Despite worries over the increase in the consumer price index (CPI) and the impacts of the global economic crisis, it is believed that Vietnam will reach its target of reducing the poverty rate to 10-11 percent by 2010.

Representatives from the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) and UNDP revealed this at a meeting to release a mid-term review of the National Targeted Programme for Poverty Reduction between 2006 and 2010 on Oct. 2.

After three years of operations (2006-2008), the programme has made it easier for poor people to access more of the allocated resources, which has helped to reduce the number of poor households from 22 percent in 2005 to 12.1 percent in 2008.

The yearly poverty reduction rate of 2.6 percent reached during this period surpassed the targeted 2 percent per year, according to the review.

The review also pointed out the shortcomings during the programme implementation, including weak links between target setting, budgetary planning, monitoring and evaluating as well as overlaps with other poverty reduction projects.

The review put forward short-term and long-term recommendations, to both improve the current national programme and to set up poverty reduction programmes in the future.

These included more efficiency, and introducing a result based management approach to planning, budgeting and monitoring.

The review also suggested focusing future poverty reduction programmes exclusively on the poorest areas of the country and developing tailor-made packages based on locally identified needs to address poverty more effectively.

It also recommended building an overall and comprehensive social welfare policy, simplifying and harmonising the number of poverty reduction policies and programmes that exist, as well as introducing new methods of delivering support that targets poverty.

According to the MoLISA Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Hoa, the review is an important basis for poverty reduction operations during the 2011-2020 period.  

The next stage should comply with the Government’s plans to combine poverty reduction with the development of rural areas, ensuring social welfare and providing vocational training for rural workers, the deputy minister said.

Sharing the same view, UNDP Deputy Country Director Christophe Bahuet said that the review will contribute to helping Vietnam define a more suitable and effective poverty reduction strategy.

He also confirmed the UNDP’s commitment to work together with the Vietnamese government and other international partners to draw up a sustainable poverty reduction programme for Vietnam./.