Federal Council examines permanent structure to combat poverty
Published: Wednesday, Jun 19th 2024, 12:10
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The National Platform for Preventing and Combating Poverty, which expires in December 2024, is doing good quality work despite its limited scope. For this reason, a permanent structure is now to be examined, as the Federal Council announced on Wednesday.
The federal government, cantons, municipalities and civil society organizations were involved in the platform. They developed basic principles on topics such as the educational opportunities of socially disadvantaged people. The platform promotes networking between the actors involved in poverty policy, including people who are or have been affected by poverty themselves, the Federal Council added.
According to an external evaluation presented on Wednesday, the work of the platform met with broad approval, but the potential impact had not been sufficiently exploited. The platform's steering group has therefore developed proposals that could remedy the shortcomings.
The Federal Council instructed the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) to draw up a concept to transform the platform into a permanent structure, as it also announced. Among other things, the concept should include a council for poverty issues. The results should be available by the end of the year. Based on this, the Federal Council will decide how to proceed.
According to the national government, around 700,000 people in Switzerland are affected by poverty. That is 8.2 percent of the permanent resident population.
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