The Chair of the Healthcare and Social Issues Committee, Dimitri Khundadze met with the UNICEF Representative in Georgia, Ghassan Khalil to discuss the ways for eradicating child poverty and outline an action plan. Particular attention was paid to the situation against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The new global COVID pandemic has yielded a negative impact on children and adolescents. Although the virus threatens everyone indiscriminately, it is particularly severe in the vulnerable sections of the population and children. Poverty-stricken families are less likely to deal with this crisis independently and reduce its negative impact. Though the rate of extreme poverty and social exclusion of children in households in the country, according to UNICEF, decreased from 11.5% to 6.8% from 2009 to 2017, and general poverty in the same years went down from 49% to 27%, malnutrition remains a problem and children are more likely to be poor than the general population. This will have a negative impact on their health and development in the long run. We invited Mr. Ghassan, the UNICEF Representative in Georgia, to talk about these problems and ways to their resolution”, - Dimitri Khundadze commented after the meeting.

According to the Chairman of the Committee, today's meeting will serve as the basis for taking specific steps in view to reduce child poverty in Georgia.