Jobs in Iraq : A Primer on Job Creation in the Short-Term
Iraq needs a strategy to make rapid progress in tackling its profound jobs challenges. Iraq is facing a jobs crisis of unprecedented proportions. It could foment a resurgence in violence unless the Government of Iraq makes credible and swift progre...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/996841550594930714/Jobs-in-Iraq-A-Primer-on-Job-Creation-in-the-Short-Term http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31319 |
| Summary: | Iraq needs a strategy to make rapid
progress in tackling its profound jobs challenges. Iraq is
facing a jobs crisis of unprecedented proportions. It could
foment a resurgence in violence unless the Government of
Iraq makes credible and swift progress in job creation and
reconstruction. To shape a longer-term vision, Iraq can look
beyond its recent history of conflict, and to its past as a
diversified economy & home of an educated workforce.
However, in the short-term, neither private/ public sector
hiring can create jobs at the desired scale without
significant new policy action. The first-best solution for
large-scale private sector job creation hinges on structural
reforms that must begin now, but are achievable only in the
medium to longer term. This paper provides a primer on
options to deliver large-scale job creation in the short
term, based on investments in construction, agriculture and
agribusiness, small & medium enterprises, and vocational
skills. Its aim is to outline workable steps for progress in
a jobs crisis in a post-conflict situation. Because these
steps focus on rapid impact at scale, rather than structural
reform, they are less-than-ideal or second-best. A similar
logic applies to financing options. Financing needs for jobs
are large, and while business climate reforms are under way,
first-best private investment in jobs will remain limited.
Yet, the recent oil price hike offers the Government of Iraq
a uniquely timely opportunity to make an investment in jobs. |
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