Figure 1. Signs of the first years of training in Iraq (%)
Source: Authors’ calculations on Iraq, MICS 2011.
There are abundant differences in the opportunities that young people have in terms of healthy progression and accumulation of human capital. Early childhood is the time when cycles of poverty and inequality are passed from one generation to the next. Children tend to be systematically advantaged or disadvantaged on various dimensions of ECD and would likely have very different life chances based on a few family characteristics. If we look at a child living in a rural area of southern and central Iraq, in the poorest 20% of households with parents without schooling (a “less advantaged” child) and compare that child with a child whose parents have a higher educational level, is in the richest 20% of households and lives in urban Kurdistan (a “most advantaged” child), we found that they have other chances of having a healthy early childhood. Figure 2 presents the probabilities (predicted probability) of other signs of ECD for the “least advantaged” and “most advantaged” individuals.
The least advantaged child is systematically less likely to enjoy healthy early progression. Comparing the least and most advantaged, the gap in prenatal care is 52 percent, and the gap in professional childbirth care is 28 percent. The least advantaged child is 57 percentage points less likely to be vaccinated than the most advantaged child. In terms of nutrition, the least advantaged child has a 30% chance of being stunted due to poor nutrition, compared to 12% for the most advantaged child. The underweight hole is 7 percentage points and the loss hole is four percentage points. There is a 58 percentage point gap in a child’s chances of receiving iodized salt, and a 66 percentage point gap in their chances of participating in at least four child progression activities. The largest relative difference is in ECCE attendance, where the child with maximum advantage has a less than 1% chance of receiving ECCE, and the child with maximum advantage has a 22% chance of receiving ECCE. The least advantaged child is 18 percent more likely to be violently disciplined and four percent more likely to be involved in child labor.
Figure 2. Inequalities in opportunities for healthy first years of training (%)
Source: Authors’ simulations of the chances of a “more advantaged” and a “less advantaged” child, based on Iraq MICS 2011 calculations.
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