The objective of this paper is to assess the multidimensional poverty situation in Vietnam in the period of 2012–2016. This paper uses data from Vietnam and bases on the compilation of official data from statistical agencies in Vietnam such as the General Statistics Office, the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs. Based on the above data, the author analysed to see the general multidimensional poverty situation of Vietnam. The author analysed the differences in multidimensional poverty in rural and urban areas, in plains and mountainous areas in Vietnam. Finally, the author gave some discussion on multidimensional poverty in Vietnam and gave some policy suggestions for Vietnam.
Keywords: Multidimensional Poverty (MP), Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).
1. Introduction
Most governments and policymakers determine poverty based on income criteria. However, many studies have now shown that poverty includes lack of education, health care, housing, and underemployment. In many discussions of global poverty previously focused on only one aspect: household income or expenditure. In 1999, Amatya Sen made strong arguments to defend the notion that focusing on income poverty alone was not enough. [1].
Poverty reduction in Vietnam has now achieved significant achievements: the poverty rate per capita has dropped sharply from over 50 % in 1990 to 13.5 % and 2018. In 2018, the national poverty rate was 5.35 %. [2]
However, the quality of human life is related to many aspects other than income levels. Recognizing this problem, since 2015, the Vietnamese government has issued a multi-dimensional poverty standard in 2016–2020. This has been an important step in the transformation process of Vietnam from unidirectional poverty measurement to measure by the multidimensional poverty index. In the Socio-Economic Development Plan (2016–2020), Vietnam has set a goal of reducing the national average rate of multidimensional poverty to 1 % — 1.5 % per year and particularly for poor districts and special communes difficulty decreases by 4 % / year [3]. Measurement poverty, which uses a multi-dimensional approach including income and non-monetary indicators such as housing, access to clean water and sanitation, educational services, health care, and insurance has been used in the programme: “National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction” period 2016–2020. This paper will focus on the multidimensional poverty situation in Vietnam in the recent year. Then it will provide some assessments and recommendations on multi-dimensional poverty reduction policies in Vietnam.
1. Literature review of multidimensional poverty index
1.1. Multidimensional poverty
According to the United Nations (UN), the poverty is the lack of minimum capacity to effectively participate in social activities. Poverty means not having enough food, enough clothing, no education, no medical treatment, no land to grow crops or no job to support themselves, no access to credit [4]. Poverty also means not being safe, no rights, and being excluded, vulnerable to violence, having to live in risky conditions, having no access to clean water and sanitation.
The multidimensional poverty can be measured by income criteria and non-income criteria. The lack of opportunities accompanied with malnutrition, illiteracy, illness, unhappiness and despair, which have been interested in the concept of multidimensional poverty. Lack of economic, social or political participation will drive individuals to exclusion in socio-economic benefits [5].
Multidimensional poverty is assessed by deprivations in health, education and living standards of each individual. It uses micro-data from household surveys and aggregates it into poverty measures according to UNDP standards. The indicators under consideration include indicators of health, education and living standards [4]. Alkire and Santos (2010) identified the coincidence between income poverty and multidimensional poverty is 31 %. It means that about 69 % of multidimensional poor households are not among income-poor households. Quantitative results also show that an increase in income can significantly reduce the incidence of multidimensional poverty [6].
1.2. Criteria for assessing multidimensional poverty in Vietnam
Resolution No. 15-NQ / TW of the 5th Central Conference of the Central Executive Committee Session XI on social policies for the period of 2012–2020 had set out the task of ensuring social security, focusing on employment, social insurance, social assistance for people in extremely difficult circumstances, ethnic minorities, to ensure a minimum of income and some basic social services such as medical examination and treatment, education, housing, clean water, telecommunications, media.
