Advancing livelihoods through financial inclusion in Iraq

This brief highlights results of a scoping study by the ILO as part of efforts under the PROSPECTS Partnership for improving prospects for forcibly displaced persons and host communities in Iraq, which seeks to improve access to employment, education and protection.

Focusing on displaced and host communities, the ILO’s financial inclusion interventions under the partnership aim to facilitate access to affordable loans through domestic banks and other financial service providers for vulnerable entrepreneurial households who can benefit from credit to re-start or grow their businesses in Iraq.

The study aims to:

1. Provide insights on the market- and demand-side levers that may impact the success of expanding financial services to forcibly displaced persons with a focus on Duhok and Nineveh, and
2. Conduct primary research and compile existing data to give financial services providers a better sense of population segments that have hitherto been largely excluded from formal financial services.