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Poverty. The incidence of poverty increased sharply in Russia during its period of economic transition. Children aged 7-15 years and women are at highest risk. The two main reasons for the rise are a sharp economic contraction during much of the transition period and a large increase in income inequality. Increased income inequality has resulted in part from a shift of income from wages to income from entrepreneurship, which is typically distributed more unequally than wage income. The decline in wage income is the result of both a sharp drop in the number of public-sector jobs and a large decline in real public-sector wages. Unemployment of a family member is another strong covariate of household poverty.

Despite its large incidence, much of the poverty in Russia is relatively transitory, with nearly 55% of the poor escaping poverty on their own over one-year spans. This implies that the potential for reducing poverty broadly and rapidly via economic growth is significant. Indeed, independent research suggests a decrease in the incidence of poverty over the last three years, with significant economic growth in Russia. The long-term poor should be an important target group for social assistance schemes and anti-poverty programs.

Although there are a large number of public transfer programmes in Russia, including disability allowances, child and family allowances, pensions, and unemployment benefits, these have obviously not been able to prevent a rise in poverty. There are three main reasons for this. First, the resources allocated to poverty programs are relatively small, as the budget for payroll tax-financed social insurance schemes (e.g., pensions and unemployment benefits) has fallen with the fall in wages. Second, many transfer programmes inherited from the Soviet era, such as low administered prices for food, rent, household utilities, and guaranteed employment, are not appropriate for a market economy. Third, the system of providing social benefits to certain categories of individuals does not guarantee that the genuinely poor will receive these benefits, as those categories do not always coincide with poverty status.

Health. One of the most profound factors during the period of Russia’s transition has been the decline in average life expectancy. In 1999 it was the lowest in Europe - 62.7 years for males and 74 years for females. Cardiovascular diseases, injuries, and alcohol-related diseases account for much of the mortality, and much of the decline in life expectancy can be traced to lifestyle factors. Public health conditions in Russia have also worsened during the economic transition. The levels of infant, child and maternal mortality are high. The extensive use of abortion is related to the lack of access to safe and affordable family planning services. Tuberculosis, diphtheria and HIV/AIDS have all emerged as major public health hazards in the last few years.

An important reason for the deteriorating health situation is a health-care system in decline. Its structure is still focusing on inpatient services at the expense of outpatient primary health care, disease prevention, and health promotion. In addition, public funding of health care has declined considerably, and the collection of informal fees by public health providers has reduced the access of the poor to health care.

Survey data suggest that child malnutrition may be a problem in Russia as well, with 8% of children aged 0-24 months wasted (low weight for height) and 10% stunted (low height for age). There is widespread evidence of micronutrient malnutrition in the form of iodine deficiency; iodisation of all salt for human consumption would be an inexpensive but efficient measure to be taken by the government.

A number of health problems in Russia result from the poor quality of the environment. The supply of safe drinking water has been a problem for a number of years and remains a matter for concern.

Education and Science. There is no evidence that enrolment rates at the primary level have changed much since Russia’s transition to a market economy; the country continues to have universal primary enrolment. However, secondary enrolments have fallen during the 1990s. Access to education and the quality of schooling are notably worse in rural than in urban areas. There is also evidence of significant income disparities in the secondary school enrolment rate. Evidence from other countries shows that an increase in the cost of private education typically reduces school enrolments of the poor.

Educational quality, which was traditionally high, is threatened by falling funding levels and low efficiency in the use of public resources. Many rural schools are not economically viable, and it is virtually impossible to provide a decent education in these schools. While new media such as the Internet could be a solution for the problem of village schools in remote regions, Internet access is out of reach for most rural students and their families in Russia.

Of particular concern is the fact that Russia lags considerably behind industrialized countries in information technology, which is fast becoming a new determinant of international competitiveness. If Russia wishes to become internationally competitive in the knowledge-based industries of the future, it will be imperative that it builds on its erstwhile strengths in science and technology.

