A multi-dimensional approach to poverty is the key to sustaining poverty reduction, heard a forum in Hanoi on October 16.
This approach will help better classify poor people based on differentfactors, such as income, expenses and basic social needs, said NgoTruong Thi, Head of the Coordination Office for the Poverty ReductionProgramme.
"Using only income to measure poverty canleave a lot of people who need help unable to access poverty reductionprogrammes," he said.
"Many people have an averagemonthly income higher than the standard poverty line, but cannot affordbasic needs like their children's school fees," he added.
If a multi-dimensional approach is used to measure poverty in Vietnam, the poverty level will be much higher, Thi said.
In the past 20 years, Vietnam has cut its poverty rate from 58.1percent in 1993 to less than 10 percent at present. However,participants agreed that the country still faces many challenges insustaining the results.
Minister of Labour, Invalids andSocial Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen cited challenges such as theunsustainable pace of poverty reduction.
Poverty ratesremain 50 or even 60-70 percent in some poor areas where large numbersof ethnic groups live, making up 47 percent of the total poor in thecountry, she said.
The rich-poor gap also went from 9.2 times in 2010 to approximately 9.5 in 2012, she added.
Poverty, including extreme poverty, remains prevalent among ethnicminority groups and in ethnic minority-inhabited areas, according toparticipants.
The income poverty rate is very high amongsome of these groups, but so is the performance across other dimensionssuch as education, health, water, sanitation and housing. In all ofthese, ethnic minority groups consistently lag far behind the nationalaverages.
Minister Chuyen highlighted the need totransfer from a single-dimensional to a multi-dimensional approach topoverty and to encourage and strengthen the proactive role of the poorin lifting themselves out of poverty.
United NationsResident Coordinator in Vietnam Pratibha Mehta said tackling thechallenges in poverty reduction in the coming years will requiretailored and multi-sectoral approaches, where poverty is viewed as amulti-dimensional phenomenon, not just in monetary terms.
"Giving voice to the poor, empowering them to develop solutions totheir issues and conducting participatory planning and monitoring shouldbe the cornerstones of sustainable poverty reduction policies andprogrammes," she added.
Vietnam is among the 20countries in the world to pioneer the research and application ofmulti-dimensional poverty measures to better understand the root causesof poverty and to design better targeted policies and programmes.
HCM City has been assigned to pilot the multi-dimensional povertyapproach in four districts to draw out lessons learned for thedevelopment of a master plan on multi-dimensional poverty which will besubmitted to the Prime Minister for approval in October next year.
In Vietnam , poor households have an average monthly income below400,000 VND (19 USD) in rural areas and 500,000 VND (24 USD) in urbanareas.-VNA
This approach will help better classify poor people based on differentfactors, such as income, expenses and basic social needs, said NgoTruong Thi, Head of the Coordination Office for the Poverty ReductionProgramme.
"Using only income to measure poverty canleave a lot of people who need help unable to access poverty reductionprogrammes," he said.
"Many people have an averagemonthly income higher than the standard poverty line, but cannot affordbasic needs like their children's school fees," he added.
If a multi-dimensional approach is used to measure poverty in Vietnam, the poverty level will be much higher, Thi said.
In the past 20 years, Vietnam has cut its poverty rate from 58.1percent in 1993 to less than 10 percent at present. However,participants agreed that the country still faces many challenges insustaining the results.
Minister of Labour, Invalids andSocial Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen cited challenges such as theunsustainable pace of poverty reduction.
Poverty ratesremain 50 or even 60-70 percent in some poor areas where large numbersof ethnic groups live, making up 47 percent of the total poor in thecountry, she said.
The rich-poor gap also went from 9.2 times in 2010 to approximately 9.5 in 2012, she added.
Poverty, including extreme poverty, remains prevalent among ethnicminority groups and in ethnic minority-inhabited areas, according toparticipants.
The income poverty rate is very high amongsome of these groups, but so is the performance across other dimensionssuch as education, health, water, sanitation and housing. In all ofthese, ethnic minority groups consistently lag far behind the nationalaverages.
Minister Chuyen highlighted the need totransfer from a single-dimensional to a multi-dimensional approach topoverty and to encourage and strengthen the proactive role of the poorin lifting themselves out of poverty.
United NationsResident Coordinator in Vietnam Pratibha Mehta said tackling thechallenges in poverty reduction in the coming years will requiretailored and multi-sectoral approaches, where poverty is viewed as amulti-dimensional phenomenon, not just in monetary terms.
"Giving voice to the poor, empowering them to develop solutions totheir issues and conducting participatory planning and monitoring shouldbe the cornerstones of sustainable poverty reduction policies andprogrammes," she added.
Vietnam is among the 20countries in the world to pioneer the research and application ofmulti-dimensional poverty measures to better understand the root causesof poverty and to design better targeted policies and programmes.
HCM City has been assigned to pilot the multi-dimensional povertyapproach in four districts to draw out lessons learned for thedevelopment of a master plan on multi-dimensional poverty which will besubmitted to the Prime Minister for approval in October next year.
In Vietnam , poor households have an average monthly income below400,000 VND (19 USD) in rural areas and 500,000 VND (24 USD) in urbanareas.-VNA
