Reconstructing Iraq (17) ‘A Rather Tragic Situation’: United Nations Iraq Survey Published

The United Nations Development Programme reports “A comprehensive survey on living conditions in Iraq released here today by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme reveals grave deterioration in living standards in the country over the past 25 years, with Iraq now suffering from some of the region’s highest rates of joblessness and child malnutrition and continuing severe deficiencies in sewage systems, electric power supplies and other essential public services."

The survey, conducted from a representative sampling of 22,000 households in 2004, provides one of the largest and most comprehensive statistical portraits of the country in recent years. The survey — posted on the Internet today at http://www.iq.undp.org/ilcs.htm found that:

• Unemployment among young men with secondary or higher education stands at 37 per cent;
• Even though most Iraqis are now connected to water, electricity or sewage networks, supplies remain unstable and unreliable;
• Almost a quarter of children between the ages of six months and five years suffer from malnutrition;
• More young people today are illiterate than in previous generations;
• Just 83 per cent of boys and 79 per cent of girls of school age are enrolled in primary school.

“This survey shows a rather tragic situation of the quality of life in Iraq," Iraqi Minister of Planning Barham Salih said at the news conference where the report was released in Baghdad today."Undeniably, from the perspective of many, the former regime's aggressive policies, its wars, its repression and mismanagement of the economy are an important part of why we are here today. I hope we will be able to bring a model into Iraq that will turn Iraq from the land of mass graves, lack of development, child mortality and illiteracy into a land of peace, stability and prosperity."

Richard Beeston in the Times noted that the survey questioned more than 21,600 households this time last year. “Its findings, released by the Ministry of Planning yesterday, could finally resolve the debate over how many Iraqis were killed in the war that overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein in April 2003. The 370-page report said that it was 95 per cent confident that the toll during the war and the first year of occupation was 24,000, but could have been between 18,000 and 29,000. About 12 per cent of those were under 18. The figure is far lower than the 98,000 deaths estimated in The Lancet last October, which said that it had interviewed nearly 1,000 households” (AJ) .