Slovakia is managing to combat poverty actively, with the number of people endangered by poverty shrinking from 1.1 million in 2008 to 877,000 in 2019, according to an international analysis conducted by the national authorities in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia and Slovakia's Supreme Audit Office (NKU). The drop in Slovakia represents 16.4 percent, but the European average stands at 21.4 percent, states the document.
Supreme Audit Office's vice-chair Lubomir Andrassy claimed that Slovakia can set an example for other countries with projects such as Healthy Communities or the Atlas of Roma Communities. Andrassy pointed out that country's goal in the context of European strategy was to reduce the number of people endangered by poverty or social exclusion by 170,000 by 2020, a target that was reached ahead of time and even exceeded by almost 38 percent. Slovakia ranks fifth out of 27 European countries in the table of poverty and social exclusion danger. Here, 8 percent of people suffer from serious material shortages, while the European average is 5.5 percent. For example, one in three inhabitants of Slovakia cannot afford a week-long holiday away from home once a year, to send children to summer camps or deal with unexpected financial expenditures.
The project revealed differences between the five countries, with participants concurring that although the countries drafted strategies, they often lacked effective action plans. Bulgaria, Croatia and Latvia failed to effectively implement their own strategies. "In Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia, decreases in the numbers of people endangered by poverty were detected that exceeded the original targets, which might suggest that measurable national goals weren't set ambitiously enough," added Andrassy.
Source: TASR
