PRESS BRIEFING ON ASSESSMENT OF IRAQ’S NEEDS

PRESS BRIEFING ON ASSESSMENT OF IRAQ’S NEEDS

United Nations officials involved in efforts to meet the needs of the Iraqi people briefed correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing today.  They reviewed the work on Iraq’s Need Assessment, jointly carried out by the United Nations Development Group and the World Bank Group.

Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, introduced Julia Taft, Assistant Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Director of the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery; and Nicholas Krafft, World Bank Country Programme Coordinator for Iraq.

Correspondents were told that the Needs Assessment, commissioned last June at a meeting with donor countries and the Coalition Provisional Authority, served to identify in a systematic way the needs of the Iraqi people for the restoration of services to acceptable levels, both pre-war and, in some cases, going back to 1980.  The Assessment also reviewed a number of policy issues and studies required for 2004 and beyond.

In total, it highlighted 14 sectors, including education, health, housing and land management, water resources, electricity and finance, among others.  The Assessment also would serve as a framework at the Donor Reconstruction Conference in Madrid next week, where it was expected that contributing nations would pledge their assistance to the Iraqi people and choose their preferred areas of investment.

Ms. Taft said the 14 sectors outlined in the Assessment did not represent all areas of need.  A number of important sectors, such as oil and security, were carried out by the Provisional Authority and were only referenced in the report.

“The ones that we took”, she said, “are ones where we have a particular competence and experience, because of our long-standing involvement in the “oil-for-food” programme and other programmes for Iraq.”

She said the bottom line was to look dispassionately at needs, without knowing what the donors would give.

Additional contributors to the Assessment were the staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which prepared a macroeconomic assessment, as well as several non-governmental organizations and Iraqi employees working on the ground with ministries.

Mr. Krafft said the situation in Iraq was unusual in that the country was, at one time, a rich nation boasting high incomes, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s.  Since then, however, there had been conflict, 20 years of under-investment and degeneration, and the war against Iran, which had all had a major impact.  In addition, the Assessment stated that the health and education systems -- once widely regarded as among the best in the Middle East -- had seriously declined as a result of a severe lack of resources and years of politicization.  Furthermore, Iraq’s economy had been degraded by the effects of a highly centralized and corrupt authoritarian government, sanctions and by a command economy where prices played little role in resource allocation.

According to the Assessment, he said, medium-term reconstruction needs throughout the country were estimated to be $36 billion, of which $9 billion would need to be addressed in 2004 to cover physical reconstruction, technical assistance and training needs, among others.  An additional $20 billion was estimated for critical sectors outside the Assessment -— including oil and security.  As of today, there were no hard figures as to the number of donations already made.  In addition to monetary contributions, there were a number of other ways nations could offer aid, including partnerships, parliamentary training or women’s group assistance, to name a few.

Ms. Taft said that currently 45 nations plus 15 additional organizations were committed to attending the donors’ conference in Madrid.  She said success of the conference would lie with the Iraqi delegation, which would be attending the conference with expectations and reconstruction ideas they could share with the international community.

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