[{"bbox": [96, 153, 1164, 234], "category": "Text", "text": "on education for girls, the Action contributes to the EU priority of human development, ensuring consistency with the\nIraq MIP and its objective for promoting access to quality education, as well as the Iraq Gender Action Plan (GAP)\nCountry Level Implementation Plan (CLIP).³"}, {"bbox": [85, 261, 322, 292], "category": "Section-header", "text": "2 RATIONALE"}, {"bbox": [85, 327, 234, 354], "category": "Section-header", "text": "2.1 Context"}, {"bbox": [96, 372, 1164, 487], "category": "Text", "text": "Following two decades of conflict, Iraq remains fragile⁴ despite Iraq’s designation as an Upper Middle-Income Country (UMIC) with substantial resources⁵. Iraq ranked only 115 out of 165 in the SDG Index Dashboard Report of 2023⁶, mainly as a result of past conflict and structural deficiencies. The country is challenged inter alia by political instability, economic recessions and poor public service delivery."}, {"bbox": [96, 512, 1164, 674], "category": "Text", "text": "Iraq's economy remains heavily dependent on oil exports, which accounts for 90% of Government revenue, and is therefore strongly affected by the sharp fluctuations in oil prices. The fragmented political landscape undermines effective Government action, security, and transparent governance. With continuous popular demonstrations since 2019, it is imperative for the Iraqi Government to deliver faster on political and socio-economic reforms, in order to avoid a resurgence of unrest and violence. In 2023, the global recession, high inflation, and the global food crisis affect the wellbeing of the population, notably vulnerable and displaced populations, despite the high oil price."}, {"bbox": [96, 698, 1164, 912], "category": "Text", "text": "The Iraqi Government struggles to provide adequate basic services ranging from access to justice, to safe drinking water, electricity, health services, but also a just comprehensive social safety net, employment and educational opportunities for the growing youth population. Poverty is rising (estimated at 42% in 2023⁷), severely affecting the Iraqi population and in particular groups in vulnerable situations such as women and children, and displaced populations. This shows in the increase in the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance (2.5 million⁸). Iraq has a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.686, which is relatively high when comparing with the rest of the countries from the Arab Region. However, when adjusting for inequality (IHDI), the index decreases to 0.554.⁹ Moreover, vulnerability is higher for those living in rural areas, as well as for children 0 to 14 years old.¹⁰"}, {"bbox": [96, 937, 1164, 1149], "category": "Text", "text": "The effects of climate change in Iraq further exacerbate the challenges of existing natural hazards, and have already an impact on the country's overall stability and prosperity with continued water shortages and constantly rising temperatures that are placing considerable pressure on basic resources and reducing opportunities for livelihoods in sectors that used to be very productive, such as agriculture. These difficulties in delivering basic services and providing decent work to the fast-growing and vulnerable population, are further compounded by the continued challenge of displacement. Whilst the number of IDPs has drastically reduced since the defeat of Da'esh in 2018 from 5.8 million (16% of the population) to 1.17 million in 2022¹¹, the number of Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan region remains stable at around 245.000 persons since 2015."}, {"bbox": [85, 1242, 1143, 1353], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³ The Gender Action Plan III is a Joint communication by the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy which was welcomed through EU Presidency Conclusions of 16 December 2020. Drafting was led by European Commission in close consultation with EU Member States, EEAS, civil society organisations, partner governments, and international organisations (UN entities, International Finance Institutions among others). The different parties contributed to the drafting of the document through meetings and through responses to a survey conducted during the process."}, {"bbox": [85, 1351, 1143, 1397], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁴ World Bank list of fragile and conflict-affected situations FY2024 and World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicator \"political stability and absence of violence/terrorism\" Iraq percentile rank of 1.89 (out of 100, where 0 corresponds to the lowest rank)"}, {"bbox": [85, 1395, 1143, 1462], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁵ World Bank data dashboard: Iraq’s GNI PPP amounted USD 10.820 in 2022. According to the WB definition, upper middle-income economies are those with a GNI per capita between USD 4,046 and USD 12,535. Iraq thus finds itself in the upper bracket of upper middle income economies. This however needs to be balanced against Iraq GINI"}, {"bbox": [85, 1460, 386, 1481], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁶ SDG Index Dashboard Report of 2023"}, {"bbox": [85, 1482, 481, 1505], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁷ Estimate of multi-dimensional poverty of UNICEF"}, {"bbox": [85, 1506, 1143, 1550], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁸ Humanitarian Needs Overview for Iraq of March 2023: https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/iraq/document/iraq-humanitarian-needs-overview"}, {"bbox": [85, 1552, 634, 1576], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁹ Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) of UNDP 2021"}, {"bbox": [85, 1576, 494, 1599], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁰ Poverty and Inequality Platform of the World Bank."}, {"bbox": [85, 1601, 1143, 1647], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹¹ IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix (3% of the population) versus 242.000 by national authority surveys (0.5% of the population) Ministry of Migration and Development displacement survey of 2021"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1143, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 4 of 23"}]