Measuring and Analyzing the Impact of the Relationship between Poverty Phenomenon and Disparities in the Distribution of Income Iraq a Standard Study for the Period (2003-2016)

The purpose of the paper is to explore measure and analyze the impact of unequal distribution of income and its impact of poverty in Iraq. Poverty is a multidimensional concept and it has various antecedents and consequences. The importance of poverty as a social issue is undoubted and it is among the millennium development goals of United Nations too to eradicate poverty from the world. Present study is focused on the determination of possible link between inequality in distribution of income in Iraq and its possible aftermaths on the phenomenon of poverty. Detailed review of the literature has been performed in order to establish the conceptual foundation of poverty and Disparities in the Distribution of Income in Iraq, which is supported by secondary data. The findings of the present study can be used for the government officials, policy makers and organizations working for socioeconomic development through poverty reduction in Iraq, moreover, the study also presented a model for less developed countries like Iraq to make the findings of this study as benchmark. The paper is concluded not before some of the suggestions and policy guidelines are proposed to reduce the gap caused by disparities in the distribution of Income in Iraq.

The present social, financial and economic issues of Iraq has been reported by the various researchers working on developmental and poverty related areas (Series, 2012). Furthermore, Series (2012), also proposed a model of interrelated social issues that are causing poverty and inequality of income distribution in Iraq, these factors are working in a vicious circle. Please refer to figure No. 1 for the model he proposed for interrelated social issues in Iraq.

Figure No-1. Interrelated Social Issues in Iraq
Source: (Series, 2012) According to World Bank (2018), the SWIFT survey conducted in 2014 reported that labour market was performing better and income level was increasing but the recent survey reported that it had gone back to the 2012 level again. Figure   Source: (World Bank, 2018) There are various measurement tools to measure poverty, Alkire and Foster (2007); Alkire and Foster (2011) proposed Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to measure poverty through a Multidimensional dimensions, please refer to figure No. 3 for further details about the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) measure poverty on health, education and living standard related parameters. The proposed model of Alkire and Foster (2007); Alkire and Foster (2011) to measure poverty, try to explore and measure poverty of various dimensions. Health, education and living standard are the primary factors which are used to examine poverty. Health is further divided into nutrition and child mortality, education is exclaimed as year of schooling and school attendance and living standard is measured from cooking fuel, sanitation, water, electricity, floor and assets.  (Alkire and Foster, 2007;2011). The aforementioned dimensions are examined and explored in order to determine the level of poverty or prosperity in any country. Alkire and Foster model is presented the model as per figure No. 3. These dimensions are reported, cited and used with minor changes considering the scope of the research and the location of the research. The changes are made to make Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) more relevant to the context of the study.  According to Ismail et al. (2017), MPI score of Iraq as compare to other Arab countries are on the higher side. MPI score is one of the most reliable and most used measure to examine poverty in any country. Please refer to figure No. 5 for MPI score comparison of Iraq with other Arab countries. Farrington and Gilling (1998) described poverty in holistic way in order to comprehend poverty. They proposed that there is a need of more complex nature of measurement since no single approach can be able to comprehend, analyze and measure poverty, they proposed an approach that should be rich on both quantitative and qualitative aspects. The poverty index is used in many countries to measure and report poverty, however Watts (1968) have make some reservations on the poverty index with an argument that since poverty index does not measure and analyze the difference of income level among the poor community (Farrington and Gilling, 1998).
The rest of the paper is organized as, the next section of the paper is regarding the poverty in Iraqi its various dimensions which are reported in previous literature along with some of the barriers that are causing hindrances in the poverty reduction in Iraq, followed by a section that is designated to the discussion on the inequality and Disparities in the Distribution of Income in Iraq and its impact on the poverty, the next section is about some of the recommendations and suggestions for the policy makers, government officials and non-governmental organizations working for the socio economic development through poverty reduction in Iraq and finally the last section of the paper will conclude the paper.

