Enhancing public financing for social services in Iraq

How can the Government of Iraq (GOI) ensure adequate and efficient financing for social services, which are essential for human capital development and economic diversification?

This is the question that Genesis addressed in a workshop with decision-makers from the central and subnational governments of Iraq. The workshop aimed to unlock value by establishing a common language and analytical framework, identifying constraints and opportunities, and fostering cross-government collaboration on public spending on social services.

The background to the workshop is that Iraq faces a critical situation as its economic and social indicators are projected to deteriorate in the coming years. The International Monetary Fund predicts that Iraq’s GDP per capita will fall between 2024 and 2028, making it one of the worst performers in the world. Beset by instability and conflict, Iraq is not on track to achieve most Sustainable Development Goals. 

Given this context, falling public expenditure in Iraq has worrying ramifications nationally and for the wider region.

The GOI faces resource constraints that demand the reprioritisation of available resources to those services that deliver the highest return. Also needed are improvements in cost-efficiency targeted at services with documented leakage.

The GOI’s management of public resources with existing systems is undermined by inadequate cross-government communication and limited technical capacity to engage with available data.

Genesis was commissioned by Oxford Policy Management and UNICEF Iraq to convene a Leadership Development Group (LDG) workshop. The LDG consisted of decision-makers from lead planning ministries and sector line ministries. These ministries were from the central GOI and the subnational Kurdistan Regional Government with whom financial disputes are ongoing.

Our team designed workshop materials that established a common language and analytical framework. Working groups engaged with demonstrative case studies for Iraq with data produced by the GOI. Each session closed with an extensive plenary discussion, with Genesis facilitators directing discussion towards areas of congruence and encouraging participants to identify specific processes of the annual budget cycle to be leveraged for improved collaboration.

The highly interactive workshop interrogated public spending on social services along criteria of efficiency, effectiveness and equity. It went on to identify constraints and opportunities in the GOI’s annual decision-making processes.

All diagnostics utilised during the LDG reflect those included in budget monitoring dashboards developed by Genesis. These update automatically, enabling regular collaboration and providing a mechanism to monitor progress on commitments made by participating ministries.

There was remarkable consensus on the diagnostics and opportunities to improve expenditure performance. Participants said the LDG framework had enabled cross-government collaboration around issue areas that had been intractable.