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UNICEF Report
Poverty mostly affects children
Reasonable use of the European pre-admission funds, co-operation between the Government and the non-governmental sector and investing in children are part of the conclusions from the press-conference on children’s poverty, in the organization of the UNICEF Office in Skopje, on the occasion of the International Children’s Day, at which the Minister of Labor and Social Policy Ljupco Meskov and the EU-representative Erwan Fouere participated. In the UNICEF Report which concerns children’s poverty in our country, it has been concluded that in Macedonia children’s rights and opportunities to express their potential are guaranteed, but not always provided. For example, the fact is mentioned that from 36 percent of unemployed population, only 7,5 percent receive help in form of children’s allowance. According to the statistics, 35 percent of the poor families in the country have children below the age of seven. For 2007, the Government has allocated about 1,5 million denars for programs concerning children. Out of this amount, 878 million denars, or 60 percent, have been intended for constructing buildings, decentralization programs and financing daily centers for care and recreation. Only 596 million denars, or 40 percent, have been allocated for programs which directly concern children’s poverty.
‘This state is unacceptable, especially if we take into consideration the fact that the country has an economic growth’, the UNICEF representative in Macedonia Hongwei Gao, pointed out at the meeting ‘Understanding children’s poverty’. She added that for intensifying the fight against children’s poverty it is necessary for the governmental institutions to be more actively involved. Gao emphasized that dealing with children’s poverty should be a national priority, because they cannot wait. ‘The number of poor households has increased from 19 percent in 1997 to 30 percent in 2005. Most of the poor are households with children’, Gao warned.
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