In Kazakhstan food basket is developed with due regard being given to the needs and demands of women and children for the first time

UN Women Sub-Regional office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia together with the Federation of trade unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan held a working meeting on improving the methodology for calculating subsistence minimum in the part of food basket with special focus to the needs of women and children. During the meeting UN Women expert Mr. Aidjanov presented the food part of the subsistence minimum which had been calculated taking into account the needs and demands of women and children for the first time in Kazakhstan. According to the WHO standards a person should consume 959.7 kg of food (including drinking water) per year. In developed countries the figure is 959.8 kg/year, in Kazakhstan it is 722.4 kg/year, in Russia – 710 kg/year. These indicators speak for themselves - in Kazakhstan, as well as in Russia in comparison with developed European countries, USA and Japan, even taking into account their national traditions, the per capita consumption of staple food is significantly lower, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The gap is particularly significant in per capita consumption of meat and milk.

The relevance of the UN Women study is obvious in light of the signing on 14 February 2012 by the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Ratification of the Convention on the revision of the Convention (revised), 1952 on the protection of Motherhood”.

The event was attended by the Deputies of the Majilis of Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, representatives of ministries and government agencies, international organizations, employers and trade unions.

As a result of this meeting the following recommendations have been developed by the participants of the working group:
To the Parliament, Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan:

• To ratify ILO Conventions №26 concerning the Creation of Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery, №95 concerning the Protection of Wages, №131 concerning Minimum Wage Fixing, with Special Reference to Developing Countries, as well as Convention №117 concerning Basic Aims and Standards of Social Policy, №102 concerning the Social Security (Minimum Standards);
• To revise the current law of the Republic of Kazakhstan as of 1999 on the subsistence minimum;
• To develop and form the National Standard of the Life Quality of Kazakhstani people;
• To develop and adopt the law ‘on social standards’;
• To initiate the creation of the inter-agency working group on improving the methodology for calculating the subsistence minimum.

To the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection and to the Agency of Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan:

• To revise the correlation of food and non-food parts of the subsistence minimum taking into consideration the food basket with focus on the needs and demands of women and children presented during the meeting;
• To define a poverty line which is to be used as a criterion in rendering the state targeted assistance to the low-income population on the level no lower than the food basket cost;
• To involve all interested parties into developing and to conduct public discussions of the projects of social programmes, concepts and normative legal acts in order to guarantee the transparency of the decisions made.

The event was widely covered by the Mass Media:
Kazinform (info agency) http://www.inform.kz/rus/article/2441517
NUR.KZ Kazakhstan portal http://news.nur.kz/209519.html
КТК (TV) http://ktk.kz/ru/news/video/2012/02/16/16138
Kazakh Zerno (info agency) http://www.kazakh-zerno.kz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52604:2012-02-17-02-59-36&catid=14&Itemid=108