Romania Mulls Ways Help Nation's Poorest

Romania's centre-left government is mulling a new anti-poverty strategy aimed at lifting 400,000 of the worst-off citizens out of poverty.

About 22.6 per cent of Romanians live in poverty as a result of low income and most of those in poverty have been so for years, the draft National Poverty Reduction Strategy says.

The most impoverished Romanians include around 1.8 million Roma people, 1.4 million children, 725,000 people over the age of 80, 687,000 people with disabilities, and over 63,000 orphans - in total some 4.6 million people.

The document under public debate managed by the Ministry of Labour plans to reduce the number in poverty by at least 400,000 by 2020.

"There are many poor communities where these problems have accumulated, making it nearly impossible to break the cycle of exclusion in the absence of outside intervention," the strategy reads.

The strategy aims is to create jobs and opportunities for poor people as well as encourage greater equality of opportunity.

"This means developing the abilities, education and and experience on the labour market of the poor... reduction of poverty should be achieved through a more substantial and specific allocation of social protection expenses for the poorest segment of the population," the document adds.

Analysts are dubious about what the strategy will achieve. "Highlighting strategies and recommendations mean nothing until these policies are translated into reality on the ground," a journalist, Elena Dumitru, warned.