INTRODUCTION | 7 MINIMAL PROGRESS TOWARD RECONSTRUCTION The fact that reconstruction pledges and ambitions are yet to fully materialise has not gone unnoticed by those most affected by the conflict. Iraqi citizens are frustrated and have expressed resentment with respect to the slow pace of reconstruction efforts. This has not been helped by the fact that in addition to limited funding, Iraq’s reconstruction efforts have been fraught with allegations of corruption and fraud.xi This is true also in relation to responses to earlier waves of conflict, as well as to the most conflict with IS. In decimated cities like Mosul, residents today believe that a significant portion of the ‘reconstruction’ has been led by Iraqi local citizens trying to do the best they can with limited resources.xii While some international and Government of Iraq-led reconstruction efforts have been made, these can seem like a drop in the bucket. Coalition members, such as the United States of America (US), the UK and others, as well as multilateral donors and financial institutions such as the World Bank have contributed to support recovery and stabilization. They are joined by agencies who have started work on reconstruction such as UNDP, who have worked for the last two years on infrastructure reconstruction, livelihoods opportunities and We were living on salty water and dry bread, our most basic needs were not answered. ©NRC/Alan Ayoubi access to basic services and “increasing confidence in state institutions.” xiii That said, the needs of Iraq are monumental; many remote areas have seen almost no reconstruction whatsoever, and more than 1.7 million people remain displaced. Many of the four million people who have returned home are faced with poor public services, damaged houses, entire villages that remain rubble, and jobs that are few and far between. However, even if meaningful support for reconstruction efforts scaled up, the extent to which paperless people are able to benefit from and be included in these early reconstruction efforts is limited, at best. THE IMPORTANCE OF LEGAL IDENTITY The lack of legal identity and related civil documentation for Iraqis who lived under, or fled from IS rule presents a significant barrier to exercising their full rights as Iraqi citizens. The right to be recognised as a person before the law is one of the most basic human rights, enshrined both in international and Iraqi law. Having a legal identity enables someone to hold other rights under the law; to have a nationality and freedom of movement, and to access a range of basic services such as education, healthcare and adequate housing.