Iraq

Support extremely poor households consisting of refugees and host communities to transition from extreme poverty and achieve sustainable livelihoods in Duhok, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah governorates by 2024 using the Graduation Approach.

1. Ensure income adequacy, security and resilience of targeted ultra-poor households
2. Improve access to basic social services, including through institution and system strengthening across all relevant levels.
3. Enhance the social development and social inclusion of the ultra-poor households.

In Iraq, absence of an effective legal framework for refugee protection and naturalization continues to prelude longer term residency rights and other legal benefits for PoCs.  The main PoC population in Iraq consist of IDP’s and mainly 240,000 Syrian refugees, 97% of which reside in the KRI. Most refugees face severely constrained access to basic services, continued security risks, and a lack of livelihoods opportunities and financial resources. At 48.7%, Iraq has one of the lowest labor force participation rates in the world, especially for women (12%) and youth (26%) (World Bank). Half of the population in the KRI are under the age of 15 with 45% of the population having no primary education.