One in three Iraqis ‘in poverty’
The report’s authors are also highly critical of US-led attempts to try to introduce a market economy quickly.
They single out education, saying things have not improved since the neglect of the Saddam years.
They say economic shock treatment in recent years has been naive and immature.
South worst
The study is the first major survey of living conditions since the US-led invasion in 2003, and is based on data from 2004.
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| Â | A country like Iraq which is blessed … with the largest potential of natural resources [and] the highest quality of human resources, has been brought to its knees by human hands Paolo Lembo UNDP Iraq director |
Conditions before 2003, including Saddam Hussein’s rule and international sanctions, have also affected the findings.
From a thriving middle-income economy in the 1970s and 1980s, Iraq has been reduced to a state where one-third of households live on the equivalent of less than $70 a week, the study says.
“A country like Iraq which is blessed … with the largest potential of natural resources [and] the highest quality of human resources, has been brought to its knees by human hands,” said UNDP Iraq director Paolo Lembo.
The worst conditions are shown to be in the south – the area under UK control – that suffered badly in the 1980s in the Iran-Iraq war and was then persecuted by Saddam Hussein.
Towns and cities are said to be three times better off than rural areas.
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