Iraq successfully conducted two rounds of Integrated Household Socioeconomic Survey (IHSES), nationally representative multi-topic budget surveys, in 2007 and 2012. The surveys allowed an analysis of a range of socio-economic indicators and the estimation of poverty trends. To provide more frequent poverty estimates, Continuous Household Survey (CHS) was implemented in 2014 on a sub-sample of IHSES clusters. However, the fieldwork was disrupted in the summer of 2014 in some parts of the country due to the deterioration in the security situation. The third round of IHSES, planned for 2017, could not take place on time as well. At the same time, the ongoing security and budget crises made it more important than ever to monitor key socio-economic indicators. The objective of the 2017 rapid welfare monitoring survey (SWIFT) was to provide interim estimates of welfare and well-being until another survey comparable in scope and coverage to IHSES could be fielded.
