Publication: Jobs in Iraq: A Primer on Job Creation in the Short-Term
Date
2019-02-19
ISSN
Published
2019-02-19
Author(s)
Bandiera, Luca
Chandra, Vandana
Fosque, Jasmine
von der Goltz, Jan
Peterburs, Teresa Maria
Piffaretti, Nadia
Saba, Joseph
Wheeler, Collette
Abstract
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.
Citation
“Bandiera, Luca; Chandra, Vandana; Fosque, Jasmine; von der Goltz, Jan; Peterburs, Teresa Maria; Piffaretti, Nadia; Saba, Joseph; Wheeler, Collette. 2019. Jobs in Iraq; Jobs in Iraq : A Primer on Job Creation in the Short-Term. Jobs Working Paper,no. 22;. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/31319 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”