The United Nations (UN) in Vietnam, in coordination with the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Planning and Investment, held a conference in Hanoi on May 25 to help draw up a poverty reduction programme for the 2011-2020 period.
Over the past seven years, Vietnam has made many remarkable achievements in poverty reduction, reducing the rate from 58.1 percent in 1993 to 11.3 percent in 2009. The country’s success in combating poverty has won a lot of applause from the international community.
In a general assessment of the current poverty reduction programme, Peter Chaudry, the UN’s representative in Vietnam, pointed out some shortcomings and challenges that Vietnam should consider while building its strategy and programme for poverty reduction.
Mr Chaudry suggested that Vietnam should have a single framework for poverty reduction in the future. It is essential to combine current poverty production programmes into one overall programme to avoid any overlaps and increase the effectiveness of the funding, he added.
The poverty reduction plan must go hand in hand with the Socio-economic Development Plan and each locality should devise their own solutions to suit their own circumstances.
Ngo Truong Thi, from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs, delivered a speech how to put together a poverty reduction programme for the 2011-2020 period. He said that the overall target is to reduce poverty in a sustainable manner, ensure people are clothed, housed, educated and the infrastructure is improved. He highlighted that the programme’s policies are designed to promote the dynamism within poor people and rid them of the sense of relying on others, while striking a balance between refundable and free assistance.
Mr Thi added that policies will be introduced to include poverty reduction efforts nationwide, closely connected with the programme to build up new rural areas and a social security strategy for the period from now until 2020.
Meanwhile, Dr Tran Dinh Thien from the Economics Institute stressed that the Poverty Reduction Programme for the future must be an organic part of the 2011-2020 Socio-economic Development Strategy, which brings together poverty reduction efforts in a single unified programme.
Mr Thien added that a national poverty reduction programme will be worked out, with the people and their rights at its core.
Bui Si Loi, the Vice Head of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs, recommended that a new poverty line be introduced from the beginning of the programme and proper attention given to opportunities for the poor. Each locality will build and stipulate its own poverty line loosely based on the country’s common poverty line.
The Draft 2011-2020 Poverty Reduction Programme will continue to look for more ideas from experts as well as the government in June and July.
Source: VOV