High child poverty despite economic growth - UNICEF

The number of children living below national poverty levels remains very high across Central Asia, despite economic progress in the region, according to a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report. "Absolute levels of child poverty in Central Asia are still extremely high," Gerry Redmond, editor of UNICEF's "Innocenti Social Monitoring" report, told IRIN on Thursday from the Italian city of Florence, noting that it was difficult to give exact numbers since there was no data available for some countries, such as Turkmenistan. His comments came a day after the Italian-based UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre launched from Moscow the 2004 social monitoring report revealing that in nine countries across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, for which data were available, 14 million out of 44 million children were living in poverty. Levels vary widely from country to country. In Kyrgyzstan, for example, more than half of children live in poverty. "Although some countries in the region have improved their economies, the child population is still in a poor condition," Anna Chernyakhovskaya, a UNICEF spokeswoman, told IRIN on Thursday from Moscow, adding that children haven't enjoyed the benefits of economic growth. The report highlights the growing number of injecting drug users in both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, linked to child poverty since one of the main avenues into risky drug use was low income and lack of opportunity, Redmond explained. An estimated two percent of the working age population use injecting drugs in both countries. According to UNICEF, this represents almost 10 times the level of drug users in many western European countries and causes a significant proportion of deaths among young people. According to Redmond, many Central Asian countries experience very high levels of infant mortality. Chernyakhovskaya explained that child poverty also explained the poor access that children have to education and health care, among other social services. Tajikistan, the poorest country in Central Asia, has experienced strong economic growth, but the study says that the level of public spending on key social services, such as health care and education, was about 4 percent of GDP or less. "These are dangerously low levels," Redmond stressed, noting that proper services couldn't be provided under such circumstances. He explained that child poverty rose in Central Asia after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, when the countries went through significant economic and social changes often associated with violent conflicts or other forms of crisis. "After this period there was extreme destitution in countries such as Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, since they have been struggling to get back to where they were," he added, noting that less than 70 percent of children in Uzbekistan attended basic education. In addition, migration was also an issue of concern in the survey since, according to the UNICEF spokeswoman, the problem was not being well documented. "There is not much information about migrant children, about the kind of education they have or the kind of access to health they enjoy," Chernyakhovskaya stated. Both Redmond and Chernyakhovskaya called upon the Central Asian governments to develop strategies and to implement the necessary mechanisms to fight child poverty. "We encourage the governments to transfer economic growth to human development growth," Chernyakhovskaya said.