Economic collapse in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has left up to 50 million children in poverty, according to a report from the European Children's Trust (ECT).
Infant mortality and the incidence of tuberculosis, the report states, have reached third-world levels.
The economic difficulties faced by the countries of the region were accompanied by reductions in public expenditure, particularly on health, education and social provision, which have had disproportionately serious effects on children and families.
While the situation is extreme, ECT believes the expansion of services that prevent family breakdown, the development of a targeted family-support system and improving the standards of local management can help break the cycle of poverty.
The report, compiled by Dr Richard Carter, a former policy analyst at the British Department of Health, points out that in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia GDP per capita has fallen to a level lower than that of Swaziland.
In Tajikistan it is lower than that of Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Sudan or Togo while in more developed countries such as Poland and Estonia the rate was comparable to that of Mexico. GDP per capita is recognised as an indicator of a country's wealth or poverty.
Dr Carter told The Irish Times yesterday the situation was worst in Ukraine, parts of Russia, the Caucasian states of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. There were also indications, he said, that the former Soviet republic of Moldova had replaced Albania as Europe's poorest country with up to 66 per cent of the population living in poverty.
Moreover, the report states that average figures conceal a great variation both between and within individual countries, so that many children in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are now worse off than their counterparts in the developing countries.
To assess the impact of poverty on the people of the region, the report used three key indicators of their health and social condition: infant mortality, the proportion of the population not expected to survive to the age of 60 and the number of tuberculosis cases.
The three indicators suggest that average conditions in Central and Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union are now comparable with those in the developing countries.
Infant mortality in the region as a whole is now similar to that in Latin America. The proportion of people in the region not expected to survive to 60 in Russia is roughly the same as that in India and the incidence of tuberculosis, a persuasive indicator of poverty, shows the region to be in a much worse condition than Latin America and East Asia.
In 10 of the Central European and former Soviet countries the rate of infection is higher than that in Equatorial Guinea, while on a per capita basis there is a higher rate in Georgia than in India. The ECT, a London-based organisation, works for the improvement of living standards of children in 10 former communist countries.
