Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam - Oxfam Blogs

Five-year Synthesis Report
Part 2: Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam
Quang Tri Province has institutionalised socio-economic development planning at
the commune level. From the lessons learned from the pilot process in Chia Se, Plan
International and Oxfam, the Provincial People’s Committee officially issued a new
planning process (Decision 12/QD-People’s Committee dated 1 June 2011 of Quang Tri
Provincial People’s Committee).
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Participation in the implementation of the new planning process is appreciated
by local residents and authorities in Nghe An and Quang Tri (Table 8.1).
TABLE 8.1. Planning before and after the introduction of the new planning process
Format
Method of
implementation
Content
Resources
Before application
A 5-7 page document: actually a report,
not a real plan
Communes followed non-unified forms,
no specific guidance process
No direct consultation with villages,
branches and organizations
Manual, difficult to connect sections
General content, little data from
branches, mass organizations and villages
Not accompanied by budget estimates,
no integration of sources
After application
Developed into a complete plan with
data and solutions
Follow unified forms, with guidelines
and training
Collect data and information
directly from villages, branches and
organizations in the commune
With support from software (Excel),
connects well with other sections in
the plan
Based on local conditions, more
relevant (clear links between problems,
causes and solutions), proposed
specific activities, which are prioritized
Accompanied with budget estimates,
integrated resources (within known
financial sources)
Two-way relations - top down and bottom up - are improved. The province issues a
guideline applying to Training of Trainers (TOT) at all levels from province to district, commune
and village. Through data collection at the village level, people’s expectations are taken into
consideration and incorporated into the commune plan and submitted to the district. District
functional agencies (agricultural extension, animal health, education, health, water) use the
plan to develop their plans of action and allocate budget to meet people’s needs.
However, implementing new commune plans in Nghe An and Quang Tri in 2010 and
2011 has faced many challenges (Box 8.1):
• Local residents and grassroots cadres do not have the skills, processes and planning
skills to use the new approach.
• Recommendations from villages tend to include infrastructure facilities, cultural -
social - environmental aspects and community-based solutions that do not receive
sufficient attention.
• The quality of information and data collected from branches and mass organizations
is not high. In many communes, the proposals include regular activities of branches
and organizations, not solutions contributing to commune socio-economic
development orientations or poverty reduction.
• Unknown financial resources at the time of planning.
• Synthesis and feedback from the district level to the commune plan (through the
new district planning process) are not implemented, therefore, the commune plans
are not of significance in terms of inputs to the district socio-economic development
plan and plans for public service provision of district agencies and branches .
• Commune plans do not incorporate gender, access to markets or the management
of risks associated with natural disasters and climate change.
• The Provincial People’s Committee did not allocate additional budget to commune-level planning.
• People’s Council has not participated in monitoring of the new planning process.