Kyrgyzstan is a relatively young country, gaining independence in 1991, with new problems that they had not had when they were part of the Soviet Union. They decide to use "shock therapy" to jump start the economy, privatizing many state run industries and farm. They had some growth in 2001 of 5.3% in their GDP with 60% of the country being in agriculture. At the time of their of independence they were at their poorest 32.9% below the Soviet poverty level. It rose to its highest point after independence to 60% but then fell to 47% in 2001 with extreme poverty being 13%. Many of their children live in poverty 41% in urban and 51% in rural areas. UNICEF has done a independent study of the country and found that 75% of the children are malnourished and 14% have no health care. 85%-90% go to school and kindergarten attendance in down 30% . The decline is due to the cost of school and health care and the lack of resources.
This country has started to address these problem and has a 30 year plan broken up in to smaller goals to not only end childhood poverty but poverty in general.
Laury,
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in their plan to address the problem of poverty. With poverty being generational it seems it may take longer than 30 years. Hopefully the beginning of the plan is ensuring that the children receive an education. I know that their basic needs of food, shelter and safety must be met before the children can focus on school.