Child mortality in Iraq since 1990

Abstract

This paper examines the evidence on child mortality in Iraq, with particular reference to the period 1991-2003. It questions recent work which has suggested that excess mortality in the years that followed the first Gulf war was only relatively modest in scale. An integrated account of child mortality trends is assembled. This indicates that mortality rose sharply in the early 1990s. It is likely that the United Nations Oil for Food Programme had a limited beneficial effect during 1998-2001, but this was lost in 2002 and 2003 with the build-up to war and the subsequent US/UK invasion. The dominant picture is one of greatly elevated mortality between 1991 and 2003, with very many excess child deaths