Photo: Illustration 

This is one of the targets in the National Assembly’s draft Resolution on enhancing the implementation of multidimensional, inclusive and sustainable poverty reduction by 2030 that has been opened for comments by experts and policy-makers.

According to the National Assembly’s evaluation, the implementation of Resolution No 76/2014/QH13, issued in 2014, on sustainable poverty reduction by 2020, has had many outstanding achievements, helping millions of households escape from poverty in the country.

It also helped Viet Nam in completing the Millennium Development Goals on poverty alleviation so that Viet Nam was assessed to be a bright spot for poverty reduction in the world.

However, the results of poverty reduction are not sustainable.

For example, the risk of people falling back into poverty and becoming poor remains high; the rich-poor gap is large; poverty rates are reportedly high in some localities nationwide; living conditions of ethnic-minority people are still poor; and shortcomings have been found in several policies relating to poverty reduction.

Therefore, Viet Nam needed to reduce the multidimensional poverty rate by 1-1.5 per cent each year from now, as well as minimising the number of people falling back into poverty in order to reach the goal of multidimensional and sustainable poverty reduction by 2030.

To reach the goal, by 2025, the rate of ethnic-minority poor households has to be reduced over 3 per cent each year, the number of poor districts and poor coastal communes will be reduced by a half.

Besides, relevant agencies should improve the multidimensional poverty measurement method that takes into account regional characteristics.

The method should be easy to measure so that people can determine their poverty status by themselves.

It is required to apply national multidimensional poverty lines to ensure a minimum standard of living and access to basic social services.

Moreover, Viet Nam is suggested to continue building and prioritising funds to effectively implement the National Target Programme on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Social Security to achieve the goal of multidimensional, inclusive and sustainable poverty reduction by 2030.

The country also has to implement and integrate the National Target Programme on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Social Security into the National Target Programme for Socio-economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas and the National Target Programme on Building New-style Rural Area.

Other solutions for Viet Nam to reach the goal include renovating poverty-reduction policies, focusing on developing conditional supporting policies; supporting the poor to improve their production capacity to earn good jobs and income; building social assistance policies for poor households who do not have the ability to work; compiling policies to ensure minimum social security for the poor; as well as concentrating on legal aid policies for the poor and digital transformation in the field of poverty reduction.

The country should also operate mechanisms to develop models to create sustainable livelihoods and jobs for the poor and improve the quality of vocational education for the poor.

Additionally, reforming the management mechanism; building a fair, quality, efficient and internationally-integrated health system; implementing universal healthcare coverage; running policies of socio-economic development connecting disadvantaged areas with developed regions; and encouraging businesses to invest in difficult and remote areas are also ways to reach the goal./