Iraq Living Conditions Tragic - Report

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DEVELOPMENT:
Iraq Living Conditions Tragic - Report
Niko Kyriakou

UNITED NATIONS, May 13 (IPS) - Iraqis' living conditions have deteriorated and pose challenges for development efforts two years after the U.S.-led invasion, says a groundbreaking new joint Iraqi-U.N. report.

The Iraq Living Conditions Survey (ILCS), based data from 22,000 households and released Thursday, is the first comprehensive statistical description of living standards in the country produced in years and is expected to steer future reconstruction and development assistance, officials said.

''This survey shows a rather tragic situation of the quality of life in Iraq,'' Barham Salih, Iraq's minister of planning, said in a statement.

Household surveys were conducted last year and measured indicators ranging from health to employment, housing, status of and access to public services, education, income and war-related deaths.

The report estimates the number of Iraqis who have died since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 somewhere between 18,000 and 29,000.

Of those deaths, 12 percent were children under 18 years of age, meaning that between 2,100 and 3,500 children have been killed in the war thus far, according to ILCS data.

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