Poverty in Iraq
Iraq is a low middle income country but rich with great oil reserves, the country is facing significant challenges in socioeconomic development due to ongoing conflicts, high economic dependence on oil and oil related industries, bad governance, poor development of private sector and poor law and order situation (UN Iraq, 2014;UNDP, 2013). It is important to note that Iraq was able to achieve millennium development goal's target number one between 1990 and 2015 to (United Nations Development Programme, 2014), however, despite of various initiatives of the Iraq government the issue of poverty still exists in Iraq and call for more holistic remedial measures to for eradication. According to UNDP (2013), there is a majority of Iraqi population which is suffering from poverty, lack of employment opportunities, lack of women participation in work force, inequality, shortage of food and provision of some of the basic necessities of life. There are multiple government initiatives that are aimed at reducing poverty and inequity of income distribution but these programs are still underway and are yet to reap full benefits. National Strategy for Poverty Reduction (NSPR) is one of the key program which is taken by Iraqi government with the collaboration of World Bank and International Monitory Fund (IMF) for the identification and possible eradication. Government of Iraq has development, National Development Plan (NDP) 2013-2017 with great ambitions to reduce poverty and inequity with the support of United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).
According to Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) (2015), 3.9 percent of the Iraqi population is classified as extreme poor as there earning per is less than $ 1.25, and there are 21.2 percent Iraqi population, which is earning less than $ 2 per day. Moreover, approximately there are 23 percent Iraqi population is living under the poverty line (Humanitarian Country Team, 2014). However Hasim, reported that the population that is living under the line of poverty is 35 percent. There is also another divide among the population under the line of poverty, the rate of poverty among the urban and rural locations are considerably different and also the intensity of the issue varies (Hasim, 2014).
There are various factors that is causing the current poverty situation in Iraq, According to UN Iraq (2014), the present humanitarian, security and financial crises had led to increase in poverty, unemployment and vulnerability. World Bank had tried to gather Quantitative evidence, which indicates that developmental efforts by the government and other stakeholders are trying to mitigate the negative impact of the current security and financial. The research study carried out by World Bank (2014), also indicated that the present poverty situation is also contributed by the legacy of Iraq, almost three decade of poor law and order, insecurity and violence has greatly hampered the human capital development, provision of basic health and education facilities and the economic development has also been on slower side which results in higher rate of poverty The dependence of the oil sector and its related industries lead to more labor intensive and less skilled type of industries to flourish in Iraq, the alternate policy the reduce dependence of oil sector can also reduce poverty from Iraq (IAU, 2012).
Sassoon, highlighted that despite the fact that Iraq is greatly blessed with the oil, Iraq could not flourish as it could be on socioeconomic fronts, among many possible factors on the high rate of poverty is the corruption and Bureaucratic officialdom are also contributing toward low rate of economic growth. Moreover, Sassoon, also added that after the violence which started in 2003, majority of highly education and skilled Iraqi had migrated to other countries for better and safe future, that call for government to take some serious remedial measure to stop brain drain from Iraq. Government of Iraq has imposed various trade berries such as bureaucratic practices regulatory measure which are causing low level of foreign and local investment in indigenous industries and low level of trade in Iraq (Sassoon, 2012).
The non-existence of well-defined budget law has also restricted the development of oil sector and ability to the government to provide and developer generate employment opportunities, deliver services (such as education, sanitation, health, transport and electricity) initiate infrastructure development projects which are essential for socioeconomic development and poverty reduction in Iraq (UN Iraq, 2014). Lack of employment opportunities is another issue that has lead toward higher levels of poverty in Iraq, level of employment of lowest among the neighboring countries (UN Iraq, 2014;United Nations Development Programme, 2014). Unsuccessful and inefficient government had been trying the solve the issue of unemployment through a very short term and narrow minded approach by creating marginal and part time jobs such as pavement, painters of bridges and guards to show the reduction of unemployment and poverty. A study conducted by World Bank on the period from 2007 to 2012 reported that eight percent of poor population has less primary education (Krishnan et al., 2014), moreover Iraq Human Development Report (2014) reported that lack of education is one of the key factor of poverty in Iraq (Shlash, 2014).
There are various studies that has indicated that poverty has been increasing in Iraq (UN Iraq, 2014), due to various reasons such as current security, humanitarian, unemployment and vulnerability and financial crises. Figure  No. 5 is showing the same trend as reported in the existing literature.
The trend has been on lower side after 2007 to 2012 but it again started to rise after 2014 onwards, there is an important implication for government officials and policy makers that to explore the factors that caused this rise. However, the apparent situation and circumstances were indicating that Iraq was becoming more stable and democratic government was taking over control over the affairs of the country after the withdrawal of US led forces. The next section of the paper will provide some insight into that fact that Disparities and inequality in the Distribution of Income can lead to higher rate of poverty in general and in the context of Iraq, especially.

