Iraq discusses upgrades to the population policies draft with UNPF 

Shafaq News/ The Iraqi ministry of planning is evaluating the compatibility of the national population policy draft with the national and international commitment, an official press release said on Monday.

The press release said that the Ministry organized a workshop in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund to discuss the population policy draft's response to the international and national obligations.

"In order to offer the citizens a decent and prosperous life, we have to implement a set of interventions and obligations from both the government and the international organizations," the head of the Human Development Directorate, Maha al-Rawi, said.

"The Iraqi government seeks to construct policies that achieve comprehensive development in all sectors, including the human development sector... The national document for population policies in Iraq had to be updated on multiple occasions to meet those goals," she added.

The UNPF representative in Iraq, Hemyar Abdul-Ghani, deemed the population policies crucial to any development process in the country.

"UNPF upholds the national policy to upgrade the national population policy draft by offering the expertise and technical support," he added.

The workshop was attended by the head of the central bureau of statistics Diyaa Kadhem Awad, the UNPF advisor  Mahdi al-Allaq, and a group of government and academic figures.