Transcript Assessing Viet Nam’s Flagship National Targeted Poverty

Viet Nam’s National Targeted
Poverty Reduction Programme
Through a Gender Lens
Nicola Jones (ODI) and
Tran Thi Van Anh (IFGS)
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Type of
instrument
Selected Social Protection
Instruments in Viet Nam
Social assistance
programmes
National Targeted Programme for Poverty
Reduction; Programme 135 for improving
infrastructure in ethnic minority communities
Pensions for the elderly
Social insurance
schemes
Health insurance programme which covers all
children under the age of six as well as all
households below the poverty line
Various commercial and non-profit microinsurance schemes
Social welfare
programmes
Programmes targeted at child protection and
Social equity
measures
2007 Gender Equality Law;
gender-based violence
2007 Law on Domestic Violence
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Gender Insensitive NTPPR
The NTPPR seeks to help poor households and
communities through a comprehensive package of
support.
Access to credit, basic services, agricultural extension services,
land holdings and legal aid, school fee exemptions, vocational
training and health insurance
However, NTPPR pays little attention to the gendered
nature of poverty and vulnerability.
There are also no gender-specific targets or measurable
outcomes, nor any specific provisions for gender training
for programme implementers
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Meets some practical gender needs
Health
insurance card
is extremely
valuable
-Conserve scare resources
- Reduces the amount of time
women need to be absent from
paid work to tend to ill children
- Seek health professionals’
advice regarding reproductive
health issues
School fee
exemption
scheme was
similarly
important
- Allow many children to remain
in school for longer, but other
barriers remained (costs of
clothing, transportation, and the
lossVNofpresentation
children’s labour)
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Meets some practical gender needs
- Investment in
roads and
electricity
- Improve women’s and men’s
access to health clinics,
schools and markets
- Access to credit - Economic empowerment
Women’s Union
- Enhancing women’s domestic
stepping as an
decision-making power
intermediary for
poor women
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But limited impacts
Lack of a
dedicated
nutrition
component
- Limited inroads into reducing the
pockets of food insecurity
- Malnutrition among girls and boys
especially in highland communities
Language
barriers and
other social
risks
- Ethnic minority women encounter
barriers in accessing market, training
and community participation
- Positive spill-over effects on intrahousehold violence appear to have
been minimal.
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Challenges
• Coordination between line ministries is
hampered by programme fragmentation
and implementation overlap
• MOLISA, mandated with addressing
gender inequalities, is under-resourced
and lacks the institutional positioning to
ensure gender is integrated across
sectors, including social protection
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Challenges (cont)
• Lack of gender disaggregated data and practical
training on gender mainstreaming;
• Inadequate accountability mechanisms
• Under-recognition by senior political leaders of
potential for gender equality to contribute to
developmental/ poverty reduction goals
• Relatively weak civil society has rendered civic
oversight largely ineffective
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Policy Implications
• Ensure gender differences in economic and
social risks and intersection with ethnicity are
adequately reflected in the design of key
programme and sector documents
• Ensure food security and agricultural productivity
remain core objectives of poverty reduction
approaches
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Policy Implications (cont)
• Identify a lead agency to ensure gender is
adequately integrated and synergies maximised
• Promote routine use of gender-disaggregated
data in poverty reduction and social protection
programme reporting
• Ensure sufficient funding to support this process
and related capacity strengthening for staff
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