20 April 2026
On April 15-17, 2026, the Workshop on Measuring Poverty and Inequality and the Group of Experts on Measuring Poverty and Inequality were held in Rome (Italy) to discuss methods and criteria for measuring poverty, issues of international comparability and accessibility of poverty statistics and related metadata.
The Republic of Belarus was represented at the events by the Inna Medvedeva, Chairperosn of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus (Belstat), and Inna Konoshonok, Head of the Main Department for Statistics on the Standard of Living of the Population and Household Surveys of the Belstat.
During the Group of Experts on Measuring Poverty and Inequality and, Inna Medvedeva Chairperson of the Belstat, presented to the international community the experience of the Belarus in reducing the negative impact of inflation on the well-being of citizens. She stressed that improving the standard of living of the population is one of the key priorities of state policy. Among the main measures taken by the government to mitigate inflationary pressures, she outlined flexible price regulation for socially important goods, curbing the growth of mandatory payments for housing and communal services and transport services, as well as the applied policy of outstripping income growth.
Inna Medvedeva paid special attention to the results of the social orientation of state policy. The developed support mechanisms have allowed Belarus to reduce the share of the low-income population by more than ten times to the lowest values in the entire history of observations. In 2025, this figure was 3.4%.
At the Workshop on Measuring Poverty and Inequality, Inna Konoshonok, Head of the Main Department for Statistics on Living Standards and Household Surveys, presented the report “National Multidimensional Poverty Index as a new tool for assessing the quality of life in Belarus”. She introduced the participants to the concept and structure of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index, developed by Belstat with the support of the UNDP in Belarus, considering national characteristics.
In addition, Inna Konoshonok reported that the Belstat has already started forming a National Welfare Index, which will allow assessing the standard of living of the population not only through the prism of poverty, but also through indicators of well-being. According to her, this tool will become an important element of comprehensive monitoring of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the National Strategy for Sustainable Development of the Republic of Belarus.
Improving the system of indicators for assessing poverty and inequality and expanding information exchange between countries contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 1, 5, 10, 17 and the other SDGs by the Republic of Belarus.
The participation of the Belarusian delegation in the Workshop on Measuring Poverty and Inequality and the Group of Experts on Measuring Poverty and Inequality was supported by UNDP within the framework of the Joint Project “Support to the Efforts of the Republic of Belarus in Nationalization and Localization of SDGs”, funded by the Government of the Russian Federation.
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