ZAGREB, Oct 25 (Hina) - Ten percent of Croatia's population lives in absolute poverty, according to a draft national report on the implementation of the U.N. Millennium Declaration's goals presented in Zagreb on Friday.
ZAGREB, Oct 25 (Hina) - Ten percent of Croatia's population lives in
absolute poverty, according to a draft national report on the
implementation of the U.N. Millennium Declaration's goals
presented in Zagreb on Friday. #L#
The goals of the declaration adopted by all United Nations members
in September 2000 include eradicating extreme poverty and famine,
ensuring elementary education, promoting gender equality,
reducing the infant death rate, improving mothers' health,
fighting AIDS and other contagious diseases, sustainable
development and the development of global cooperation.
The deadline for the realisation of said goals is 2015.
Croatia's economic growth rate over the past decade has been
considerable -- an average 4.3 percent annually from 1994 through
2002 -- but the benefits have not been equally distributed among the
population, reads the draft report.
Under national criteria -- a threshold of about 14,000 kuna
(EUR1,842) per adult annually -- 10 percent of Croatia's
population, or about 400,000 people, lives in absolute poverty. In
line with the Millennium Declaration, the figured should be halved
by 2015.
About 55,000 people fall under the "extremely poor" category. These
are people who under Red Cross criteria live on a monthly 400 kuna
(53 euros) per adult.
However, under international criteria which the World Bank has set
for countries in transition -- US$4.3 daily according to purchase
power parity -- the poverty rate is relatively low at 4.8 percent.
This indicator places Croatia alongside Slovenia and the Czech
Republic among transition countries with the lowest poverty rate,
says the draft report.
The paper warns that poverty is increasingly taking root. Welfare
beneficiaries receive assistance for a long time, nearly five times
as long as in Germany. In the last three to four years their number
has been mildly increasing and they account for between 1.5 and 2.5
percent of the population.
The unemployment rate in 2002 stood at a high 14.8 percent, under
International Labour Organisation criteria, with women accounting
for 55 percent of the jobless.
The national report should be submitted to the U.N. secretary-
general by the end of the year. It has been drawn up by ministries,
government offices and bodies, scientific institutions, and non-
governmental organisations. The coordinator of the project is the
Zagreb-based Economy Institute, while the U.N. Development
Programme is providing expert, technical, and financial
assistance.
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