(VOVworld) – From January 1, 2016, Vietnam will officially implement a new policy on multidimensional poverty reduction. Ministries and sectors have been preparing for effective implementation of the policy.
The traditional measures of poverty are based on cash income perspective and spending for basic needs. On September 15, 2015, the Prime Minister signed a master plan to shift from a one-dimensional poverty approach to a multidimensional poverty approach in the 2016-2020 period. Vietnam’s poverty standard will combine several factors like income and access to basic social services. Ministries and sectors have collaborated and prepared human resources to effectively implement the policy.
Systematic implementation at the central level
Functional agencies have been asked to report to the Prime Minister on the categorization of people according to the multidimensional poverty standards nationwide and in each locality in the 4th quarter of the year and to develop a national database on poverty management. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said: “The government has instructed ministries, sectors, and localities to review the number of poor and near-poor households under the new standards and prepare to implement the national target program on sustainable poverty reduction from 2016-2020. We must continue to implement incentive policies on production, housing, clean water, healthcare, and education for ethnic minority groups and extremely disadvantaged areas.
The Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs has cooperated with the General Statistics Office and relevant ministries to set criteria for minimum and average living standards, and poor and near-poor households. The Ministry has also organized training in the multidimensional poverty approach for staff at the district and commune level. The Ministry of Planning and Investment will make public national and regional statistics on shortage of social needs, which will be the foundation socio-economic development policies for localities, sectors, poverty reduction, and social security.
It’s estimated that the State will have to spend 750 million USD to support poor and near-poor people in 2016. The Ministry of Finance is assigned to arrange resources while other Ministries have contributed measures to improve people’s access to basic social needs like healthcare, education, and home ownership.
The involvement of localities
Ngo Truong Thi, Head of the National Office on poverty reduction, said localities will be given more authority in poverty reduction work. City and provincial People’s Committees will periodically review and categorize beneficiaries of poverty reduction policies and adopt their own measures to improve people’s access to social services. Some provinces and cities are planning meetings to introduce the master plan for shifting from one-dimensional to multi-dimensional poverty reduction, train their staff, revise documents to avoid overlap, and match policies to local conditions.
Deputy Head of the National Assembly’s Ethnicity Council Nguyen Lam Thanh said: “We have to change our approach to improve people’s self-reliance and reduce their sense of dependency. Poverty reduction policy should reduce subsidies and define conditions for assistance.
Changing from a one-dimensional to a multi-dimensional approach will require cooperation among ministries, sectors, and localities to enforce the Constitution’s regulations protecting citizens’ social security rights.