According to the 2021 World Bank’s Human Capital Index (HCI), a child born in Iraq just before the COVID19- pandemic can expect to reach only 41 percent of his or her potential future productivity. Despite being an early investor in health and education, Iraq currently lags behind its regional peers in a number of important human capital outcomes (the average HCI for the Middle East and North Africa region is 57 percent). The country’s recent history of fragility, violent conflict, political turmoil, and service delivery challenges are some of the reasons for the low human capital outcomes, which go beyond the sectors traditionally associated with human development. The Iraqi economy’s heavy reliance on oil revenues and an inability of the political institutions to enact and sustainably implement lasting reforms impede much-needed investments in human capital. Without urgent reform and a focus on investing in its people, Iraq stands to squander the economic opportunity afforded to it by the country’s young and dynamic population in the form of a ‘demographic dividend’.
Authors
- Citation
- “ World Bank . 2024 . Iraq Human Capital Review: A Roadmap to Human Capital Recovery in Iraq . © Washington, DC: World Bank . http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42203 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO . ”
- Collection(s)
- Social Analysis
- Pages
- 112
- Published in
- United States of America
- Region country
- Iraq
- Report
- 193734
- Rights
- CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO
- Rights Holder
- World Bank
- Rights URI
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/igo
- UNIT
- HMNSP
- URI
- https://hdl.handle.net/10986/42203
- date disclosure
- 2024-10-01
- region administrative
- Middle East and North Africa
Files
Table of Contents
- _Hlk89271324 20
- _heading=h.2hio093 42
- _heading=h.wnyagw 42
- _heading=h.3gnlt4p 42
- _heading=h.3u2rp3q 48
- _Hlk136941475 108
- _Hlk137049698 108
- _Hlk89617699 110
- _Hlk96090767 110
- Abbreviations 6
- Acknowledgements 8
- Foreword 9
- Executive Summary 10
- Chapter 1.Introduction: What is human capital? 18
- 1.1. Human capital and its link to economic growth and productivity 19
- 1.2. Life-cycle framework for human capital accumulation 19
- 1.3. Why a Human Capital Review? 21
- Chapter 2.Iraq Country context 22
- 2.1. Macroeconomic context 23
- 2.2. Country demographic profile 24
- 2.3. Key stakeholders and institutional arrangements 26
- 2.4. Government expenditure on the social sectors 29
- Chapter 3.Human capital across the life cycle 32
- 3.1. Human Capital Index 34
- 3.2. Early childhood: Prioritizing early childhood health and education for all 37
- 3.3. School age: Closing gaps in primary and secondary education 41
- 3.4. Youth and adolescence: Facilitating transition from education into the labor market 48
- 3.5. Working age: Protecting and utilizing human capital in adulthood 50
- 3.6. Old age: Preparing for a demographic transition 54
- Chapter 4.Harnessing Iraq’s demographic dividend 62
- 4.1. Trends of population growth and fertility in Iraq and comparator countries 64
- 4.2. The drivers of high population growth and high fertility in Iraq 67
- 4.3. Investing in human capital: The importance of secondary education 70
- 4.4. Utilizing human capital: The importance of job creation 72
- 4.5. The way forward to harnessing Iraq’s demographic dividend 76
- Chapter 5.Systemic bottlenecks to human capital development 84
- 5.1. Binding constraints and cross-cutting challenges 85
- 5.2. Sector-specific service delivery issues 88
- 5.3. Sector-specific service delivery issues in KRI 93
- 5.4. The way forward to addressing systemic bottlenecks to human capital development 94
- Chapter 6.The path forward: Reform imperatives for human capital in Iraq 96
- 6.1. Reform imperative 1: Strengthening governance and accountability 97
- 6.2. Reform imperative 2: Closing service delivery gaps 100
- 6.3. Reform imperative 3: Harnessing the demographic dividend 104
- References 108