On the basis of 5 dimensions of poverty, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affair has developed and proposed 10 indicators to measure the level of deprivation in multidimensional poverty, respectively: adult education, child education, health care, health insurance, and housing, clean water, toilets, telecommunications services, properties in service of information access. These measurement indicators are presented in table below:
Table 1
The indicator of MPI in Vietnam
|
Indicator |
Measurement index |
Degree of deficiency |
|
Education |
Adult education |
Households have at least 1 member of 15 years old — born in 1986 back — not graduating from secondary school and currently not attending school |
|
School attendance |
Households have at least 1 school-age children (5–14 years old) are currently not attending school |
|
|
Heath care |
Health care services |
Households whose member is ill but does not go to health care (illness is defined as being sick / injured so badly that they must lie in one place and must have care in bed or leave their job / study cannot participate in normal activities) |
|
Health insurance |
Households with at least 1 member from age 6 do not have health insurance |
|
|
Housing |
Housing |
Households who are staying in uncomplicated houses or simple houses (Housing is divided into 4 levels: permanent, semi-permanent, semi-permanent and simple). |
|
Housing area per capita |
The average housing area per capita is less than 8m2 |
|
|
Living standard |
Clean water for living |
Households can’t access to clean water |
|
Toilet |
Households cannot use hygienic latrines |
|
|
Telecommunication |
Telecommunication services |
Households in which no members use telephone subscriptions and internet |
|
Assets for access to information |
The household does not have any of the following assets: TV, radio, computer; and the commune / village radio loudspeaker system |
Ministry of Labour, Invalids, & Social Welfare, 2015 [3]
Under the new criterion, a family is considered a serious poor household if it lacks half of its total basic needs or more; lack of 1/3–1/2 of total basic living needs; missing from 1/5–1/3 of the total basic needs. The content of the multidimensional poverty measurement approach needs to identify the dimensions of the gap, the indicators to measure the level of deprivation in each dimension, and follow the set of criteria proposed today. This is a complex task, with many challenges that need to be carefully considered.
In Vietnam, poor households are listed by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. It is easier to manage poor households than it is to manage each poor person. Those who are considered poor will be supported by social security and poverty reduction programs. In addition, poor households also benefit from a number of preferential credit assistance programs, health insurance, tuition exemptions and other production support programs. The proportion of poor households in the locality will be determined by the ratio of the number of poor households in the locality to the total number of households in that locality. However, poor households are often more crowded than non-poor households. Therefore, the poverty rate will not accurately reflect the proportion of the poor population, especially if there is a demographic change and thus changes in the number of households.
2. The situation of multidimensional poverty in Vietnam
2.1. The overall situation of poverty reduction in Vietnam
Economic growth is a premise for sustainable poverty reduction. Economic growth helps households increase income and expenditure, thereby can reduce monetary poverty as well as multidimensional poverty. Before analysing the changes in poverty, we consider how household income and expenditure have changed in recent times. In order to compare living standards over time and to eliminate the effects of fluctuations in prices, income and expenditure are averaged monthly / person according to January 2016 prices (adjusted by price index) [7].
The results show that the per capita income in a month increased from 2,380,000 VNĐ (103 USD) to 2,911,000 VND (126 USD) in the period of 2012–2016, about 5.16 % / year. Average expenditure increased from 2,218 to 2,712 thousand VND in the same period, the average growth rate was also about 5.15 % / year, which is approximately the rate of increase of per capita income. Increasing income and spending are prerequisites for reducing household poverty [7].
The poverty rate regardless of the measure has decreased during 2012–2016. In 2016, spending poverty rate was higher than income, but both were lower than multidimensional poverty. The poverty rate according to the new standard includes income-poor households and a part of multidimensional poor households. Therefore, the poverty rate according to this standard of 2016–2020 periods is higher than the income poverty rate but lower than the multi-dimensional poverty rate. The international multidimensional poverty rate is quite low, only about half the national multidimensional poverty rate [7].
In the period of 2012–2016, the poverty rate of income, expenditure as well as multidimensional poverty decreased sharply. The proportion of local poor households decreased significantly during this period mainly due to the national poverty line and the innovative method of identifying local poor households. In 2012, the poor household was determined based on income criteria. In 2016, the poor household is determined by both income and multidimensional criteria. Moreover, the income survey to determine poor households was done by indirect method (asset scoring) rather than asking directly as in the previous period. Therefore, the poverty rate determined by locality cannot be compared over time. The international multidimensional poverty rate has a low reduction rate because the defined criteria are very low compared to the life of the Vietnamese people. The impacts of support programs and policies have not still reduced this index group.
2.2. Deficiency level by each criterion
This section details the lack of dimensions of benefits. The figure below shows the proportion of people living in households with deprivations in multidimensional poverty dimensions. With the exception of the adult education level, the deficiencies in the national multidimensional poverty index decreased during 2012–2016. The health access indicator has been significantly improved due to the strengthening of universal health insurance policy. The shortage of information fell sharply due to the development of mobile phones and the internet. Housing and sanitation conditions also improved but the speed was quite low.
