The war in Ukraine, and the resulting rise in the cost of living, has pushed millions more children into poverty in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in recent months, warns a study by the United Nations Development Fund. Childhood (UNICEF) published this Monday.
In these regions, “the war in Ukraine and rising inflation have pushed another four million children into poverty, an increase of 19% since 2021,” says this study, which stresses that children bear the heaviest burden of the economic crisis caused by the conflict.
Significant repercussions in Russia
Remarkable fact, Russia, with 2.8 million additional children entering poverty, represents almost three quarters of the total increase measured by Unicef. Two factors explain this situation: Russia has a large population and Unicef estimates that the country’s GDP will fall by 8%, the second largest drop among the countries included in the analysis.
“The repercussions of the conflict in Ukraine are extremely important in Russia, because the war leads to degrading access to a certain number of basic products, for fuel or simply to correct purchasing power due to inflation”, specifies Adeline Hazan, president of UNICEF France
For its part, Ukraine is home to half a million more children living in poverty, which places it in second place, followed by Romania with 110,000 more children, the study notes.
“UNICEF is sounding the alarm about the consequences of this war and calling on governments to provide extremely strong support for social protection and to implement cash assistance programs for the most vulnerable families with children,” pleads Adeline Hazan.
Rising child poverty in Eastern Europe and Central Asia could lead to 4,500 more children dying before their first birthdays and lead to learning deficits in an additional 117,000 children who will drop out of school in 2022 alone, UNICEF also warns.
Source: BFM TV
