Publication: Serbia and Montenegro : Poverty Assessment, Volume 1. Executive Summary
Date
2003-11-13
ISSN
Published
2003-11-13
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
This Poverty Assessment is the first
output of a multi-year program adopted by the World Bank to
assist the Governments of Serbia and Montenegro in the
development and implementation of their Poverty Reduction
Strategies. The program relies on collaboration in joint
data production and analysis. Based on data collected in
2002, the report finds that absolute material poverty
affects every tenth person in both Serbia and Montenegro.
From an historical standpoint, this is a very high
incidence. Inequality remained moderate by regional
standards, and as a result poverty is shallow. At the same
time vulnerability--or exposure to negative shocks and
inability to cope with them-- threatens many currently
non-poor individuals. At least as many suffer from
deprivation in other dimensions of well being, such as
health, education, housing, social inclusion or property
rights. Material poverty, therefore, is not the only
challenge for the Governments. Four factors are most
strongly related to poverty: low education attainment;
joblessness; the location in rural areas and depressed
regions, and the presence of socially disadvantaged members
(such as internally displaced persons or Roma). The poor are
found to face serious problems of access to public services
(health, education, sanitation) and suffer
disproportionately from the deterioration in the quality of
public service provision. Even though some of the social
assistance programs are among the best targeted programs in
the region, the social protection system as a whole suffers
from large exclusion errors. Given the high level of
vulnerability of the population and the shallowness of
poverty, a broad-based growth strategy that ensures that the
benefits accrue at least proportionately to the poor is
central for accelerated poverty reduction. Improvements in
the business climate will stimulate private sector growth
and feed into employment generation. Growth will increase
fiscal revenues to remedy the problems of chronic under
funding, while structural and public administration reforms
will strengthen the governance and the quality of services
provided to the poor. The multidimensional nature of poverty
requires concerted and well coordinated action in different
sectors. The report is organized in two volumes. Volume One
(Executive summary) summarizes the Report content. Volume
Two (Main report) provides detailed results of poverty
analysis. Due to data limitations the sectoral part of the
main report covers Serbia in greater details. An analysis of
available data for Montenegro is presented in a background paper.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2003. Serbia and Montenegro : Poverty Assessment, Volume 1. Executive Summary. © Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14660 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”