Estonian Human Development Report

school, and the media) to avoid the marginalization of a troublingly
large proportion of young people, such as the unemployed,
drug addicts, or lawbreakers. Meanwhile, international
studies of education indicate that while our current
education system guarantees the success of the majority of
Estonian school pupils in studying different subjects, it does
not provide them with sufficient opportunities for personal
development and instruction in the field of values.
The third troubling social aspect is the excessive differences
between people’s state of health and quality of life
in general by region and ethnicity, which, for example, has
brought about an accumulation of different social risks
in North-Eastern Estonia. In a situation where the financial
means of the country are dwindling, this may lead to
an explosive rise in social tensions. At the same time, the
Russian-speaking population has developed heightened
expectations and a stronger reliance with regard to public
security systems than Estonians, thus creating a favourable
environment for manipulation with protest mentality.
In addition to the Russian-speaking population, there also
exist other social groups whose vulnerability is increased
during the crisis due to their reliance on public policies.
These vulnerable groups include pensioners and people
with disabilities, whose growing fears and sense of helplessness
may affect the entire society.
What dangers and opportunities does the
critical economic situation generate with
regard to human development?
Human development is affected most immediately by the
situation in the labour market; this is especially true with
regards to the unemployment rates which have already
started to grow and will snowball in 2009. In relation to
this, we need to find a quick solution for the reorganization
of the training system due to the increasing need for
in-service training and retraining. The developing situation
is made even more volatile by the fact that many white-collar
employees, younger and older specialists, i.e. people who
have thus far belonged to the middle class will lose their jobs.
This will be the first time when unemployment will affect
the “winners” of the transition society, ambitious and consumption-prone
young people whose social self-esteem and
level of unconcern has hitherto been very high. The expectations
of these groups regarding labour market measures,
including their retraining needs, are completely different
from those of unemployed weavers or miners. Meanwhile,
their existing social resources are much greater. Due to this,
the European Social Fund could be used to promote business
activity on a much wider scale than usual. The upcoming
situation is not reflected in the current labour market
policy, where highly educated unemployed people are
almost completely unaccounted for.
The high debt burden of young families (which was one
of the reasons used to justify the adjustment of the parental
benefits to the current level of salaries) can bring about a
critical situation in many families when they stop receiving
parental benefits but have no employment opportunities. Due
to this, we should consider reducing the size of the parental
benefits in favour of lengthening the period of time during
which payments are made. Regardless of the economic crisis,
we cannot abandon the development of the child care system.
In the context of the economic crisis, we should adopt an
especially cautious approach to families with children in general,
particularly those with only one breadwinner and above
all, those cases where the only breadwinner is in danger of
becoming unemployed. This may have far-reaching social
consequences when, as a result of their parents’ unemployment,
children lose the opportunity to obtain quality education,
participate in hobby activities and play sports.
The economic downturn has a very dangerous influence
on health, especially due to social stress, which serves
to further increase Estonia’s unprecedented high risk of
cardiovascular diseases, alcoholism and drug addiction,
depression, and suicide, as well as tendencies towards violence
and aggressive behaviour, both inside families and
in schools and public spaces.
Taking into account the differences among social and
ethnic groups in terms of trust in the state as well as their
ability to cope with difficulties, the amplification of social
protest and conflict is likely if the media, the politicians,
and the civil society are unable to create and maintain the
society’s readiness for and belief in overcoming the difficulties
together.
What should be preserved and what should
be changed in terms of economic and social
policy in order for us to survive the crisis as
painlessly as possible with regard to human
development or even emerge from it in a
better shape than before?
In our current situation, it is especially important to consider
the social impact of all decisions related to economic
and budgetary policy (on which social policy depends to a
large degree) as well as the method of presenting the decisions
to the public with the aim of
• avoiding or compensating for the deterioration in the
quality of life of vulnerable target groups (the decisions
made at the end of 2008, which worsened the
quality of life of people with disabilities and pensioners
are an example of what to avoid);
• avoiding an increase in health risks and continuing preventive
activities aimed at improving public health;
• preventing the negative effects of the crisis on the quality
of life of children by implementing special support measures
in the case of their parents becoming unemployed;
• preventing negative demographic effects with regard
to both the birth rate and emigration;
• preventing panic and the aggravation of ethnic and
social tensions.
It is during the economic crisis that we should devote more
attention to the non-material aspects of the quality of life,
especially the psychological sense of security and trust in
the fact that the social environment, including the authority
of the state, is functioning in the public interest.
The effect of the crisis could be mitigated considerably
by the more effective use of funds provided by the European
Social Fund as well as other European sources with
respect to human development (i.e. public health, natural
increase, quality of life, employment, involvement, the
socialization of youth, the protection of risk groups, etc.). It
is important to monitor carefully whether the projects correspond
in practice to the most urgent social needs (ministries
along with local governments, scientists, and partners
from the civil society should weigh the priorities once more
155 |