UNICEF welcomes the initiative of the Georgian Government to address the needs of the most vulnerable children in Georgia and to increase child benefits from GEL10 to GEL50.  We do hope that this intervention will contribute to decreasing child poverty in Georgia – reads the statement released by the organization.

UNICEF has been partnering with the Government of Georgia and in particular, with the Ministry of IDPs, Labour, Health and Social Affairs to improve the Targeted Social Assistance programme in order to reduce the number of children living in extreme poverty.

As per the recent UNICEF Welfare Monitoring Study, the revised Targeted Social Assistance programme better identifies families with children and together with child benefit it has a high impact on reducing child poverty.

With the positive assessment of this initiative, we do hope that the Government will develop specific interventions for poor children who are not beneficiaries of TSA programme but are still poor. We also do hope that the Government will ensure an effective administration of distribution of food vouchers, especially for the families living in rural areas.

UNICEF stands ready to support the Government of Georgia in further reducing child poverty in Georgia so that children enjoy better education, social inclusion, and more sustainable development.