Amid climatic and environmental pressures, governance challenges, conflict legacies and ongoing security dynamics, Iraq’s natural resources and agricultural livelihoods are under increasing strain. While these challenges broadly affect rural populations across Al-Anbar and Salah al-Din, UNIDIR’s latest research from the Managing Exits from Armed Conflict Programme indicates that returnees from Syria are particularly disadvantaged, with limited productive assets, agricultural inputs and mobility impeding their ability to adapt successfully.
Understanding the challenges of returning to agricultural livelihoods is key to designing effective reintegration strategies and mitigating economic and social strain within communities of return, especially amid evolving political and security dynamics in the region.
Citation: Jessica Caus, Dr Jente Althuis, Moritz Hoene, Dr Siobhan O'Neil, Tobias Sauer, Muqadas Samarrai, Noor Alzuber, Ana Cedillo Bernal, “Return to Dry Lands: How Agricultural Decline Impedes Post-Conflict Reintegration in Iraq,” MEAC Research Brief, UNIDIR, 2026.