Currently, the largest level of deprivation is in the indicators of hygienic latrines, education level in adults. Access to health services is very low. However, this indicator is measured by the proportion of ill people who do not go to health care, which may not accurately reflect the level of deprivation in health access. In fact, the distance from home to the hospital in remote and mountainous areas is still quite far and medical examination and treatment services in large hospitals are often overloaded.
It should be noted that the indicators are calculated at the household level, so the level of deficiency of an individual in the household can affect the level of deficiency of the whole household. For example, the proportion of households with health insurance deprivation will be much higher than the proportion of people without insurance, because only one individual in the household is uninsured, the whole household is considered as a shortage in access insurance. According to Viet Nam household living standard survey 2016 [7], the proportion of the population without health insurance is 22 %, but the proportion of households that lack health insurance is 40.2 %.
Fig. 1: The multidimensional poverty by indicator
Source: Vietnam household living standard survey, 2016 [7]
The ratio of deprivations also varies among different household groups. The figure below shows the incidence of multidimensional poverty dimensions for multidimensional poor households across regions and expenditure quintiles. Multidimensional poor households in the Tay Nguyen province[1] have a large shortage in terms of education, health insurance and sanitation. Richer regions such as the Red River Delta, the Southeast, and the Mekong River Delta tend to lack health insurance. However, the poorest regions such as the Tay Nguyen and the Northern Uplands have no shortage of health insurance. This is because free health insurance is provided to the poor and ethnic minorities, with more focus on the Tay Nguyen and the Northern Uplands.
By expenditure quintile, it is not surprising that the poorest quintile is the most deprived group in most indicators, and especially in terms of education, housing quality and sanitation. However, multidimensional poor households in the second and third spending quintiles have a high proportion of health insurance deficits. This group of households also suffers from a shortage of sanitation and education, but the level of deprivation is lower than the lowest expenditure quintile.
5. The discussion
Multidimensional poverty is a new approach to limit the omission of those who are not income-poor but are poor in other dimensions. Instead of considering income poverty, those who have no health care, cannot go to school, have no access to information are also identified as poor. Poverty is associated with a lack of income / expenditure but also a failure to meet other basic needs.
With the aim of better and more comprehensive impact on the poor, the conversion of poverty assessment from unidirectional to multidimensional in order to limit the omission of objects that are not income poverty, but poor in other dimensions. This is a method to overcome shortcomings and limitations of current policies. Then it helps to ensure a minimum standard of living, and at the same time meets basic social services, gradually reducing sustainable poverty. However, in parallel with increasing access to services and increasing coverage, the transparent requirement is to improve the quality of basic services, including health and education.
Due to the complexity of the content, the calculation and measurement of multidimensional poverty criteria, it is necessary to prepare step by step for mass deployment. Poverty reduction in the new development phase needs to achieve all three goals: measuring and monitoring poverty, poverty reduction policy orientation and identifying policy beneficiaries. It is necessary to ensure the objectivity in collecting, processing calculations, synthesizing and reporting poor criteria, in which the key is to determine the appropriate weights. The monitoring and evaluation system should be implemented and operated in line with the multidimensional poverty approach, in which the participation, consensus and voice of the people are very important. In this process, the role of social science is essential to provide scientific methods and evidence to assess the reality and effectiveness of the poverty reduction program for the period 2016–2020.
References:
- A. Sen, “Development Freedom,” Dev. Free., 1999.
- UNDP, “Multidimensional poverty in Viet Nam,” Hà Nội, 2018.
- Molisa, “Social and Economic Report,” Report of poverty in Viet Nam, 2018. [Online]. Available: http://kinhtexahoitonghop.molisa.gov.vn/.
- S. Alkire and M. E. Santos, “Measuring Acute Poverty in the Developing World: Robustness and Scope of the Multidimensional Poverty Index,” World Dev., 2014.
- J. Drexhage, D. (org) Murphy, and United Nations Headquarters, “Sustainable Development : From Brundtland to Rio 2012,” New York, 2010.
- S. Alkire, “Global multidimensional poverty index,” Pakistan Development Review. 2015.
- GSO, “Result of Viet Nam Household Living Standard Survey,” Hà Nội, 2016.
[1] Tay Nguyen province is a highland in the Middle region in Vietnam
