Vietnam’s Poverty Reduction Strategies Successful

On International Day for the eradication of poverty and Vietnam national day for the poor (17 October), the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs collaborated with the Vietnamese State Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, the United Nations Development Programs (UNDP ) and the Embassy of Ireland to launch the Action Plan of Resolution 80, the Prime Minister’s Decision on approval of the National Targeted Programme on Sustainable Poverty Reduction in the 2012-2015 period and start the Poverty Reduction Programme (PRPP) funded by UNDP.” Thereby, the fund of US$10 million by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Republic of Ireland was also approved.

According to Mr Ngo Truong Thi, Deputy Head of the Co-ordination Office for the Poverty Reduction Programme  (Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs), the total funding from the state for the program is VND25,000 billion for four groups of the project. However, he also emphasized that in the context of the economy facing many difficulties, as well as predictions of severe natural disasters this year, a number of targets in the national sustainable poverty reduction programs can not be achieved as the schedule. However, in this context, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs – main coordinator of the program focused on addressing some issues such as credit programs, student loans, and local health policy. The targets of agricultural and fishery support and legal aid are still interested. Program to bring 600 young intellectuals to localities is still being developed.

At the same point of view, Ms Pratibha Mehta, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Vietnam said that Vietnam is one of those countries having many achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This result has been internationally recognized at the Global Conference on the MDGs in 2010. Vietnam ranks sixth on the absolute and relatively poverty rate. Particularly according to the observation by international organizations, Vietnam has achieved remarkable results in the field of poverty reduction. Poverty rate declined from 58.1 percent in 1993 to 14.5 percent in 2008. In addition, the land reform has given more freedom to farmers to use their precious resources.

 

Currently, although there are still three years ahead, but the global development agenda beyond 2015 has been discussed. To define a new development program, UNDP has held extensive consultations in order to listen to the voices of all classes of people. Vietnam was chosen among 50 countries around the world and this is a great opportunity for Vietnam to report on the results so that it will receive more aid from organizations and other nations in the world.