A comprehensive Needs Assessment of the education sector will be undertaken to assess the main causes that are hindering access to and quality of education and assist the endeavors of the Government of Iraq in the reconstruction and modernization of the education sector. 

Within the framework of the joint initiative of UNESCO, UNICEF and WB towards the development of a National Education Strategy for Iraq (NESI), it is apparent that serious information gaps exist hence giving a full and comprehensive analysis of the sector for operationalisation of the Strategy is difficult. Relevant analysis is needed on the root causes and factors that have impacted the quality of education in Iraq including analysis of the internal efficiency for appropriate resource allocation in the education sector. Also, relevant data is missing in the field of Technical and Vocational Education as well as Higher Education.

Moreover, the planned assessment will complement the ongoing efforts for supporting Sector Public Modernization for service delivery (I-PSM Project), since the review of available data and completion of a school based survey to provide needed data for evidence based decision making purposes will enrich the structural and functional analysis of the administration of ED sector expected under I-PSM.   

Therefore the project will build the capacity of relevant stakeholders in undertaking an in-depth assessment of education and provide relevant analysis on the root causes and factors that are undermining access and quality of education through the completion of internal efficiency analysis to ensure that the data and analysis produced will inform the development of NESI and provide solid basis for the operationalisation of the Strategy.

The implementation of the assessment will be threefold and will integrate ongoing capacity building efforts for the development and operationalisation of NESI. The following activities will be undertaken: a) Identification of gaps in existing educational data; b) planning and preparation of data collection; c) using newly collected data in analyzing education sector to inform evidence-based policy making and future planning and costing of the sector.