Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam - Oxfam Blogs

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Participatory poverty monitoring in rural communities in Viet Nam 82 or drug users. Assistance should concentrate on mitigating specific risks and supporting sustainable livelihoods. • The near-poor include also the households who have just escaped from poverty, and their living standards are not much higher than those actually in poverty. The near-poor also tend to lack savings. As a group they require a system of support policies similar to the temporarily poor in a certain period (2-3 years) for sustainable poverty reduction. Poverty reviews conducted at the end of the year excludes households who fall into poverty at other times of the year. Near-poor and vulnerable households can easily fall into poverty at any time of the year. In principle, the list of poor households can be updated during the year, but because of complicated procedures and paper work, this is not done at all monitoring points. The current policy on support for people who face unanticipated difficulties is also weak in terms of its coverage and funding. Other limitations in targeting groups The target-oriented mechanism is too complicated, creating a management burden. The group of cadres in Vi Xuyen district-Ha Giang commented “Mechanisms and policies should be synchronised. There are too many policy documents, for example those relating to tuition fee exemptions and reductions for poor students in Category III communes under Decree 49. The files of beneficiaries are too thick”. “Cash transfer (conditional or unconditional)” programmes based on targets are not available. In Viet Nam, there is direct cash support for education expenses for poor students, orphans and students living in border, highland, and island areas and in specially disadvantaged communes under Decree 49. However, the level of support under Decree 49 is too low, and has limited impact. Other possible recipients include the mother and child healthcare which currently has no cash support policy. Although conditional cash transfers have proved successful in other countries they can be difficult to manage and monitor. 3.2. Social assistance In general, social assistance has been duly provided to the right beneficiaries already listed at the monitoring points. Households in difficult circumstances reported in interview that they were happy to receive regular assistance under Decree 67, helping them to partially cover their daily expenses. In addition, the Government has also provided ad hoc support to people and households who have suffered natural disasters or food shortages. The level and coverage of social assistance policies has been increased. Decree 13 (effective 13 April 2010, and which revises and supplements Decree 67) has: • Increased the basic level of assistance from 120,000 VND per month to 180,000 VND per month • Removed the requirement that disabled people who are no longer able to work or look after themselves must be a “a member of a poor household” • Lowered certain requirements for people with mental health problems • Provided tuition and education materials to social assistance recipients who are attending school. According to the Law on the Elderly, starting in early 2011, people over the age of 80 (previously 85) are entitled to social assistance. This is a step forward in social assistance policy. However, the level of basic assistance of 180,000 VND/month is too low compared to the cost of living at present.
Five-year Synthesis Report Part 2: Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam The coverage of social assistance policies is limited. At most monitoring points, the percentage of households in the survey sample receiving social assistance is low (Table 3.2). Social assistance policies under Decree 67 only target groups with special “structural” characteristics (elderly, disabled, orphans, single parents with young children), and do not cover vulnerable groups who are, nevertheless, able to work. Guidelines and implementation of policies do not fully take into account customs of ethnic minorities and social prejudices in localities. 83 TABLE 3.2. Proportion of households with members receiving social assistance, 2011 (%) Commune Pension Assistance to people with nationally recognized merits Poor HHs Nonpoor HHs Poor HHs Nonpoor HHs Assistance to Agent Orange/ Dioxin victims Poor HHs Nonpoor HHs Assistance under Decision 67/CP Poor HHs Thuan Hoa 0 0 0 0 4 7 9 0 Ban Lien 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Thanh Xuong 0 39 0 0 0 0 7 9 Luong Minh 0 18 0 0 0 0 25 9 Duc Huong 0 14 16 38 3 0 16 7 Nonpoor HHs Xy 5 17 17 22 2 0 12 11 Cu Hue - 0 - 0 - 0 - 2 Phuoc Dai 0 0 10 27 2 9 6 0 Phuoc Thanh 0 10 4 30 4 0 4 0 Thuan Hoa 0 3 0 0 0 0 4 0 Average 1 11 6 8 2 1 10 4 SOURCE: Household interviews The capacity of cadres in charge of social work at the commune level is poor. Until 2010 cadres in charge of social work in seven communes were aged between 40 and 50 and only educated until lower secondary school. As a result administration was slow and many people eligible for social assistance missed out or experienced delays in receiving benefits. By 2011, four communes saw changes to personnel in charge of social work under Decree 92. Newly appointed cadres are young with intermediate or higher educational qualifications. However, they still lack experience and in depth knowledge of legal documents and policies. Training on social assistance policies for grassroots cadres has not been given sufficient attention. Many surveyed communes only received one training workshop in the implementation of Decree 67 in 2008. Some ethnic minority cadres, who received training, do not remember how many target groups there are. Information on social assistance was only delivered verbally at briefings of commune and village cadres. In many villages, many people who are eligible for social assistance were ignored, particularly “poor single women with young children”. In some cases the deceased remained on lists of those eligible for social assistance.
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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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Challenges to Rural Poverty Reduction in Viet Nam - Oxfam Blogs

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