Disparities in the Distribution of Income and Poverty
There is need to study and explore the structure of inequality and Disparities in the Distribution of Income in order to devise any policy to reduce poverty. The question that inequality and Disparities in the Distribution of Income has any implications on the economic development or poverty reduction has been under investigation in social sciences. Aghion et al. (1999) explain "The absence of data on the distribution of wealth for a sufficient number of countries forces researchers to use proxies in empirical studies. The most common approach is to use data on income inequality as a proxy for wealth inequality". It is also to mention that impact of inequality in income distribution can has an impact of economic growth or poverty can has an impact of economic growth, these phenomena are yet to be explored established, moreover he also proposed inequality in distribution of income is more relevant to poverty. The role of inequality and Disparities in the Distribution of Income and poverty on the overall economic growth has been explore and established (Ravallion and Martin, 2012). There has been various arguments to the relationship of the inequality and Disparities in the Distribution of Income and poverty on the overall economic growth however, Easterly (2007, p.756) tried to make a reconciliation as:

"One confusion in the theoretical and empirical analysis of inequality is between what we could call structural inequality and market inequality. Structural inequality reflects such historical events as conquest, colonization, slavery, and land distribution by the state or colonial power; it creates an elite by means of these non-market mechanisms. Market forces also lead to inequality, but just because success in free markets is always very uneven across different individuals, cities, regions, firms and industries. So the recent rise in inequality in China is clearly market based, while high inequality in Brazil or South Africa is just as clearly structural. Only structural inequality is unambiguously bad for subsequent development in theory market inequality has ambiguous effects"
Disparities in the Distribution of Income and Poverty is the result of two factors, firstly, the level of income earned and secondly Distribution of Income among the population of any country (Kanbur, 2005). There is a tendency that once the economy is growing and people are becoming prospers the inequality in Distribution of Income will reduce (Fosu, 2011;White, 2001) also remarked that after an extensive review of the literature on poverty, it is confirmed that economic progress results is more justified income distribution.
United Nations Development Programme (2014) also proposed and suggested various factors that are causing poverty in Iraq along with the weightage of that respective factor in enhancing poverty in Iraq. It is important to realize that inequality in distribution in income is causing the most significant portion in poverty in Iraq, this calls for great attentions from the policy makers to act accordingly and make such policies which ensure the justified distribution of income is assured across the population. Please refer to figure No. 6 for the Factors Contributing in Poverty in Iraq. The next section of the paper is designated to some recommendations and suggestion for policy makers, development sector organizations working for poverty reduction. The suggestions can be applied on the countries with similar socioeconomic conditions in order to reap benefits from this study. This replication can also be helpful to explore if the results of the present study can be generalized to larger population or different socioeconomic conditions calls for different strategies to explore the disparities and inequality in the Distribution of Income and to eradication poverty.

