Vice Speaker: More than 19 million Ukrainians live below poverty line

As Vice Speaker of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Olena Kondratiuk said at the agenda setting meeting, international organizations’ studies showed that the poverty rate in Ukraine in 2020 increased to 50%.

In this regard, she believes that the Parliament should instruct the Government to draft a new strategy to combat poverty.

"According to many international organizations, the poverty rate in Ukraine has risen to 50% with about 19 million Ukrainians living below the poverty line. Therefore, the Verkhovna Rada should set a task for the Government to urgently approve a strategy and a set of measures to combat poverty in Ukraine until 2030," Kondratiuk said.

She reminded that in accordance with the UN goals, Ukraine has committed to reduce the poverty rate four-fold by 2030, eliminating the extreme level of poverty.

First Ukraine’s poverty reduction strategy (2001) was approved by the President of Ukraine in order to reduce poverty and eliminate its most acute manifestations.

It was assumed that the policy of overcoming poverty should be combined with the policy of rise of the middle class.

The latest poverty reduction strategy was adopted in 2016 until 2020.

Among the strategic directions of poverty reduction were promoting the growth of income from employment and payments in the state social insurance system, ensuring access to social services regardless of place of residence, minimizing the risks of social exclusion of the rural population, preventing chronic poverty and social exclusion among internally displaced persons.

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