Protecting the Environment. Soviet policies that encouraged rapid industrialization left a legacy of environmental pollution and nuclear waste that the country is struggling to clean up. Forecasts of emissions and discharges of major pollutants show that urban air pollution will remain a serious problem, while water pollution and drinking water quality will increasingly become a problem in the long run. Indeed, increasing levels of pollution intensity per unit of GDP imply that these problems will aggravate with economic growth. A new law on environmental protection was adopted in January 2002 and can be seen as a commitment by the government to environmental protection. In addition, Russia is a party to multilateral environmental agreements. In order for Russia to fully realize its vast potential for improvements in energy efficiency and reduction in pollution, it will be necessary to eliminate the economic, structural and institutional barriers that currently discourage investors in these areas.

During the last decades a great number of activities were organized in order to advocate for the gender issues and gender approaches in different fields of life of the Russian people. The gender equality is an important issues that widely discussed in the Russia society: the State Duma is considering the law proposal on equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women; the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia has prepared and adopted the Conception of Gender Policy of the Confederation of Trade Unions; under the initiative of the Baikal Women Union “Angara”, Ministry of Labor and Social Development of the RF, governmental and public organizations the Gender Development Programme of the Siberia Federal District was elaborated. The Ministry of Labor and Social Development has prepared the gender Strategy of the RF.

In spite of the undertaken efforts, the stable gender stereotypes and prevalent practice of the Russian society resulted in more vulnerable status of women than men, being discriminated at the labor market, incomes’ level. The number of women employed in the newly developed and high-paid branches is diminished and the sectoral segregation is increased. The lack of women in the decision-making positions and leading posts is observed. Men found themselves under the growing pressure of patriarchal mentality based on the men breadwinners’ model. At the same time the family relations undergone serious changes and more and more unwed mothers are the only earners in the families.

It is also important to mention about male problems in the society. The existing stereotypes in the society led to the situation when all social programmes organized in the state are oriented on specific women needs, ignoring the men’s factor. The life expectancy among men is considerably lower than among women in the Russian Federation. The following issues are acute for the modern Russia: increasing men unemployment, professional segregation, increasing rates of suicides, alcohol and drug abuse and etc.

In general, the gender misbalances resulted in significant warps in economic development of the society that affected adversely the lives of millions of men, women and children. The elimination of the gender discrimination depends on understanding of the problems, gender education, knowledge of international standards and legislation acts and best practices existing in the region.

The Gender development Strategy of the Siberia federal District was developed under the financial and technical assistance of UNDP and in partnership with 6 UN agencies in 2002. The government of the Russian Federation has elaborated the Gender Strategy of the Russian Federation. UNDP in cooperation with the other UN agencies, members of the UN Gender Theme Group will try to harmonize the Gender Strategy in accordance with MDGs, proclaimed by the UN Millennium Declaration.

Another threat to social and economic development is the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The cumulative number of officially reported HIV cases nearly tripled between 1998 and 1999. As of December 2001, there were 173,068 cumulative HIV infections registered, which is almost twice the figure of December 2000, with the majority of cases being among young people aged 15-25. Until 1995, the prevailing route of transmission was through sexual contact; since 1996, the epidemic has been fuelled mainly by unsafe drug use. Russia at this moment faces a concentrated epidemic that has the potential to become generalized through heterosexual contacts. It is estimated that the actual number of HIV infections in the country is between six and ten times greater than the registered number of cases. Nevertheless, the level of public awareness of HIV/AIDS remains low, and the government is still reticent about addressing the issue fully, with public decision makers paying little attention to the potentially disastrous social and economic consequences of the epidemic. Up-to-date care for people living with HIV remains limited to a select number of specialized centres. Access to drugs for the treatment of opportunistic infections and the use of anti-retrovirals are limited.

There six special UN Theme Groups established by the UN Agencies in the Russian Federation on these issues.