Almost one in three children in Macedonia lives in poverty: The state has had no strategy for six years

Almost 22 percent of Macedonia's citizens live below the poverty line. Among children the figure is 29.5 percent - almost one child in three. And 38 percent of children live in multidimensional poverty, in conditions that threaten their health, learning, safety and development. These aren't figures from some report about a faraway country - this is the data the Macedonian Platform Against Poverty (MPPS) sent to the government to mark 17 October, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

In an open letter, the platform - an alliance of more than 50 members - is calling for the urgent adoption of a comprehensive National Strategy Against Poverty. The most telling detail is that no such strategy has existed since 2020. For six years the state has had no strategic document for a problem lived by almost one citizen in five, while responsibility, according to the organisations, gets passed back and forth between central and local government.

Child benefit: 19 versus 88 percent

The strongest comparison in the letter is with the European Union. Here only 19 percent of households with children receive child and family benefits - in the EU it's 88 percent. 45.5 percent of children aged three to six attend kindergarten, and only 17 percent of Roma children; in the EU coverage is 95 percent. The worst affected are children from large families, children of single parents and Roma children.

The shortage of kindergartens and care services isn't only a social problem, but an economic one too. Women do 72.5 percent of unpaid housework and care for children and the elderly, and more than half of the women in the country are economically inactive. When there's nobody to look after the child or the sick parent, someone has to stay home - and the figures show it's usually the woman.

What the platform is asking for

MPPS is calling for measures in six areas: implementing the European Child Guarantee and introducing a universal child benefit; affordable housing for young people and homelessness prevention; more kindergartens and services for children with disabilities and for the elderly; consistent protection of workers' rights to reduce in-work poverty; fewer out-of-pocket payments for health services; and adequate pensions with support for active ageing.

The platform warns that the strategy must not remain a document without a budget and implementation mechanisms. That may be the key sentence. Six years without a strategy is bad - but getting a strategy that ends up in a drawer would be even worse. Will the government respond to the letter, or will 17 October pass as just another day on the calendar of international days?