Priorities

Between 2002 and 2005, a normative and legal base for the regulation of social support authorities was set up. In 2005 alone, 16 laws of the Chukotskiy Autonomous Okrug, 24 decrees of the Okrug Government, and 3 orders of the Governor regarding the social sphere were passed.
The leading social protection authority of the CHAO is the State Complex Centre of the Chukotskiy Okrug for social support of the population with numerous branch offices in all regional centres and 35 villages.

In 2005, the expenditure of the centre on social support of the population amounted to 72.8 million rubles. Since 2002, when the budget of the centre reached 51.9 million rubles, this figure has been continuously growing. On the provision of food packs alone (5458 people) in 2005, the Centre spent 12 million 616.3 thousand rubles.



Creation and preservation of jobs remains the main goal of the social policy: many enterprises and whole industrial branches in Chukotka now function as social projects and do not yield much profit but do prevent the population, in particular, the natives from lumpenization. This way, the workers of sea mammal hunting farms produce whale meat and fat for their own purposes and still receive a fixed income of 5 thousand rubles. Support of traditional forms of nature management provides employment of the natives.

Whereas in 2001 the level of unemployment in the CHAO was estimated to be 46.3% (and unemployment benefits were only given to 843 people), by 2005, the figure dropped to 2.7% (and 592 people received benefits).