Poor Belarusians Poorer Than Poor Papuans :: Charter'97 :: News

The Belarusian government embarked on the fulfillment of program on poverty prevention. Their partner will be the UN representation, headquartered in Belarus. However, the sides have different vision as to the amount of the poor, inhabiting the territory of Belarus. UN considers the figure to equal to 30%, while the Belarusian government claims there are only 7% of them.

The joint project is being elaborated and put in effect by the Belarusian Cabinet of Ministers and the UN sustainable development program. It is called “Assistance in preparing main directions of national strategy of poverty prevention in Belarus”. The government considers this project to be the initial stage in working out a national strategy on fighting misery, which envisages scholarly research on the problem. Meantime, the Belarusian side and the UN can’t agree on some of the points, the number of the poor being one of them.

According to the Department of UN public information, in Belarus in the year 2001 27% of the urban population had incomes below the poverty line and almost 34% of the countryside population. The UN maintains that an individual is considered poor given his/her daily income is below $1 (which is under 60thsd Belarusian rubles per month).

The Ministry of social protection had the government define the exact criterion of poverty. From then on a poor person is the one whose monthly earnings constitute less than 60% of the minimal consumer’s budget or 51thsd rubles ($26). Therefore, the Belarusian government introduced their own Belarusian poverty line. In fact, poor Belarusians are poorer than poor Papuans, for the latter are considered poor if they earn $29 a month, while the former - $25.