This book provides the most comprehensive and rigorous analysis of Iraqi living standards to be carried out in several decades. It makes extensive use of the Iraq Household Socio-Economic Survey (IHSES), the first nationwide income and expenditure survey since 1988. IHSES data were complemented with a wide range of other sources, providing a holistic perspective on living standards that was previously unavailable. The analysis presented here was carried out with two main goals, first, to inform the Government's poverty reduction strategy
and second, to create a baseline against which future progress in poverty reduction can be monitored and assessed. Iraq is moving forward. The challenge requires re-development and recovery of what has been lost, including the stimulus provided by economic opportunity. A transition in policy is needed from provision of minimal food subsistence to long-term investments in human productivity. An environment more conducive to the poor can be created by investments that help citizens to benefit from their own labor and education. This challenge is being concretely addressed in the newly adopted national Poverty Reduction Strategy. That strategy, informed by the present analysis, articulates clear priorities for government spending and detailed programmatic actions.