Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam - Oxfam Blogs

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Participatory poverty monitoring in rural communities in Viet Nam 80 3. BUILDING SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEMS Social security (or social protection in broad terms) 22 systems include three circles of support: the innermost system consists of “protective” measures through social assistance, the next circle consists of “preventive” measures through insurance schemes, and the outermost circle consists of “capacity-building” measures focusing on active labour market measures. As Viet Nam becomes a low middle income country comprehensive social security systems will be a crucial source of support for the poor and vulnerable. 3.1. Target-oriented social security policies Current target-oriented criteria The target-oriented mechanism in social security policies in Viet Nam is complicated. Each policy has its own mechanism for targeting different groups. For example, social assistance policy under Decree 67 and Decree 13 combines two criteria for “poor people” and “poor households”: “poor single parents with young children” must belong to poor households; “people with serious disabilities who are unable to work and serve themselves” do not necessarily belong to poor households. The policy of free health insurance under the Health Insurance Law combines three criteria “poor people”, “poor households” and disadvantaged “areas”: “children under six-year old “, or “people of poor households”, or “ethnic minorities living in areas of socio-economic difficulties or in special circumstances “ (Table 3.1). TABLE 3.1. An example on the “target-oriented” social security policies Policies Social assistance (Decree 67/ND-CP and Decree 13/ ND-CP) Health insurance (Health Insurance Law No. 25/2008/ QH 12) Target groups receiving assistance People receiving monthly assistance: • Must belong to poor households: elderly and alone; over 80 years of age without pension or social insurance allowances; people living with HIV/AIDS unable to work; single parents with young children • Do not need to belong to poor households: people with serious disabilities who cannot work or look after themselves; people with mental health problems. People receiving free medical insurance cards: • Children under six years old • Members of poor households • Ethnic minorities living in areas of socio-economic difficult conditions or in special circumstances. Limitations of the target-oriented mechanism based on the “poor household” list The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affair’s list of “poor households” is used to identify households who will benefit from social security and other policies. However, observations at the monitoring points suggests relying on the list of “poor households” can be problematic. 22 According to ILSSA/GIZ (2011), Social protection is “the set of public (social insurance/social assistance) and private interventions (non-statutory or private measures) designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability; it comprehends the enhancement of capacity of people and society in protecting themselves against hazards and interruption or loss of income; and assures social stability, development and equality”.
Five-year Synthesis Report Part 2: Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam Many households do not want to be removed from the list of poor households. Annual poverty surveys and reviews in each village are difficult. Many people are reluctant to disclose their true income as they wish to be included in the poor household list. Those on the list receive free medical insurance cards, concessional loans, seeds, temporary housing elimination support, financial support for children’s nursery and general school fees, financial support during Tet (traditional Lunar New Year) and electricity subsidies. 81 Poverty surveys and reviews face a number of difficulties. The annual poverty review follows MOLISA procedures. Officials and local residents proposed several reasons for inaccurate poverty reviews: • The current income poverty line does not correspond to people’s basic expenditures, particularly in periods of high inflation. • There is a fine line between poor and near-poor households. • The capacity of grassroots officials is limited, particularly in mountainous ethnic minority communes, and training for the poverty review is not conducted carefully. • Pre-determined “poverty reduction” targets and plans also put pressure on grassroots cadres. • Local residents prefer to remain on the poverty list in order to receive assistance. The "poor household“ list is not separated from the "targeting criteria“ of support policies. According to current regulations, households with an average income of less than 400,000 VND per person per month are classified as "poor households“ and are eligible for supports designated for the poor. This situation makes the poverty reviews being difficult and heavy, because there is a big incentive difference between the households in the list and those not in the list. The poor need to be further categorised for more effective support. There are many reasons households are poor. Assistance should be tailored to the needs of households with specific characteristics: • The extremely poor tend to be disabled, suffering long-term illness, elderly and single, or single parents with young children. They tend to have limited or poor quality land, low levels of education, minimal proficiency in the Vietnamese language and no skills. Most are in the “chronically poor” group and are unable to escape poverty, are regularly short of food and relying on small grants from relatives and villagers. Regular social assistance policies do help some extremely poor households. However, by increasing the amount of regular social assistance, tending to the needs of extremely poor households minimal living standards can be assured 23 . • The temporarily poor are the largest proportion of poor households. The temporarily poor have labour, but lack capital, technical knowledge, and access to markets to escape poverty. Effective policy should target capacity building, the generation of opportunities and the reduction of direct grants for the temporarily poor group. • The vulnerable poor are typically households who live in disaster-prone areas. Policies should focus on mitigating risks associated with natural disasters, particularly as a result of climate change. Vulnerable households are also susceptible to sickness, epidemics, pests, diseases, and accidents. Others have specific social characteristics; for example they are geographically isolated 23 The “Social Security Floor” initiative, jointly sponsored by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), is to promoting integrated strategies in order to ensure minimum level of social security for all, including ensuring access of everyone to basic social services and income security.
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PARTICIPATORY POVERTY MONITORING IN
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PREFACE 1 7 In early 2007, Viet Nam
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ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS 10 ActionAi
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12 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The last five
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14 and improve monitoring and evalu
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16 TABLE 1. The monitoring points C
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18 transparency, and accountability
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20 TABLE 2. Characteristics of the
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Part 1 Poverty Trends and Key Theme
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Participatory poverty monitoring in
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Participatory poverty monitoring in
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Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam - Oxfam Blogs

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