The Russian-French Scientific Conference ‘The poverty of urban and rural population in Russia and France’ was held on October 25-26, 2018

The conference organized by the Institute for Social Policy of the Higher School of Economics, and the Department for Social Affairs of the Embassy of France in Russia.

In both Russia and France, the poverty problem is in the society’s center of attention. Both countries have declared that poverty reduction is one of their priority social-economic goals. That is why it is crucial to measure the poor population, which requires social support.  When it comes to defining and measuring poverty, the international experience can already offer a wide specter of different approaches. The traditional and commonly used measure is monetary (income) poverty, which has its specifics in different countries (absolute and relative poverty). Among other new complimentary measures are deprivation, subjective poverty, and social isolation. All these measures seek to define those groups and households that are in need of social support. The system of targeted social assistance to the poor exists in both Russia and France. However, its development and accessibility depend on the regions’ social policies, their economic resources, and development priorities. Another key element of the social policy on the regional and settlement level, beside the system of social welfare benefits, is the secured access to the social services (public health service, education, social care to the persons with disabilities).

More details are available here.