cullinane
30th November 2001, 22:21
AFP. 29 November 2001. Millions of children in CIS, Central, Eastern
Europe in poverty: UNICEF.
GENEVA -- Nearly 18 million youngsters live in poverty in the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Central and Eastern Europe
(CEE) 10 years after the shift from communist to market-led economies, a
UN report said on Thursday.
Rising numbers of children are ending up being cared for in institutions
as families struggle to cope, according to the report by the UN
Children's Fund (UNICEF) entitled 'A Decade of Transition'.
[N.B.] It said that around 1.5 million children were in public care at
the end of the 1990s, or 150,000 more than at the start of the decade,
adding that the sharpest increase had occurred in the Baltic states.
As real incomes have fallen over the last decade, the number of children
in poor families has sharply increased.
At the end of the 1990s nearly 18 million children of up to 17 years of
age were living on less than 2.15 dollars a day.
Just under 60 million children and young people in the region were
living on less than 4.30 dollars a day, it added.
In addition, HIV/AIDS cases are rising, especially in Russia and
Ukraine, and tuberculosis has returned to the region with 50 percent
increases registered in poorer countries.
In many parts of the region, family allowances were markedly cut in the
1990s and the UNICEF report calls for a sustained effort to address
child poverty, including the support of family incomes via tax and
benefit systems and economic policy.
It also calls for regular and independent reporting on the quality of
institutional care, while insisting that support services need to be
beefed up and family-based care solutions encouraged.
A stronger focus is also needed on preventative health care, health
education and public health programmes, while it notes that public
investment in education in several countries is currently low.
Europe in poverty: UNICEF.
GENEVA -- Nearly 18 million youngsters live in poverty in the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Central and Eastern Europe
(CEE) 10 years after the shift from communist to market-led economies, a
UN report said on Thursday.
Rising numbers of children are ending up being cared for in institutions
as families struggle to cope, according to the report by the UN
Children's Fund (UNICEF) entitled 'A Decade of Transition'.
[N.B.] It said that around 1.5 million children were in public care at
the end of the 1990s, or 150,000 more than at the start of the decade,
adding that the sharpest increase had occurred in the Baltic states.
As real incomes have fallen over the last decade, the number of children
in poor families has sharply increased.
At the end of the 1990s nearly 18 million children of up to 17 years of
age were living on less than 2.15 dollars a day.
Just under 60 million children and young people in the region were
living on less than 4.30 dollars a day, it added.
In addition, HIV/AIDS cases are rising, especially in Russia and
Ukraine, and tuberculosis has returned to the region with 50 percent
increases registered in poorer countries.
In many parts of the region, family allowances were markedly cut in the
1990s and the UNICEF report calls for a sustained effort to address
child poverty, including the support of family incomes via tax and
benefit systems and economic policy.
It also calls for regular and independent reporting on the quality of
institutional care, while insisting that support services need to be
beefed up and family-based care solutions encouraged.
A stronger focus is also needed on preventative health care, health
education and public health programmes, while it notes that public
investment in education in several countries is currently low.