Uzbekistan sets 2025 poverty target amid global rise in deprivation
Tashkent sets ambitious target while experts warn climate crisis, water scarcity, and slow growth are pushing millions worldwide into poverty
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (MNTV) — Uzbekistan has pledged to reduce its national poverty rate to 6 percent by the end of 2025, placing its domestic reforms within the wider context of global economic instability and rising inequality.
The target was announced on September 17 at the From Poverty to Prosperity forum in Namangan, which gathered representatives from more than 30 international organizations and some 200 experts, according to The Times of Central Asia.
Delegates included senior officials from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the United Nations.
Speakers at the forum warned that poverty is climbing worldwide, with the number of people living below the poverty line increasing from 650 million in 2015 to over 800 million today. They pointed to overlapping challenges — from climate change and water scarcity to pandemics and slowing growth — as drivers of this reversal.
Uzbekistan’s government says its poverty rate dropped to 8.9 percent in 2024, down from double-digit levels a decade earlier. Authorities credit targeted social programs, neighborhood councils, farmland redistribution to 800,000 families, and cash support provided to millions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Official estimates suggest that around 7.5 million people have been lifted out of poverty since 2015.
Economic growth has nearly doubled the size of Uzbekistan’s economy in recent years, with per capita income projected to reach $3,500 by 2025. Officials say the country is on track to halve poverty by 2030 in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and aim to eliminate absolute poverty by the end of the decade.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev also said that domestic reforms alone will not suffice, calling for a “new financial architecture” to mobilize resources for sustainable development. Uzbekistan proposed hosting an international donor conference in the Silk Road city of Khiva in 2026 to push this agenda.
By linking its anti-poverty policies to global debates, Uzbekistan is seeking to portray itself as both a case study in reform and a participant in shaping international responses to inequality and development financing.
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