Ukraine

In Ukraine, the transition to a free market economy in the 1990s was characterized by the development of socioeconomic inequalities and an unprecedented increase in extreme poverty rates, entailing the emergence of a class of new poor. Yet, poverty was not recognized as a national problem until 1999. There was neither a commonly recognized definition of poverty, nor a single methodology or strategy for poverty eradication. In 1999, however, it became clear that the issue had to be addressed on a national level, and a relative poverty measure was chosen as an official poverty line definition in Ukraine. It was defined as 75 percent of the median daily expenditures per adult. In 2001, the Ukrainian government explicitly recognized the problem of poverty with a presidential ...