The Iraqi Household Survey is a project which is being undertaken as a part of the Poverty Reduction Project. The policies that are under this project aim to increase chances of employment so that the government can regain its lost strength. The whole project is undertaken by the World Bank.

Objective Of The Project

The main motive of the project is to try creating stability in the government of Iraq and hence, to reduce the state of poverty by creating a new hope for the people with the creation of jobs and protection from external factors.

Costing And Financing

The disbursed amount at the end of the project is $11.98 million. This was enough money to turn over the situation of the government in Iraq. The IHSES and Poverty Assessment, Poverty and Social Impact Analysis, Strategy for Property Reduction and Safety Net Developments, and Project management contingency are the four plans that made up the cost. The biggest contribution to the financing was done by a Bank-managed Trust Fund.

Performances And Achievements

The data suggested by the team report found limited evidence on achievement by the plan, so this cannot be said to be a complete success since the poverty reduction strategy through employment surges was the only objective perfectly done.

The project was restructured after 2012 till the fifth PDO indicator found out certain points:

1. Data tabulation was done and was available on the internet.
2. Computer-based quality control, file-based data entry, and small fieldwork in follow-up surveys of CSO.
3. The total Statistical staff trained was 2464, way above the 1000 mark.

The poverty assessment was also completed too but the performance achieved by the first objective with respect to government ability is regarded as negligible because the review of the report suggested that the creation of jobs after strengthening of the government was not followed up perfectly.

Efficiency Of The Project

According to the reports published by World Bank, there was no economic analysis. The major problems in the project were that there was a long delay in implementation of the project and also non-disbursement of 10% of the funding even though the project life was doubled. The increased cost is also due to the long delays in the project. Under these circumstances, the efficiency of the project can only be termed as modest. The relevance of the project is referred to as moderately unsatisfactory.

Government Performance With Regards To the Project

The project coordination was in the hands of Ministry of Planning. However, when the project was implemented the government was not ready, and the implementation and officials getting used to bank system required too much time. The government showcased its support but the long isolation from the donor community, insecurity among the officials and limited idea to undertake activities led to a moderately unsatisfactory result. Read more on how Armenia strengthened its survey on Strengthening Armenia’s Integrated Living Conditions Survey.

{NOTE TO DEVELOPER: Kindly link “Strengthening Armenia’s Integrated Living Conditions Survey” to the article “#2: Strengthening Armenia’s Integrated Living Conditions Survey”}

Lessons Cited In ICR

1. The environment was fragile and the results were produced very quickly, whereas the economic recovery did not take place.
2. The funds from banks and trust funds helped in a big way as they offered technical assistance and helped in the preparation of strategy.
3. The risk and operations in a postconflict country are complex.
4. The bank should have maintained a time to time survey of the usage of donations and changed strategies according to the environment.
5. The design and implementation of small projects led to a streamlined condition of gaining efficiency.

Benefactor Requirement

The project was done with the bank and trust funds and more would have been possible if they were involved to an even greater extent. In a post-conflict area, the government needs time to regain its strength. It also takes ample time to implement a project like this to increase the jobs in the country. The condition of Iraq required benefactors to make the project work out, but it still took a long time and therefore was moderately successful.