Recommendation and Suggestions
After a comprehensive review and examination of the existing literature from secondary data sources, there are some observations, recommendation and suggestions for the policy makers to eradicate poverty from Iraq and also reduce the disparities and inequality in the Distribution of Income. These observations, suggestions and recommendation carry the support from the extensive research work conducted by the development sector organizations working for the eradication poverty in less developed countries like Iraq.
1. Presently, Iraq is under serious financial and law & order crises, in order to prosper and reduce inequality and unequal distribution of income, policy maker and government officials need to make both short term and long term policies which can reduce in equality and assure justified distribution of income across the board in Iraq. 2. Recent history of Iraq has been full of violence and wars. There is need for Iraqi government to make a well-defined foreign policy based of co-existence and all disputes should be settle through mutual dialogue. Prevalence of peace will be also helpful for the economy to grow and sustain. 3. Corruption and Bureaucratic officialdom is also causing poverty to prevail in Iraq. Corruption is hampering Iraq of various fronts, it is not only causing the inefficiency in civil service but also posing a bad mark on the society as a whole. Serious and immediate remedial are required to counter Corruption and Bureaucratic officialdom. 4. Policy maker and government officials needs to take such measure which can attract the best human capital to Iraq, since we are living in the fourth generation industrial revolution, natural resource and sources are not the only source of economic prosperity and competitive advantage of the nations, it is the quality of the human capital that can shape the future of any country in knowledge economy. 5. There are various trade and investment barrios in Iraq, which restricts local and foreign investment in local businesses and industries. After the economic liberalization initiated through World Trade Organization (WTO), Iraq should also relax the various trade and investment barrios for the economic development in Iraq. Efficient economy aided through trade and investment can reduce the poverty and distribution on income can be made more justified. 6. There is also need to re-define the budget laws in Iraq, alongside some aspects of the budget does not event exist. In order to reduce poverty, government need to make sure best practices of budgeting, governance and corporate finance are in place in Iraq. 7. Unemployment is another great socioeconomic issue in Iraq, leading toward higher level of poverty.
Government of Iraq need to devise short and long term mechanism and policies to reduce unemployment from Iraq, subsequently reducing poverty from Iraq. Technical and vocational training which is skilled based can be adopted instead of formal education. Skill based education can help in reducing Unemployment and extreme poverty from Iraq. 8. Government of Iraq should make informed polices backed by data to reduce poverty and reduce the unequal distribution of income in Iraq.
9. There is a need to restructure the economy of Iraq, which is present heavily depended on Oil and oil related industries. Government of Iraq should try to enhance the present and percentage of service sector in the overall economy. Through the recent diffusion of technology, services sector has been growing globally and major portion of the developed nations overall economy comprises of service sector. 10. Government or Iraq and the collaboration of developmental sector organizations has initiated various initiatives to reduce poverty from Iraq such as Social safety net (SSN), Public Distribution System (PDS) and Social Protection Net (SPN). These programs had been helpful in reducing poverty and inequality, but there is a need to make these programs more comprehensive and efficient. The scope of such programs should be made across the board in Iraq to reap optimum results. 11. Microfinance can be used for promotion of entrepreneurship and small scale businesses to enhance the income level and reduce poverty. Interest free and shari'ah compliance loan schemes can be introduced for small business. Globally, it is accepted that small scale business can contribute towards economic prosperity very quickly. 12. Income from diversified sources can also help in reducing poverty and increasing the income level at house hold level. Government of Iraq can start such initiatives which can attract poor people to make diversified sources of income, cottage industry can be one of the possible options to help to earn Income from diversified sources. 13. In order to reduce poverty, agriculture sector can also be used by Iraqi government. Agriculture sector can help the people living below the poverty line to earn substantial amount of money to make there reasonable earnings. Agriculture sector can be aided through various subsidies by the government, Interest free loans for reaping crops and purchase of Agriculture sector's output of rates defined by the government so the exploitation of the middle man can be minimized. 14. Since, the capitalistic economic principals are placed across the globe and Iraq is also no exception. There is need to make an efficient internal management of capitalistic economic principals so that the gap between haves and haves not cannot go beyond the prescribed boundaries. 15. The role of women labor force in the overall economy is on lower side in Iraq, Government of Iraq should take such measures that employment opportunities are offered on the principals of equality and merit. The participation of the women in overall economy and in labor force should be enhanced, this will also increase in overall economic output of the country.
The next section of the paper will provide concluding remarks of the present study.

Conclusion
Despite being an oil rich country Iraq has been facing various financial, economical, security and ethnic issues and could not reap the benefits of great natural reserves as compare to other countries with similar natural reserves and still facing the poverty issues. The present study was conducted to explore and examine the various factors that are causing poverty in Iraq with special emphasize on the unequal distribution of wealth. Poverty in Iraq has been caused by various factors which are discussed in detail with the support of existing research literature. Disparities and inequality in the Distribution of Income is one of the contributing factor in poverty in Iraq. Various observations, recommendation and suggestions are proposed for the policy makers and government officials of Iraq in order to eradicate poverty and make sure that inequality in income distribution can be restricted.