UNDP in Ukraine

The Crimean parliament has opened Human Security Council session. This year's second meeting was led by the Speaker of the ARC Verkhovna Rada and focused on the report on living standards in Crimean rural areas.

In their opening addresses Anatoliy Grytsenko, Speaker, and Adeline Gonay, UNDP CIDP International Coordinator, underscored the importance of the work performed by the Human Security Council.

During the session, Kurtmolla Abdulganiyev, UNDP CIDP Senior Analyst, presented study results dealing with living standards in the Republic's rural areas. In his speech, he pointed out that the last few years were marked by decreasing poverty rates in Ukraine, and in Crimea. Subsequently, this Millennium Development Goal has been already reached across the country. Yet, the conducted research showed that in Crimean rural areas many people faced the lack of primary resources which had a negative impact on their living standards.

"In 43% of rural and 29% of urban households under review per capita income was below the living wage of UAH 626/USD 78.5 per month. Overall, consumer costs, including products grown on private farmlands or obtained from other sources, make up UAH 772/USD 97 on average per one household member. According to relative poverty criteria, poor households account for 26% and 31.2% of all households in towns and villages respectively," Abdulganiyev said.

As stated in the report "Living standards in 14 ARC districts", the most vulnerable are households with three and more children, as well as households with five and more family members. It is also obvious that the larger is the number of dependants, the higher is poverty rate. Interestingly, the presence of retired persons has no impact on poverty level. In line with most countries and regions, in Crimea poverty is more characteristic to rural areas than to urban ones.

The groups prone to poverty include children, poorly educated people, unemployed and Crimean Tatars. Poverty is least characteristic of people with private business, higher education and those employed. Poor households more frequently suffer privations (for instance, no access to high-quality medical services, etc.) and have little chance of saving money.

"Ways to cope with financial difficulties depend on families’ living standards. It turned out that poor households resort to exhausting strategies - about 70% of them saved on or denied themselves essential foodstuff, clothes and medicines, 46% borrowed money, and 32% deferred payments for housing and communal services. Active strategies - entrepreneurship, skills upgrade, extra job, growing agricultural products - are more common for households with average or above average income," said UNDP CIDP analyst.

The presentation was followed by a lively discussion of the report’s conclusions, as well as the methodology used. Taking into account the significance of the poverty issue, the Human Security Council suggested that a working group be created to deal with poverty challenges in Crimean rural areas. The report was taken into consideration, and recommended for the ARC Council of Ministers. It is to be published in full on the ARC Verkhovna Rada's website. In this way, the conclusions made in the report may find their application while addressing socio-economic challenges of the rural areas.

Summing up the meeting, Adeline Gonay, UNDP CIDP International Coordinator, confirmed once more that the Programme is ready to further support the work of the Human Security Council. She pointed out that the Council has become an important platform for dialogue between leading political forces in Crimea. Adeline Gonay also stressed the importance of addressing poverty issues for reaching state development goals.

In his turn, Anatoliy Grytsenko, Speaker of the ARC VR, expressed his hope that such researches will be conducted in the future and will help making conclusions and decisions on a variety of socio-economic issues essential for Crimea.