One Third Of All Iraqis Live In Poverty, UN-Backed Study Finds

[Doondoo]

From a thriving middle income economy in the 1970's and 1980's, one third of today's Iraqi population lives in poverty with more than 5 per cent living in extreme poverty, a new United Nations-backed study says.

Prepared by the Iraqi Central Organization for Statistics and Information Technology with the support of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the statistics show that a high percentage of people in Iraq live under various levels of poverty and human deprivation despite the country's huge economic and natural resources.

The policies applied to transform the Iraqi economy to a free market, such as the lifting of subsidies and the dismantling of state instruments, are exacerbating deprivation levels, UNDP said. The study also highlights significant variations in living standards across the country, with the southern region in Iraq showing the highest level of deprivation, followed by the centre and then the north. Rural areas show three times higher levels of deprivation than urban areas, with the Baghdad area being the best in the country.

"This study will be an important addition to the toolkit of policy makers, development planners and practitioners" said UNDP Iraq Director Paolo Lembo.

"We will use the study's findings to better target projects such as those for rapid job creation," said Dr Mehdi Al-Alak, Chairman of the statistics organization.



http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0702/S00307.htm

[enid602]

1. other

And the other 2/3's live outside Iraq.

[MrPrax]

2. Nice try UN...

Dear UN,

Since your baseline for comparison will have been the 13 years of crippling sanctions you imposed, which you have previously estimated might have killed as many as 500,000 million dead, then you are hardly going to be able to re-write your murderous complicity and silence in the on-going genocide in Iraq by laughably suggesting that 2/3 thirds of Iraqis are 'not living in poverty'.

It has been a disaster and your own complicity in helping to steal Iraq's wealth during the sanctions and silence now is as much a party to war crime as the active players.

Signed,
STFU

Did the UN manage to count this:

Child beggars rampant in Baghdad

BAGHDAD: Ahmed Saffar, 7, has been forced to beg on the streets of Baghdad in order to eat. An orphan with two brothers and one sister, Ahmed hangs around all day near a traffic light, asking for money from each driver who stops.
...
Ahmed is one of thousands of homeless children throughout Iraq who survive by begging, stealing or scavenging in garbage for food. Only four years ago, the vast majority of these children were living at home with their families.
...
According to the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI), the deteriorating economic situation in Iraq is the main reason for the increase in the number of street children since the occupation of the country began in 2003. The next major contributor is the increase in the number of widows countrywide.

”The economic situation of the Iraqis is decreasing month after month. Lots of families are using their children to get additional income, which they can get through begging. There are also families who send their children to work,” Cedric Turlan, information officer for the NCCI, said.

The News - Pakistan

You think that with all the 'expertise' that the UN and it's various agencies have accumulated over the decades 'looking' at poverty and providing a 'liberal' rationale for trans-national corporate dominance, they'd come up with more precise terms for it, rather than: 'extreme poverty'?

[magellan]

3. It's not poverty, they're just economically-challenged

And security-challenged, and roof-over-their-heads-challenged, and food-challenged, and water-challenged, and hospital- and school-challenged....

But other than that, democracy is on the march in Iraq!

[Psephos]

4. So do one in six Europeans, according to the E.C.

Aren't statistics fun? :-)

http://www.mediafax.ro/english/articole-free/One-In-Six-Europeans-Living-Below-Poverty-Threshold--Study-622026-9.html

[USA_1]

5. Bush and his Supporters Say, Iraq is PARADISE!

Of course, we all they are full of sh!t but their campaign of lies continue unabated.