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Policy overlaps slow poverty reduction effort
Policy overlapping and institutional barriers need to be removed to keep Viet Nam's good pace of poverty reduction in the next ten years, said UN expert Peter Chaudhry.
Addressing a seminar held in Ha Noi yesterday to discuss directions for poverty reduction in the 2011-20 period, he said the current 41 different programmes and policies and hundreds of relevant decrees with inadequate co-ordination were posing a big challenge to effective poverty reduction.
A recent report conducted by the United Nations Development Programme found that the three big poverty reduction programmes, namely Programme 135-Phase 2 (Socio-economic programme for extremely disadvantaged communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas), the National Target Programme for Poverty Reduction and Resolution 30a (On rapid and sustainable poverty reduction programme for the 62 poorest districts), all have components or sub-components in similar areas, such as support in production, education and access to training.
Chaudhry said three-fourths of projects had very similar objectives, target groups, geographical scope and programme activities.
Beneficiary needs, spatial scope and planned activities were often "slightly different in design" but in practice differences were "often indistinguishable and a complex picture of support policies resulted," he said.
Agreeing with the findings, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Trong Dam said a national committee for poverty reduction chaired by a deputy prime minister should be established to address these problems.
Dr Dang Kim Son, Director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture, said protecting the poor needed to be put into law so that the roles and responsibilities of different organisations could be clearly defined.
On top of other recommendations, the UN resident co-ordinator, John Hendra, suggested all existing poverty reduction programmes and policies be combined under one master programme or framework to reduce overlaps, improve co-ordination and enhance efficiency.
"The components of such a master programme would need to demonstrate clear links and add value to broader socio-economic development," said the head of the UN team in Viet Nam.
"And the implementation and management mechanisms of such a programme would need to empower both officials and the poor at a local level to identify solutions that best meet their needs."
However, Dr Vu Trong Kim of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture said that there was a shortage of a master co-ordination mechanism and regulations but there was no need to combine the current programmes.
Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tran Nam said that there was no need to distinguish between different programmes or combine them all into one as such projects complement each other well.
Despite differences in recommendations, high-ranking Government officials and representatives of international organisations and non-governmental organisations agreed on a need to change the poverty reduction strategy as Viet Nam enters a new phase as a middle-income country.
"Doing more of the same will not be good enough," said Hendra, who appreciated the country's remarkable achievements in poverty reduction to become "the first country in the world to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal on eliminating extreme poverty and hunger".
"After a long period of steady reduction, the nature and face of poverty in Viet Nam we see today is different, and further achievements in poverty reduction will be that much more challenging," said Hendra.
The poverty rate dropped sharply from more than 60 per cent of households across the country in 1990 to about 12 per cent last year, according to the General Statistics Office of Viet Nam.
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