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About UNFPA Iraq

About UNFPA Iraq

About UNFPA Iraq

UNFPA is the United Nations reproductive health agency. Our mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) established its programme for Iraq in 2008 and opened its first office in the country in 2011.

Ever since, UNFPA has been working across the country to contribute to improving sexual and reproductive health services, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, enhancing youth-related programmes and availing population data for development.

In close coordination with the Government of Iraq, the Government of the Kurdistan Region, and the civil society, and in collaboration with other UN agencies, UNFPA pursues the country’s development priorities and strategies.

When the crisis began in 2014, the Fund launched its emergency humanitarian interventions to respond to urgent reproductive health and gender-based violence needs of women and girls affected by the conflict.

In 2019, UNFPA is preparing its third country programme (2020-2024) around UNFPA’s three transformative results: end preventable maternal deaths, end unmet need for family planning, and end gender-based violence and harmful practices:

  • Advocate for women and girls’ human and reproductive rights
  • Build the capacity of government counterparts and NGOs for quality services
  • Provide reproductive health and gender-based violence services
  • Generate evidence-based surveys for robust strategies and people-centred policies
  • Enable youth to dialogue on peace and tolerance for their involvement decision-making process

About Iraq (data for 2018)*

  • Population: 37 million of which 60 per cent are under the age of 25
  • Fertility rate: 3.6
  • Average family size: 6.3
  • Neonatal mortality: 14 per 1,000**
  • Child marriage & pregnancies:
    • 7% married & 1% pregnant before the age of 15
    • 27.6% married & 14.1% pregnant before the age of 18
  • Contraceptive prevalence rate
    • 47.2% of the population does not use contraceptives
    • 36.1% of the population use modern methods***
    • 16.7% of the population use traditional methods****
  • Maternal mortality: 32 per 1,000
  • Female Genital Mutilation prevalence: 7.4%***** of women aged 15-49 underwent FGM

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* Data from MICS

** SDG goal is 12 per 1,000

*** Modern Methods include female sterilization, male sterilization, IUD, injectables, implants, pills, male condom, Female condom, diaphragm, foam, jelly and contraceptive patch

**** Traditional methods refer to periodic abstinence and withdrawal

***** The majority of cases occur in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq with 37.5%, compared with only 0.4% in central and southern Iraq.

 

Key Results

Iraq

Sexual and reproductive health in emergency preparedness plans

Sexual and reproductive health was integrated into emergency preparedness plans

Iraq

Integration of sexual and reproductive health of adolescents and youth into strategies of sectors apart from health sector

At least two sectors (other than health) had strategies which integrated the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents and youth

Iraq

Youth participation in policy and programmes

Mechanisms were in place for young people's participation in policy, programming, and peacebuilding processes

Iraq

Reproductive rights, laws and policies

Strategies were in place to align laws, policies and regulations on reproductive rights

Iraq

Social norm mapping

A social norm assessment, based on the UNFPA social norm framework, was completed

Iraq

Data on gender-based violence

National systems were in place to collect and disseminate data on the incidence of gender-based violence

Iraq

Minimum Initial Services Package

33

Health service providers and managers were trained on the minimum initial service package

Iraq

Life skills programmes for girls

6,079

Marginalized girls were reached with health, social and economic asset-building programmes

Iraq

Advocacy platforms against harmful social norms

25

Communities developed advocacy platforms to eliminate discriminatory gender and sociocultural norms which affect women and girls

Iraq

Child, early and forced marriage

9,485

Girls received, with support from UNFPA, prevention, protection services, and/or care related to child, early, and forced marriage

What we do

UNFPA works in more than 150 countries and territories that are home to the vast majority of the world’s people. Its mission: to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

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UNFPA in CO
Country Interim Representative

Country Interim Representative

Mr Garik Hayrapetyan

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Garik Hayrapetyan has over two decades of experience in international development and humanitarian assistance. Since joining UNFPA in 2005, he has held leadership roles in Armenia, Syria, and Yemen. With advanced degrees in Political Science and Political Economy, Mr. Hayrapetyan specializes in program management, humanitarian coordination, and capacity building. He became the Deputy Representative for UNFPA Iraq in November 2022.
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