poverty in Iraq by 2030, according to the senior advisor of UN Population Fund in Iraq (UNFPA), Mahdi Al-Alaq, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
“17 sustainable development goals related to the elimination of poverty by at least 50 percent by 2030 have been identified,” Al-Alaq said.
Al-Alaq emphasized that Iraq has a strategy that is being updated by the Ministry of Planning, and it is expected to be launched in months to work on it in the coming years.
Al-Alaq elaborated that the development goals will last for 15 years, starting in 2015 and ending in 2030, but the vision was launched in late years, indicating that there is an ambition to reach specific goals in 2030.
Al-Alaq pointed out that the poverty rate will decrease by at least 50 percent by 2030, which is an ambitious goal that should be worked on to move poor groups to a better level.
Al-Alaq clarified that the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) in Iraq has a good database and a plan to follow up on sustainable development, and endeavors to reach the desired goals.
Al-Alaq stated that Iraq presented in 2019 a national document called Iraq’s Commitments to the Nairobi Summit: Accelerating the Promise of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).
The number of the poor in Iraq reached 11 million, constituting about 25 percent of the total population that is 42 million, according to official statistics.
Around three million Iraqis receive monthly financial grants from the government out of nine million in need of assistance. The government cannot provide financial grants to all the poor in Iraq because the country’s budget has not been approved yet.