VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs on August 7 launched a US$62 million, five-year social-assistance programme to create a national database of poor and near-poor households.

Poor families with children and pregnant women will also receive parenting advice. Training for administrators at the provincial and central level, as well as local social officers, will be enhanced.— Illustrative image/Photo vinatrips.vn

It is hoped the move will assist in the improvement of public spending on social assistance.

Speaking at the launch of the programme, known as the Viet Nam Social Assistance Strengthening Project, Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen said many of Viet Nam's social-assistance policies overlapped, causing discrepancies and creating burdens on the system.

"The current system has not kept pace with the speed of Viet Nam's development," she said. "We want to build a consolidated and modernised social-assistance program which lays the foundation for delivery of aid in the long-term."

The project, which will be piloted from 2014-19 in Ha Giang, Quang Nam, Lam Dong and Tra Vinh provinces, is expected to benefit about 500,000 households. It will create a roadmap for consolidating existing social-assistance programmes into a household-benefit package, called the "family package."

Poor families with children and pregnant women will also receive parenting advice. Training for administrators at the provincial and central level, as well as local social officers, will be enhanced.

The project will also improve the information system to help manage the financial flow to beneficiaries and develop a network of partners that can show households to use the benefit package effectively.

"More recently, the pace of poverty reduction has slowed somewhat [in Viet Nam] and the remaining poor are increasingly facing chronic poverty," Victoria Kwawa, World Bank Country Director in Viet Nam. "I hope that the project will be implemented quickly so as to create a better and more simplified system for delivery of social assistance."

The poverty level in Viet Nam dropped from 22 per cent in 2005 to 7.8 per cent in 2013, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs reported in April.

VNS/VNN