Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

More than 2.2 billion people in the world live in poverty, states the UN Development Programme (UNDP) report. Financial crisis and natural disasters may additionally increase this number, warns the organisation stressing that sustainability and reducing risks from poverty need to be the focus of development.

According to UNDP data, 25,000 persons in Serbia are poor, and 3.1% citizens are close to poverty. On the human development index scale, Serbia hold 77^th place, which is one place better relative to the previous year. From the countries in the region, Serbia is behind Croatia, Montenegro, Romania and Bulgaria and in front of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania. Serbia has been recording a steady progress on the human development index scale over the years, but this progress is the slowest in the region.

The main elements of the index are health, schooling and living standards, and the concrete indicators are life expectancy at birth, schooling and gross domestic product per capita. Norway holds the 1^st place and Serbia lags 7 years behind it in life expectancy and 3.1 years in length of schooling, while GDP per capita expressed by purchase power parity in Norway is almost six times higher.

Source: www.euractiv.rs