Baghdad: Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ahmed Al-Asadi announced the launch of the largest demographic survey in early September. This survey is part of the project to strengthen social safety nets in Iraq, in partnership with the World Bank and with support from the Iraq Reform, Recovery, and Reconstruction Fund.
According to National Iraqi News Agency, Al-Asadi explained during a press conference: “This survey is the largest of its kind in Iraq and is based on the results of the recent census with the aim of identifying the poorest groups, with a focus on areas with high poverty rates, according to indicators of material and multidimensional poverty.” He added that the project represents a qualitative shift in the digital transformation of social protection programs.
The Minister indicated that the Ministry has taken a series of technical and field measures to ensure the integrity and efficiency of this survey. Al-Asadi emphasized that the qualitative policies adopted by the Ministry have yielded tangible results, including a decrease in the poverty rate from 22.5% to 17.5%. More than 2.3 million families have been covered by social protection, including 962,000 families who were newly covered. The multidimensional poverty index has declined from 11.4% to 10.8%.
The Minister also praised the government’s efforts to expand the support base, reviewing the most prominent initiatives that accompanied this transformation, including covering 2.2 million students with student grants, covering half a million citizens with health insurance, distributing more than 150 million food baskets to families covered by social protection, and providing food supplies at subsidized prices to these families through the “Hypermarket” project.
Concluding his remarks, Al-Asadi emphasized that the Ministry of Labor is continuing to address poverty resulting from unemployment and economic shocks, in cooperation with international partners. He also praised the efforts of the Social Protection Authority’s staff, which contributed to the ministry’s first-place ranking in implementing the government program for the third consecutive year.