"Lost the people behind the percentages." Vice Prime Minister on the new approach to poverty reduction

"We lost sight of people behind the percentages." Deputy Prime Minister on a new approach to poverty reduction

In Uzbekistan, there are plans to make the approach to poverty reduction more targeted: the authorities must not only rely on statistics but also know the situation of each specific low-income family and each of its members. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Jamshid Kuchkarov announced this on August 25 at a meeting of the Legislative Chamber.

The meeting reviewed the government's report on the implementation of the state program for the "Uzbekistan – 2030" strategy in the first half of the year.

Minister of Employment and Poverty Reduction Botir Zakhidov reported that during the first six months, 294,000 low-income families were covered by various income-boosting tools, compared to the initial plan of 129,000.

According to him, 105,000 members of such families secured permanent employment, about 25,000 were covered by services related to involvement in entrepreneurship, and another 12,000 people underwent vocational training. Due to the growth of official incomes, 275,000 families have been removed from the social register since the beginning of the year.

Commenting on these figures, Jamshid Kuchkarov stated that President Shavkat Mirziyoyev demanded a change in the very approach to assessing the results of the fight against poverty.

"In my report, I said: [the poverty rate decreased] from 5% to 4.5%. But the esteemed President raised a more serious question: do not cling to percentages, behind these percentages you have lost sight of people," Kuchkarov said.

As an example, he cited the Khorezm region. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, although the poverty rate in the region looks relatively low in percentage terms, it still concerns about 81,000 people.

"81,000 people — do you know who these people are? What assistance is being provided to them through those individual plans you are talking about?" Kuchkarov conveyed the questions raised by the President.

Following this, the minister reported, representatives of the economic bloc, including the Minister of Employment and the leadership of the Central Bank, visited the regions to study the situation of individual families. In particular, households in four mahallas of one of the districts in the Khorezm region were surveyed.

Based on the results of the study, it was revealed that out of approximately 81,000 residents of the region classified as poor, about 59,000 belong to the category of people who cannot be directly involved in employment. Among them are preschool and school-age children, students, women with children under three years old, and people of retirement age.

About 22,000 people, according to Kuchkarov, are able-bodied. "They are the direct 'clients' of the Ministry of Employment, we need to work with them," Kuchkarov stated.

About 12,000 of them are unemployed. Some citizens are working or self-employed, but the income per family member remains below the minimum consumption expenditure, which is why the family continues to be registered as low-income.

Kuchkarov emphasized that the task now is to analyze the situation of each family and each of its members, rather than limiting efforts to general indicators for a region, district, or mahalla.

"There is no need to obsess over percentages. In every region, every district, and every mahalla, we need to know exactly every poor family," he said, summarizing the tasks set.

According to him, an individual plan should take into account not only the employment of adults. If there is a child in the family, it is necessary to understand how they study, whether they attend a sports club or extra classes, and whether they are left out of opportunities available to other children.

"We are now tasked with transitioning to a targeted mechanism in our work on poverty reduction," Kuchkarov stated.

He noted that the government is already conducting preparatory and analytical work to transition to this approach.

Earlier in his report, the Deputy Prime Minister stated that, according to government data, the poverty rate in Uzbekistan decreased from 5% to 4.5% in the first half of the year. For 227,000 families from the social register, about 300,000 services aimed at increasing income were provided.

The new system of poverty reduction and employment was presented by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on September 3, following a two-week study of the situation in the Khorezm region, where the circumstances of 81,000 low-income residents from 19,000 families were analyzed.

It is planned to transfer 3.2 trillion soums to the disposal of the districts, establish headquarters led by khokims, and expand their powers regarding preferential lending, subsidies, and interest-free loans. Khokims and the economic bloc will dedicate three days a week to poverty and employment issues.

The authorities also intend to strengthen targeted work with children, women, pensioners, and people with disabilities from poor families, and to adapt business financing conditions to the specifics of concrete projects and industries.