Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to improve economic opportunities and reduce poverty in Iraq.

Since 2014 DFID has provided £229.5 million in humanitarian assistance to help reduce poverty in Iraq, including by providing food assistance to over a quarter million people, emergency cash transfers to over 110,000 people and safe drinking water, toilet and shower facilities to more than 800,000 people. We have provided technical assistance through the World Bank to the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to create a new welfare database and to pilot conditional cash transfers to improve access to health and education. We have also funded the UNDP managed Funding Facility for Stabilisation to support light infrastructure reconstruction and job and livelihoods creation in areas liberated from Daesh. Furthermore we provided a loan guarantee unlocking over $370 million of World Bank lending to the Government of Iraq, which has contributed to immediate economic stability while supporting reforms delivering more sustainable economic development.