A workshop opened on October 6 in the central province of Thanh Hoa with the aim of increasing the involvement of local people to better implement poverty reduction programmes.

The event, co-organised by the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), introduced a so-called Open-Talk method to local villagers.

Open-Talk is a regular forum in which local people can exchange information with public authorities. It has been initiated by the Vietnamese Government in selected poor provinces and aims to give the population the opportunity to raise questions and provide comments and suggestions related to poverty reduction programmes.

Known as a simple, cost-effective method to apply, Open-Talk is expected to help improve the implementation of poverty reduction programmes by boosting local participation in the poverty reduction process as well as in monitoring the quality and results of public services.

The outcome of Open-Talk meetings will be recorded and used for planning and monitoring of poverty reduction interventions.

The workshop to introduce the method is an activity within the joint MOLISA-GTZ Poverty Reduction Project during the 2006-2012 period for which the German Government has provided 4 million EUR (roughly 5.9 million USD).

Recently, Vietnam’s poverty alleviation efforts have achieved significant progress. The rate of poor households was slashed to 12 percent in 2008 from 78 percent in 1986./.