Iraq, once a relatively skilled and economically prosperous society, has seen its development thwarted by decades of conflict and economic decline. Today it is an upper middle-income, resource-rich, yet fragile and conflict-riven country. Progress on the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity is inevitably an uphill struggle in such a context. Indeed, there has been no overall movement towards either poverty reduction or reduced income equality in Iraq since 2007
headcount poverty measured in 2014 has remained virtually unchanged at 22.5 percent. What limited gains in poverty reduction were achieved through 2012 had been reversed by 2014, as a result of a resurgence in violence and the worsening of the economic environment. More than four million Iraqis have been displaced by the country's various conflicts.