United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA )

1. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Iraq Ministry of planning and Development Cooperation (MoPDC) Iraq Population and Housing Census (IPHC09) Census under Fire and Politicization Dr. Luay SHABANEH, UNFPA-CTA

2. Census Current Status Joint COSIT-UNFPA Presentation Justifications of Census undertaking Role of UNFPA Progress Challenges Strategy Lessons learned

3. Nationally In wars and conflict since 30 years About 26-32 million inhabitant Fragile political process Federal government in Baghdad and regional government in KRG Control on boarder is fragile 800,000 internally displaced 2-3 million externally displaced Conflict on controlling some areas ID system fragile, registers not exist 16 Governorates, 15,000 communities And 320,000 fieldworkers Strong leadership for COSIT High Political support for IPHC09 COSIT is credible institution Strongly committed team Ali Baban Minister MoPDC Chairman, CNC Mehdi Al-Alak, President of COSIT, Chairman, COR

4. Internationally

5. Justifications of IPHC THEREFORE….. Nationally: Launching IPHC is a MUST ASAP Internationally: Taking the Risk by International Organizations is very much Justified International Technical and financial Support is rationally placed Supporting collective effort is much needed Legally: The census should have been launched in 2007- each 10 years Developmentally Lack of accurate population statistics Irrelevance of 1997 census Population mobility and displacement after 2003 Lack of small area statistics for planning Statistically Lack of sampling frames Inaccurate population projections Politically IPHC09 is a potential peace making tool

6. Nationally Owned by MoPDC Nationally led by COSIT Internationally Supported by UNFPA Operational Financing is mostly national Financing TA through UNFPA Budget cut by 40% after crisis

7. Role of UNFPA • UNFPA intervention come in line with Iraq’s NDS 2007-2010 • UNDG established ITF & mandated item C-23 to UNFPA • The national counterpart at the Iraqi side is COSIT • Development objective: To facilitate availability of data to help seven out of eight goals of MDGs • Immediate objectives: to increase capacity of COSIT, to plan, implement, analyze and disseminate census, and to strengthen the capacity of national partners, to monitor, advocate and communicate census results

8. Role of UNFPA • O1: Capacities are increased to plan and implement high quality and internationally recognised population and housing censuses and other large-scale surveys. • O2: Capacities are enhanced to conduct disaggregated analysis • O3: Capacities of line Ministries to utilize census data is increased • O4: Increased compliance of IPHC09 with international standards

9. Role of UNFPA UNFPA was keen to approach this project from capacity building point of view intervention forms • Facilitation for COSIT to reach and conclude the outsourced services and goods • On-job training of Iraqi census team in different fields • Technical backstopping to Iraq team in all census stages • Quality assurance to make sure that outsourced goods and service

10. IPHC ProgressLegal Basis • Completed • June 2008, Council of Ministers Decree to Conduct IPHC • October 2008, endorsement by Legislative Council • November 3, 2008, presidential decree number (32) of IPHC law number (40) for 2008 published in Official Gazette • September 2009 – rescheduling of population counting

11. Census Plans Ongoing! Master Plan - completed Data collection - completed Training Plan - completed Security Plan – completed Data Processing Plan - ongoing-80% DisseminationPlan - ongoing-30% Publicity Campaign – ongoing-50% Quality control Plan – ongoing -75% Contingency Plan- not completed-30%

12. Tools On going Designing Census Tools Questionnaires- completed Manuals- completed QC forms- completed Classifications- completed Testing - completed Pilot Census– completed Cartography ongoing-70%

13. Implementation On going Pre-Testing - completed Pilot Census– completed Training of Field Staff ongoing-80% for 1st stage Numbering &listing 98% completed IT environment Re-doing maps Updating Numbering and Listing Population counting Remaining Tasks

14. Transfer of know-how Obstacles Facing IPHC09 Risk Challenge Difficulty Overlapped boarders Compliance with Int. Standards Security Situation Launching nationwide politicizing

15. Census Politicizing There is high level of politicizing the census in Iraq. The direct reason of politicizing comes from the fact that the legislative council (House of Representatives) linked solving a numbering of political problems with the census results.  This includes: • distribution of wealth (oil revenues) • reconciliation conflicting boarders/counties. Distribution of electoral seats by ethnicity in the mixed counties. 

16. Census Politicizing Some politicians tried to link the census with elections. The direct implication appears at three levels: • more pressure on COSIT regarding the on census date, • more pressure (intervention) on the content of census questionnaires, • more quality assurance and anti-fraud measures were requested from COSIT to ensure credibility of the outcomes.

17. Census Politicizing The challenges facing COSIT are • creating a national consensus on the census date and content • launching the census in a freely professional manner. The risks on the census launching • repeated postponement of the fieldwork • not endorsing the census results • undermine the whole statistical system as a result of more politicizing due to political intervention and allowing non statistical actors to intervene. 

18. Challenges Ahead before census team Population displacement over time Locality Affiliation For some communities Boarder conflict Violent opposition Other Challenges: 1. Security Problems 2. Counting Iraqis abroad 3. Endorsement of Census Results 4. Fraud

19. Strategy to Deal with Challenges

20. Lessons Learned Fragility is not exception any more Census could be peacemaking tool Communication strategy is key International support is very important Investment in training is a wise strategy Argumentation with political level is important

21. Thank you for your attention