Iraq News Now

Context

The global COVID-19 crisis arrived in a context where more than 5 million IDPs and returnees in Iraq face a range of multifaceted challenges. In order to assess levels of access and perceived difficulties when accessing health services, REACH compiled data from a series of health indicators assessed in the 2019 Multi-Cluster Needs Assessment (MCNA) for in-camp IDP households, out-of-camp IDP households and returnee households. MCNA household data collection took place from June 17 to August 20, 2019. This factsheet presents results for returnee households only.

Methodology

Data is sourced from the seventh round of the MCNA published in December 2019. Household data collection took place from June 17 to August 20, 2019.

A total of 3,249 returnee households were interviewed. Only districts with at least 200 households were covered. The MCNA surveyed households in fully accessible districts and/or governorates where the targeted population groups were present, covering 63 districts. Ba’aj district was either not surveyed or resulted in insufficient data collection to meet the required sample due to lack of access and/or assessment authorizations for all partners.

Indicator on difficulties encountered when accessing health services or treatment is a subset of all households reporting at least one household member needing to access health services or treatment. Only the top three reported difficulties were included. For further information you can access the MCNA dataset.

This factsheet is based on self-reported household data from 2019, therefore the results should be considered as a first step towards gaining a better understanding on current levels of access to health services, and the difficulties that the assessed population face in accessing this type of service. Additional research is needed to collect more recent and in-depth data, and to apply complementary methodologies, with the objective of having a better understanding of access to health services in Iraq.