UNICEF: about 5 million Iraqis are falling into poverty
Shafaq news/ UNICEF said, today, Wednesday that around five million persons are falling into poverty due to the impact of covid-19.
The organization reported that, "In a newly released assessment, the Iraqi Ministry of Planning with the support of UNICEF, World Bank, and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, found that an additional 4.5 million (11.7%) of Iraqis risk falling below the poverty line as a result of the socio-economic impact of COVID-19".
The assessment showed that, "This sharp increase would bring the national poverty rate to 31.7% from 20% in 2018 and the total number of poor to 11.4 million. Children and adolescents face the highest increase in poverty. Before the pandemic broke, one out of five children and adolescents were poor. This is now set to double to over 2 out of every 5, or 37.9% of all children".
The assessment found that 42% of the population are vulnerable; facing a higher risk as they are deprived in more than one dimension of the following education, health, living conditions, and financial security.
"Disruption to services and the adoption of negative coping strategies by poor households are set to increase deprivation in wellbeing and rising inequality especially among children", the assessment emphasized.