Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The Center for Economic Research and Reforms (CERR) has launched a pilot project to reduce poverty and support the poor and needy. The approbation of a new project to reduce poverty is taking place in Buka and Chinaz districts of Tashkent region and is designed for the period from October to November 2020.

The CERR-tested new poverty alleviation tool is based on the methodology of 2019 Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, which assesses the effectiveness of poverty reduction through field research.

Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer became laureates of the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2019. The award winners have adopted a new approach to research, which has resulted in "more reliable answers" to identify the best ways to combat poverty. An approach developed by economists is to conduct research on "smaller, more orderly questions." In the mid-1990s, prospective laureates conducted field experiments in Kenya to develop measures to improve school performance. Later, Bareggi and Duflo expanded this practice and conducted tests in other countries, such as India. Their work gave rise to a new school of research.

The pilot project is being implemented with the aim of a deeper study of the condition of the poor and needy segments of the population for further comprehensive measures to reduce poverty.

The poverty of an individual family is determined by a large number of factors. These include the level of income, the availability of education, food and health care, transport infrastructure, family planning, employment, sanitation, etc. In this regard, approaches to the development of measures to reduce poverty, and the measures themselves are developed based on the specific conditions on the ground, and their effectiveness is proven by practical application and the results obtained.

In the course of field research, a survey of the level of household income, the number of people employed in the informal sectors of the economy was carried out. The working group * conducted a survey of 1152 households in all 96 makhallas of Buka and Chinaz districts of Tashkent region on the basis of a specially prepared questionnaire "Study and assessment of the living standards of the population", which consists of 16 sections and includes the structure of the household, conditions, income and expenses, health issues, food rations and credit issues.

As a result of the pilot project, a "Road Map" was developed to combat poverty, support the needy and needy groups of the population by region.

At the next stage of the pilot project, systemic development gaps were identified that exacerbate the situation of needy families.

Stages of project implementation:

Training. In order to improve the level of knowledge and increase the effectiveness of poverty reduction methods for local leaders of districts, from 13 to 16 October 2020, CERR employees conducted short-term trainings on the topic: "Increasing knowledge and skills to reduce poverty in the regions" in Tashkent region.

Diagnostics (measurement of poverty level). As part of the second stage, the Working Group took part in the preparation of a special questionnaire on the topic "Study and assessment of the living standards of the population." The participants formed a list of surveyed makhallas of Buka and Chinaz districts of Tashkent region.

Action plan (identification of systemic development problems and the aggravating situation of needy families). In order to study the level of poverty among citizens, a survey and interviews were conducted with households included in the “Iron Notebook” register. The results obtained in the course of filling out each questionnaire were discussed with the employees of the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Statistics and submitted to the Working Group on time.

Creation of a database (determining the state of poor families by the level of health care, education, digitalization, etc.). Within the framework of this stage, the calculation and approval of the individual amount of social support were carried out. At this stage, the created database of characteristics of poor families will help formulate scientific and practical proposals to combat poverty.

Identified problems

Social help. Locally, the criteria for identifying the poor are not strictly observed for their inclusion in the “Iron Notebook” register, for the provision of appropriate social assistance. It was found that in the "Iron Notebook" there are 20-30% of families that do not belong to the category of poor according to the current level of prosperity.

"The regulation on the procedure for the provision and payment of social benefits and material assistance to low-income families" does not take into account a number of important points. In particular, it does not take into account that 2 or 3 low-income families can live in one household, whose income and expenses are not taken into account separately for each family when determining pensions and social assistance.

When determining the amount of material assistance, their average expenses (medicines, health care, food, education of children) are not fully taken into account. The number of chronic patients in the family and the cost of concomitant medications are not included.

Food. According to the results of a survey of members of low-income households in Buka district, it was found that the number of calories consumed per day was 2382 kcal. The cost of a kilocalorie per day was 9,091 soums (281,829 soums per month). At the same time, the minimum price for a kilocalorie, calculated by CERD, is 9,500 soums.

Education. There is a low level of preschool education coverage for children from low-income families (Buka district - 34%, Chinaz - 56%), and many rural settlements do not have preschool educational institutions (28 in Buka district and 35 in Chinaz district). There is a shortage of teachers in mathematics, computer science, history, natural science, foreign and Russian languages.

Healthcare. Problems with the opening of medical records in “family polyclinics” and “rural doctors' offices” hinder the early start of the treatment process. There is a shortage of pediatricians, radiologists, cardiologists, nephrologists, resuscitators, gynecologists and therapists, as well as modern medical equipment in district medical institutions.

Support for entrepreneurship. The share of participants in the state program "Every family is an entrepreneur" (Buka district - 14%, Chinaz - 28%) among low-income families included in the "Iron Notebook" register does not increase, despite the soft loans provided. Loan applicants do not have sufficient skills, while others do not have enough land or other opportunities.